APEX LEGENDS
PS4
XO
PC
Platform: PS4, XBOX ONE, PC Genre: Battle Royale Shooter ESRB: Mature Publisher: EA Developer: Respawn Entertainment
U
Respawn Entertainment has once again proven why they are one
of the best shooter developers in the industry.
pon hearing rumors that
EA and Respawn
Entertainment were
planning on delivering a
stealth launch for an unnamed
upcoming shooter, our thoughts were
– ‘This is completely out of the
question’. Why would Titanfall 3 have
a quiet launch without all the
marketing bells and whistles
associated with its pedigree as a triple
‘A’ shooter? Lets not forget the
scandalous launch window associated
with Titanfall 2. There is simply no
way this could happen.
In an effort to control the narrative
and with no hints to the experience,
EA and Respawn quietly released a
new IP, APEX Legends, a battle royale
game, which is free-to-play, set in the
Titanfall universe, supporting various
hero characters with super-abilities
the likes of Overwatch, taking place
30 years after events of Titanfall 2.
Offering a guileless Titanfall/
Borderlands gameplay and visual
pattern APEX Legends with great ease
manages to ever-so slightly bend the
traditional battle royale blueprint of
rules. This unique approach
immediately grabs your attention and
refuses to let go.
As mentioned before APEX
Legends incorporates pre-defined
heroes with unique abilities that fall
into such roles as Offense, Defense,
Support and Recon. This team based
tactical approach among other
exclusive features are the building
blocks which set it apart from the
playing field of its contemporaries.
Currently, players can only squad up
into teams of three, with each match
featuring up to 20 teams.
As is the case in battle royale,
players attack the vast playing field
with no equipment. Teams scour the
game map for weapons, ammo, and
other equipment, while fighting to be
last team standing, all while staying
within an ever-shrinking safe zone on
the map. What truly separates APEX
from other battle royale games is how
it all comes together remarkably well.
A player can be downed into a
vulnerable bleed-out state, leaving
them only able to crawl for cover or
reach a squad mate, who can revive
them. In this position the downed
played can also shied themselves
from incoming fire, if they were able
to acquire a ballistic shield, which like
other equipment such as a helmet
and or armor offer levels of
protection. These levels are classified
from lvl1 white, lvl2 blue, lvl3 purple
and lvl4 gold or legendary.
If the player bleeds out, or an
opponent uses a finisher move on
them, they are then eliminated,
dropping their equipment to be
looted and a banner. However, here is
one example where APEX is unique,
despite being basically eliminated
from the match the player can
potentially be respawned if their
squad mates recover their banner and
take it to a Spawn Beacon, which are
scattered across the map, in a limited
amount of time. At his point the
downed player is then drop shipped
back in to the action, with no
equipment of course.
APEX does support voice-chat
communication with squad mates,
which is quite necessary in the tactical
fray, however because some players
are not voice-chat friendly Respawn
has implemented a simple to use yet
sophisticated contextual single-
button communication approach,
allowing a player to ping map
features like weapons, opponents, or
rally points. This allows the experience
to maintain a seamless and consistent
level of team cooperation and
balance.
Based in the Titanfall universe, the
weapon assortment is basically a copy
and paste job from Titanfall and
Titanfall 2, however this is a very good
thing. The variety here is well
balanced with an assortment of rifles,
shotguns, pistols, hand cannons,
sniper rifles, and more. Weapon
ammo is categorized as light, heavy,
energy and shotgun, and for good
measure throwing weapons such as
the arc star, frag grenade and
thermite grenades round out the
battle wares. There are also shield
repair devices, health packs an the
like. While all the weapons offer a
relatively distinct usage of feel,
players will find their sweet spot of
combining certain weapons such as
carrying a heavy ammo weapon with
a light ammo weapon and so on.
Again, it all depends on your play
style.
Thankfully the heroes unique
abilities are well balanced and when
utilized alongside your teammates
strength and weaknesses make all the
difference towards being the last
team standing. APEX does not force
team play, however it greatly
compliments the team effort, so for
those players who prefer to
oftentimes approach the game from a
guns blazing rogue position, should
not expect to live very long. The
bullets fly hot in APEX Legends and
squads that accurately shot in the
same direction are impossible to
defeat on your own.
Similar to Call of Duty: Black Ops
4’s Blackout, which offers an
aesthetically pleasing visual canvas of
carnage, APEX Legends also
abandons the PUBG/H1Z1 cold and
dreary gray template for a more
fleshed out and colorful presentation.
Mixed with how attractively smooth
the game runs and it is fairly easy to
invest all of your battle royale time
into this bold new experience.
It is one thing to offer a decent
free-to-play game, yet it is altogether
different when a free-to-play game is
one of the best shooter of the
generation.
Respawn Entertainment has once
again proven why they are one of the
best shooter developers in the
industry. With new maps, weapons
and mode updates coming to APEX
Legends in the coming months, the
experience is only going to get better
and of course we will be front and
center ready to dive back into all the
action.
9.0