Apex Legends not only impresses with thrilling battles and strong gameplay. Diversity is also a top priority with the available characters.
What is Apex Legends: The new battle royale game from the Titanfall developers Respawn Entertainment offers for the first time in the genre a functioning selection of characters each with their own skills. The eight heroes, referred to as legends, each have their own story and a unique background.
Apex Legends and Diversity
This is how the developers ensure diversity: The developers have made sure that the selection of heroes is not just filled with white men, but instead focused on diversity.
Thus, among the eight playable heroes, there is one robot, three women (two of whom are dark-skinned), a gender-neutral figure, and a homo- or bisexual soldier of Polynesian descent.
This is the story of Gibraltar: The background story of the hulking tank Gibraltar reveals that he once stole his father’s motorcycle with his “boyfriend” when he was a teenager and then got caught in a landslide and stuck there. It was there that he found his calling to help others.
Since Gibraltar clearly had a “friend,” it can be assumed that he is bi- or homosexual.
This hero is not gender-specific: The situation is different with the mysterious scout Bloodhound. He is completely covered and speaks in a strange distorted voice that sounds neither female nor male. According to an interview with the developers on the site Rock Paper Shotgun, he could be anything.
They want to move away from the image of a “gang of military types with helmets to a more diverse, colorful crew.”
Therefore, diversity is important: According to the developers, this is important as battle royale games are played by a wide variety of different players. Everyone should have something they can identify with.
Diversity is therefore as important in Apex Legends as in Blizzard’s Overwatch. The two title heroes Tracer and Soldier: 76 are both homosexual. However, the sexual orientation of the LGBTQ heroes in Apex Legends has been clear from the start and was not revealed years after the game’s launch.
It remains exciting to see which characters and backgrounds will come to Apex Legends in upcoming updates. The plans for Season 1 are already set:
