Apex Legends Review: The New Best Battle Royale
On top of being initially perceived as a somewhat desperate attempt on EA's part to chase market trends, Apex Legends launched on February 4 with almost no fanfare leading up to its surprise arrival. Nevertheless, Apex Legends has ballooned into nothing short of an enigmatic triumph for EA and developer Respawn, shattering player count milestones at speeds that would have made Fortnite wince. On its surface, it would seem that Apex Legends does little to nothing that this week's major releases don't, lacking the graphical spectacle of Metro Exodus and Anthem , the open-ended sandboxes of Far Cry New Dawn and Crackdown 3 , and the pop culture mélange that Jump Force provides. But it stands out from the throng, largely thanks to its simple-yet-enthralling gameplay loop, well-refined Titanfall gunplay and movement systems, and refreshing additions and improvements to the battle royale form
Played strictly in three-player squads across one map (called "Kings Canyon") that supports 60 players total with characters who each have their own unique abilities, right away Apex Legends differentiates itself from the competition. Its class (character) based gameplay that highlights the unique personalities and gear of each character is best compared to Overwatch , and the game also draws its monetization strategy from Blizzard's shooter as well. When it comes to its first-person gunplay however, Apex Legends plays more like Black Ops 4's Blackout mode but with more diverse gameplay and more layers of mechanics and control, including in the game's animati
Use Pathfinder To Locate The Next Circle - Pathfinder is one of the most useful characters in Apex Legends, and he has the ability to interlink with a comm tower (found across the map) in order to locate the next circle, after the current one closes
Respawn entertainment has also already clearly outlined its future plans, and Apex Legends is designed to be modular in a way that we can see plenty of interesting events and tweaks coming. Imagine a mode with larger squads, different gear, or changes to the map. It's all possi
This is something that is important in pretty much all multiplayer shooting games. Staying still is a disaster waiting to happen. If you want to survive, you need to constantly be on the move. You never know who's coming up behind you, and you can never be sure if someone's got you in their sights. Constantly moving is even more important when you're playing a game like Apex Legends , where speed is a huge fo
After playing Apex Legends for a few hours, you quickly learn that this game is all about mobility, climbing, and quickly moving through whatever terrain and obstacles stand in your way. Often, the players that can move quickly through a town or large building are the ones who succeed. Sneaking around, taking alternate routes, and surprising your enemies is the name of the g
For instance, Pathfinder has a unique set of skills that many find make this character a superior player for competitive play. During the recent ESPN EXP Apex Legends Invitational, nearly every professional team had a Pathfinder on the team in every game. In several cases, Pathfinder’s zip line specifically aided in a team’s
When you hear this distinct sound, you know that someone's shield has been depleted. Once an enemy's shield is gone, they're extremely vulnerable. So listen hard for this sound, because when you hear it, it's time to strike. Coordinate with your team and let them know when you hear someone's shield shatter, and you'll really succeed. It's just one of many sounds to listen
Instead, Apex Legends is a multiplayer-only, squad and class-based spin on the battle royale formula that draws inspirations from several other hit games, and adds to them all in player-friendly ways. Apex Legends is not only the best battle royale game currently available, but it may be one of the best free-to-play releases of all-t
Save The Peacekeeper For The Last Round - The Peacekeeper shotgun is rather useless early on in the match (though it can be charged for www.apexlegendshq.com official blog a stronger shot), but in the final circle, it can be quite dea
That leaves only Anthem , whose global February 22 launch will mark the only proper live-service competitor to Apex Legends . Though Anthem is unquestionably beautiful and has thrilling combat and movement that Crackdown developers ought to take note of, there is the unavoidable fact that it is EA's answer to Destiny , and the online loot-shooter genre Anthem 's obvious source material spawned is marred by a series of hard-to-avoid caveats. It does more to ensure that players won't be locked out of certain time-limited content by providing matchmaking in areas that the Destiny franchise neglects, but (as EA has clearly done its homework) it's difficult to not fear that launch content will prove much more sparse than initially expected, much as it was in both Destiny entr
Why was Apex Legends able to rest on its laurels this week while Respawn works on future content? The simplest answer can actually be found in what was likely perceived by EA to be its greatest weakness: it's near-total lack of pre-release marketing. Leaked only a day prior to launch, Apex Legends set the internet abuzz with the immediate promise of an all-new and well-polished experience that players could get their hands on for the tantalizing price of "free." Meanwhile, Crackdown 3 has suffered from a grueling, years-long embarrassment for Xbox Games Studios that began when it was revealed all the way back at E3 2014, greatly reducing the impact of the exclusive's largely overlooked February 15 release d