Fans of battle royale, say goodbye to PubG and Fortnite, and hello to the newest “last player standing” game, Apex Legends. Respawn Entertainment surprised everyone with the game’s rather unexpected release on February 5th.
Apex Legends is a battle royale that, keeping to the current working formula, has gamers dive into a large, open map with a total of 60 players broken up into teams of three. This is vastly different from the typical 100 players in other games because it makes for a fun and fast-paced gameplay. Those trios then scramble to find weapons and other materials scattered throughout the map so they can kill each other or die a brutal death. All in good fun, of course.
If Apex Legends has one thing going for it, it's the feeling that the game is complete, which cannot be said about all battle royale games. The game works to further teamwork, which includes a number of improvements to issues that plague the whole genre like cleaning up inventory management, increasing accessibility, and the addition of new ideas like squad composition elements and even special character abilities.
By far, the best feature in the game is its internal communication system. The game uses an intricate “ping” system which lets you press a button to create a marker on your teammates' screens.
The ping system is smart and easy to use, aim it at a gun or a helmet and your character will send that object's location to everyone else. You can ping in your menu to call for things you need, mark places you want to go, or identify spots other players have passed through, but most importantly, you can use pings to mark enemy locations. The system is so responsive that it can almost fully replace even talking to your team at all. In fact, the accuracy of a ping on-screen can often be better at helping you quickly convey information than talking.
Apex Legends is a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a fast-paced, competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while fixing a lot of its weaknesses. Respawn's intense focus on team play makes Apex more than just a worthy addition to the genre; it's a milestone for the future of battle royale games.
All things considered, Apex Legends is a wildly refreshing take on the battle royale genre, and I can’t wait to see what Respawn has in store for us in the future.
Apex Legends is a battle royale that, keeping to the current working formula, has gamers dive into a large, open map with a total of 60 players broken up into teams of three. This is vastly different from the typical 100 players in other games because it makes for a fun and fast-paced gameplay. Those trios then scramble to find weapons and other materials scattered throughout the map so they can kill each other or die a brutal death. All in good fun, of course.
If Apex Legends has one thing going for it, it's the feeling that the game is complete, which cannot be said about all battle royale games. The game works to further teamwork, which includes a number of improvements to issues that plague the whole genre like cleaning up inventory management, increasing accessibility, and the addition of new ideas like squad composition elements and even special character abilities.
By far, the best feature in the game is its internal communication system. The game uses an intricate “ping” system which lets you press a button to create a marker on your teammates' screens.
The ping system is smart and easy to use, aim it at a gun or a helmet and your character will send that object's location to everyone else. You can ping in your menu to call for things you need, mark places you want to go, or identify spots other players have passed through, but most importantly, you can use pings to mark enemy locations. The system is so responsive that it can almost fully replace even talking to your team at all. In fact, the accuracy of a ping on-screen can often be better at helping you quickly convey information than talking.
Apex Legends is a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a fast-paced, competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while fixing a lot of its weaknesses. Respawn's intense focus on team play makes Apex more than just a worthy addition to the genre; it's a milestone for the future of battle royale games.
All things considered, Apex Legends is a wildly refreshing take on the battle royale genre, and I can’t wait to see what Respawn has in store for us in the future.