EA and Respawn Entertainment dropped a bombshell on gamers earlier this month with their new free-to-play battle royal I.P. Apex Legends. With growing fatigue for battle royale games and knowing EA and their new reputation, many people including me were critical but a few matches later, Apex Legends had me convinced that it is EA’s solid entry into the battle royal genre. Even possibly one of the best challenger to industry titans such as Fortnite and PUBG.

The world of Apex Legends

Apex Legends is a part of Titanfall extended universe. But don’t get too excited as you won’t be able to use mechs nor can you run on walls. But instead, Apex Legends gives you a roster of cool characters with unique abilities and powerful weapons to gun down your enemies.

Maps and weapons

The fluid moment mechanics which include a quick-slide feature climbing on walls and even a nifty vertical and horizontal ziplines which you can use to zip, climb on, and boost away to points of interest or to drop on unsuspecting enemies.

You will be utilising these movement features a lot as you have to traverse through the vast and detailed maps packed with loot. Every gun feels unique (personal favourite being “The peacekeeper” shotgun for close combat action and the “Havoc” assault rifle).

Almost every weapon in the game gives a nice crisp shot with a unique spray pattern and kickback that every FPS fan would appreciate.

The weapons, ammo, and attachments are colour coded allowing you to identify them easily while looting it — even has an auto-equip feature to save you the hassle — and you also get an option of performing different executions when you need to finish off a player with panache.

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Meet the Legends

Apex Legends features eight unique heroes each with their special spells, passive, and ultimate abilities . Two of the characters are locked for which you have to grind or pay to unlock in the game.

Payers are required to play in a team of 3 members. There also have been leaks that have hinted that it may be available with future updates.

Microtransactions

It isn’t a free-to-play game unless it has microtransactions and Apex Legends is no exception, but it doesn’t disrupt the playing field like other battle royale games and creates a level playing field for players by only charging for cosmetic skins and emotes for now.

Apex Legends has three different types of in-game currency namely Apex coins, Legend tokens and crafting metals. Apex coins are the only currency that can be purchased using real money. These coins can be used to buy skins, featured items and emotes. Respawn has plans to add more cosmetics, legends, and loot every few months.

How does it stand out?

Where Apex Legends shines the most is with its implementation of features which enhance the gameplay.

One of those is the ‘Ping’ feature which helps you to point out various loot or enemy players automatically to your team members after a double click. This is effective during combat as the system automatically announces it and marks it on your team’s HUD, which saves you time and effort to organise.

Another game changer is the revival system. Yes, a revival feature in a battle royale game! Though it’s more of a risk-to-reward deal, what it does is give you a chance to revive a fallen teammate by collecting their banner form their loot-box to the nearest respawn beacon under 90 seconds.

Did I mention the revival points are always out in an open space leaving you vulnerable in the eyes of enemy squads?

If done successfully it will bring back your fallen teammate from the dead, but they will have to start from scratch as they will be completely vulnerable without any weapons or armour, but this allows for intense gameplay during the final moments of a game.

Another thing that stands out with Apex Legends is its AAA quality out-of-the-box. The devs at EA and Respawn nailed it when it comes to the production quality of the game. Apex ran smoothly on my old GTX950, and I didn’t face any bugs or glitches during my time with the game. The servers were also reasonably responsive.

Pros of Apex Legends

• Fun, fast fluid gameplay
• Ping and revive feature are game-changers
• Unique characters with useful abilities
• Satisfying weapons
• The game feels authentic and purpose-built rather than a tacked-on play mode

Cons of Apex Legends

• No solo or duo mode yet
• Microtransactions

Apex Legends is a solid effort from EA and Respawn. From weapons to characters it gets all the basics right even better in some cases, and it brings a unique twist on the battle royal genre in the form of revival feature for teammates. But is it enough to bring in new players? With so many established options in the battle royal genre, only time will tell if the game will gain momentum or lose its steam in the coming months.

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