Apex Legends is, for our author Jürgen, the battle royale game he has always wished for. You can find out why here.
This was my first reaction to Apex: When I, Jürgen, first heard about Apex Legends, it was still said here in the editorial office, “Hey, apparently a new game from the Titanfall developers is supposed to be coming out on Monday. It’s going to be freshly announced and immediately released and is supposed to be a battle royale game in the Titanfall setting.”
When I heard that, I just thought, “What nonsense! Who needs a new battle royale game in 2019? And it’s supposed to just come out without announcement and hype? What rubbish!”
But I was completely wrong.
Good ideas thought through to the end
Since I really like battle royales, I still wanted to try out Apex Legends. As soon as I started the game, I quickly noticed a lot of cool features that make Apex better than Fortnite and others.
These were mainly things that I found annoying and dumb in the other BR games:
This is how Apex addresses waiting times: I hate nothing more than the stupid lobby in BR games. Waiting for minutes and uselessly lounging around while the server looks for enough players is incredibly annoying! I have limited free time and want to use it optimally. Being stuck in a lobby is the opposite of fun.
In Apex Legends, things happen extremely quickly. There is no lobby, just a screen that assembles the required 60 players into 20 teams of 3 in seconds. Once the round is full, it goes to hero selection and we’re already in the plane and can jump.
This is how jumping out becomes enjoyable: What also annoys me about Fortnite and others: trolling teammates who just randomly jump out of the plane and land who-knows-where. Of course, they get quickly devoured and the remaining players also won’t last long.
In Apex, however, there is a randomly selected Jump Leader for each team by default. When he jumps, the team automatically jumps with him and glides down to the landing spot in sync and very quickly.
You can voluntarily detach from the team jump at any time, but the standard is the synchronised jump. This way, you are guaranteed to reach the target area as a team and can have a lot of fun even with randoms.
This is how Apex solves one of the big problems in the genre: A large part of the thrill in battle royale comes from the fact that you can be shot at any time and then permanently eliminated from the round. In team mode – and Apex only supports teams of 3 – you still have the chance of revival, but if you miss that, you’re out for a while and the team can often forget about it because they are outnumbered.
Especially with random teams, this often leads to frustration when you are not revived in time due to teammates’ mistakes. But unlimited respawns would ruin the essence of battle royale.
But here, the developers at Respawn Entertainment (the name says it all!) have come up with a brilliant idea. There are respawns in the game, but they are not easy to obtain.
If you go down and no one revives you, you are dead. But your mates have 60 seconds to retrieve a “banner” from your death location. The player then carries the banner, and if he takes it to one of the strategically distributed respawn beacons on the map, you can re-enter the game.
However, you are completely unarmed again and must find equipment or be gifted by generous teammates.
Still, these respawns are a very good idea that promotes team play even in random teams and can give disadvantaged teams a chance for a comeback.
This is how Apex improves reviving: Overall, Apex seems to place a lot of value on team play and reviving. When you go down, you can activate a special shield that at least partially protects you from fire.
This way, a brave medic can heroically throw himself into the hail of bullets and has a real chance of reviving you. Also, you earn points for the revive, so you can really contribute to the game as a medic.
This is how Apex supports team play in random groups: One problem in many BR games is when you play in a random group and communication is off. Voice chat, which Apex also has, could be an idea, but not every player has a mic or is willing to use it.
And the language barrier is also a problem when you play with people who only speak their native language.
In Apex, there is the option to trigger a lot of predefined commands and announcements with a simple mouse click. This way, you can quickly mark loot, ping enemies, or announce the approach of the death zone. There’s even a function that lets you say “thank you” at the press of a button when your teammates gift you something.
This increases team bonding and also the atmosphere, as the announcements are voiced by your hero in his voice and with character-appropriate sayings.
This is how Apex ensures a fast flow of the game: The gameplay of Apex is fast-paced and straightforward, yet surprisingly complex. There are weapon addons like scopes or stock attachments. However, they are automatically integrated into the currently active weapon in its best version when you find them. So you don’t have to fumble around in your inventory until you mount the right upgrade.
On top of that, the gameplay is pleasantly fast and the gunplay is smooth and fun. You usually play quite actively, running and shooting from cover to cover. Campers have a hard time due to various anti-camping skills of individual heroes. This improves the flow of the game.
This is how Apex creates a great battle royale atmosphere: The map of Apex is quite small and the 20 teams of 3 fill it optimally. With zip lines, climbing, and diving mechanics, and no fall damage, you can traverse this map quickly. You can encounter enemies anywhere.
Then it may pay to be well-equipped. But that’s where Apex tightens the screws, as there isn’t really much loot. And when you finally have a weapon, ammunition is also scarce.
Unlike in Fortnite, where you are bombarded with loot, good loot in Apex is rare, and thus especially wild fights over the first weapons erupt during landing.
To make the fun even greater, the game designates special zones at the beginning as “hot zones” that promise especially good loot – and displays this prominently and clearly for everyone on the map!
Instead of creating a notorious mega loot spot like Tilted Towers from Fortnite, the loot hot spot changes each round, generating a lot of excitement.
Especially daring players jump right at the beginning onto a floating supply depot, where a lot of loot is packed into a tight space and epic massacres occur!
Also cool: the game declares before each match a player who performed particularly well in the previous round as the champion. If you take them down, you’ll earn a lot of points for your progress. Large video screens display at all times who the sought-after champion is.
When they are taken out, there is a big announcement over the speakers. This is fun and enhances the atmosphere of being in a futuristic killer game show.
Finally Battle Royale with Heroes
Apex Legends was also marketed as a Battle Royale with heroes like Overwatch. That sounded really cool and no game had managed to do this properly yet. Realm Royale had recently failed colossally at this. Will Apex finally deliver here?
Here’s why the heroes are a great idea: In short: Yes, the heroes work! Each team picks a hero per player before the game starts. Duplicate heroes in the team are not possible. The selection happens in a fixed order. So if you see that there’s already a tank and DD in the team, a supporter might be a good idea.
The eight heroes, referred to as Legends, can use every weapon and equipment. They also have the same health stats. However, they differ in their appearance and skills. Each hero has one active, one passive, and one ultimate skill.
The latter must recharge during gameplay, while the active skill has a cooldown time.
This is how the skills work: The sprightly medic Lifeline can call in a healing drone that repairs the whole team in seconds. The soldier Bangalore, on the other hand, becomes faster when shot at. If you don’t catch her immediately, you might never have the chance again. And when you play as Wraith, you can even become briefly invisible and attack enemies from behind.
The mix of skills appears to be well-balanced so far, and the right choice of heroes can determine victory or defeat. I once had a round where a scout player named Bloodhound reliably spied out opponents with his “wall hack skill” and pinged all the information to the team.
In another match, a player chose the robot Pathfinder, who easily reached the respawn beacon with his grappling hook, bringing our team back from the dead. I, on the other hand, could completely heal my team with Lifeline and the healing drone, as well as the care package drop after we stumbled out half-dead from the “zone,” allowing us to optimally prepare for the final battle.
Jürgen’s conclusion: I don’t need Fortnite anymore!
Apex Legends captivated me from the first round more than all the other battle royale games before it. Everything works here! The game runs smoothly, finds a match in seconds, and finally offers unique heroes! The gameplay is at my pace, and the building that I’ve never gotten the hang of in Fortnite is thankfully absent!
And the fun is not missed. Apex relies on dark humor that somewhat resembles Borderlands in its look. The robot always has a happy smiley on the screen, and the big tank has a finishing move where he simply sits on the opponent!
Therefore, I won’t be getting away from Apex anytime soon. Now I only hope that the infamous “curse of the flop” doesn’t apply to battle royale and that Apex Legends has a long life ahead of it.
At least the current player numbers are promising, and if the developers continue consistently, they could finally create a serious competitor to Fortnite. After all, Fortnite also emerged from nowhere and fought its way to the top. Why shouldn’t this happen again?
Curious? You can download Apex Legends here:
