Apex Legends is a new game from Respawn entertainment , the studio that is most notable for the Titanfall franchise and is published by EA. This time, however, it isn’t a new Titanfall game, it is a new entry into the rather saturated battle royale genre. Does this game spice things up in the crowded battle royale genre, is it a worthy contender to Fortnite? Find out in the review.
Apex Legends is set in the Titanfall universe, but it does things quite different from the main games in the Franchise. For one thing, it has no story elements as it is a battle royale game, kind of like what Epic games did with Fortnite battle royale. Another difference is that the game has no mechs which is something that makes Titanfall stand out from other series and is the franchise’s name sake, which I honestly don’t mind as its not technically a new game in the series. The game has a few more differences such as a lack of wall running another feature from the main games. But for everything the games lacks gameplay wise, it replaces them with new techniques such as sliding while running and a very fun to use vertical wall climb. The game is actually quite a different battle royale game as it has a lot of things that you typically wouldn’t find in a battle royale such as classes, an interesting communication system. It also forces team work by only having trios as the only mode as of writing this.
The class system in Apex Legends is a great idea in my opinion as it brings some skill into the game. Similar to Overwatch, the characters are different classes each with their own unique abilities, some of the classes include support characters, technical characters and characters which work best as offensive attackers. Another thing Apex Legends does similar to Overwatch is that there can only be one of each character in each squad meaning if you want to play well you’ll have to adapt and how learn how to play each character. One thing I love about the class system is how they have made each character have their own personality.
The gameplay techniques are rewarding to perfect and look cool while also being simple to learn. One example of a technique which is fun and easy to learn is the slide. While running down a slope or on a flat surface you can preform a slide by pressing the crouch key. This can give your character a speed boost. This simple to perform technique may not look like much but it is very useful in a number of situations such as moving between cover during a gun fight to using the speed boost to make a jump between two buildings. This reminds me of bunny-hopping or rocket-jumping in quake. Their is also a useful vertical wall run which can allow you to get to hard to reach places such as roof tops.
As of time of me writing this review the only mode that is available to play is trios. This may seem like a bad idea as not everyone likes to communicate using voice chat to complete strangers. But fear not as the game has a communication system called “pinging”. Pinging allows people to communicate without using a mic and is as simple as pressing a button. When you press the ping button your character will say lets go this way and the game automatically creates a beacon in the direction you were looking in and if you hold the button it comes up with more phrases such as “enemy spotted” or “i’m looting here”. This simple communication feature is such a cool idea as it can really bring the characters to life as their is almost constant chat between your squad mates and is a great way to communicate when you don’t want to chat to people or don’t have a mic and feels like your’e not missing out on a huge chunk of the game because of it.
One thing about this game which may turn people off at first is that this game has a lot of micro-transactions and loot boxes. I don’t mind this as it seems that EA and Respawn entertainment have actually put some effort into making the micro-transaction and loot boxes not as game breaking as they did with Star Wars: Battlefield 2. For one this game is completely free to play so it doesn’t feel like you’ve been scammed into buying a €60 game just to have to pay an extra €100 to get a complete package. Another thing is that the loot boxes are cosmetic only have no recurring items. The loot boxes in this game aren’t as bad as you don’t have to pay any money for the, and you almost get one for every level you go up. This allows you to grind for the cosmetics and not have to pay a cent. One thing that may annoy people is that two characters aren’t unlocked from the get-go and require you to pay money or to grind out your account, so it doesn’t really lock them behind a pay wall.
Complaints aside, Apex Legends is a really solid game and is a breath of fresh air in a genre full of similar games I would give the game a solid 7.5/10.
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