In a final duel, Thanos killed me in Fortnite's new game mode inspired by 'Avengers: Infinity War' — and I loved it

There I was, watching from my hiding place in a massive crater, staring at my destiny.

It was just me, a casual Fortnite player, and him, the mad titan Thanos.

You may have heard of Thanos — he's the big bad in Marvel Studios' new film "Avengers Infinity War,"which just broke a whole mess of box office records. Starting Tuesday, though, he's also a playable character in a new limited-time game mode for Fortnite Battle Royale, the hottest game in the world right now.

You can play as Thanos in the special new game mode called "Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup," which is the traditional Battle Royale mode in Fortnite, but with a twist: The Infinity Gauntlet will drop onto the island once everyone has landed, and if you find it, you'll turn into Thanos himself, and wield all his powers.

Here's what it's like to play the limited-time "Infinity Gauntlet" mode in Fortnite:

Thanos has three main powers:

- You can punch, which does major damage to players and buildings alike.

- You can shoot a purple power beam from your glove that incinerates foes.

- You can leap high into the air and slam your first into the ground, which destroys anything in its (relatively small) blast radius.

You'll also have way more health and shields than a normal player. Your shields recover when you kill an enemy player; there's no way for Thanos to restore his health.

I played a couple of quick games on Tuesday morning. Thanos made an appearance in both of them.

I died to the storm in the first game, not realizing how quickly it moves in this new mode, and how much faster it'll kill you than in the regular game.

Before I got to the safe zone, though, I saw someone had activated the Infinity Gauntlet and started wiping out other players (as seen above).

In my second game, I knocked off a couple of opponents early in the match, stayed out of the storm, and stayed safe as Thanos ripped my opponents to shreds from a distance. There's one bit of good news: Once the Gauntlet is claimed, Thanos will always appear on your map, so you'll know where you can (or can't) hide. 

I didn't actually see Thanos with my own eyes until the very end of my second match, when he jumped into the massive crater where I was hiding — the area known as Dusty Divot — and pulverized the third-place player nearby.

As Thanos recovered his health, I took my shot: I threw a Port-A-Fort grenade at him, which created a fort around him. He burst out of it, looking for me.