With more than 40 million players worldwide, ‘Fortnite Battle Royale’ is not just the most talked about game of 2018, it’s more of a cultural phenomenon. First-person shooter games have always been popular, from early 1990s classics like ‘Doom’ right through to the likes of ‘Halo’ and the ‘Call of Duty’ franchise which dominated the games market during the first decade of the twenty first century.

If you’ve seen the highly acclaimed film ‘Battle Royale’ then you’re quite close to summarising the theme of ‘Fortnite’. The game is a mass online brawl where 100 players leap out of a plane on to a small island and then fight each other until the last competitor is standing. Players collect weapons, including rifles and grenade launchers, as they aim to wipe out their opponents. Players are also able to collect resources that allow them to build structures where they can hide. As the contest progresses, the playable area of land is reduced, so gamers are forced closer and closer together. This is where the fun really begins.

The first few minutes of each game are absolute madness. Every player is in a hurry to pick up a weapon which often leads to mass casualties. I found the best tactic was to keep a low profile and wait for other players to make a mistake before getting involved in the action.

The gameplay is completely different to every other first-person shooter I’ve ever played. Movement is quite fluid and shooting weapons is a lot of fun. If you’re the type of person who enjoys the nuances of shooter games than this isn’t the game for you. This is a fast-paced game that isn’t for the faint of heart.

Most games in the shooter genre pride themselves on their realism. In recent years the popularity of games like ‘Call of Duty’ have been down to the stunning and life-like graphics that add a sense of realism to the game. ‘Fortnite: Battle Royale’ is completely different. It plays more like an arcade game - the graphics are cartoonish but that just adds to the fun.

The sheer unpredictability of the game makes it an exciting experience, albeit quite a repetitive one. As the initial one hundred competitors gets whittled down the excitement levels increase as any mistakes you make are punished.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of this game is the cost – it’s completely free of charge to play. In an era when the most popular games cost in excess of £50 it’s reassuring to know that a lot of fun can be had for free.