[REVIEW] Apex Legends

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After Titanfall 2 launched between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the game failed to live up to sales expectations, with some estimates putting it 6 million units short of EA’s sales goal for the title. Following this, many assumed that the Titanfall franchise was dead, as Respawn shifted focus to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and virtual reality projects. But while Titanfall 3 may not be in active development, Respawn has continued working on games in the Titanfall universe, including the free-to-play battle royale game Apex Legends.

Apex Legends launched out of nowhere, with no pre-release announcement of any kind. This unique marketing ploy seems to have successfully piqued the interest of the gaming community, as the game has already had millions of players. However, others have written Apex Legends off as just another battle royale game, and won’t give it the time of day. From our time with it, we can safely say that those people are missing out.
What’s immediately striking about Apex Legends is its polish and technical stability. Many battle royale games, especially close to launch, suffer from a wide-range of server issues and other problems. And while we ran into the occasional server disconnect after matches in Apex Legends, all that was required from us to fix the problem was to hit one button to get back into the lobby proper. With so many online games suffering from significant issues at launch, it’s truly incredible that Apex Legends is as stable as it is without any kind of public beta or stress tests.

Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 4, 2019, without any prior announcement or marketing.

The gameplay of Apex fuses elements from a variety of video games, including Respawn's own Titanfall series, battle royale games, class-based shooters, and those with evolving narratives. Approximately sixty players are pitted against each other on an island in squads of three, with one player controlling where their squad lands. The squads then must scavenge for weapons and other resources to fight other squads, during which the play area gradually constricts in size until one squad remains, thus ending the match. The game also features care packages and the ability to revive your teammates within a certain amount of time. Communication with team members can be done through voice chat or through a ping system, allowing teammates to mark supplies, locations, and enemies with ease. The game features eight heroes to choose from (though two of them are locked by default), and features a microtransaction system for cosmetic items.

The concept for the game came to fruition during the development of a new Titanfall game, after EA's acquisition of Respawn in 2017. The sudden success of the battle royale genre prompted the developers to create one of their own that incorporates elements of the series, in addition to the concepts seen in games throughout the past decade. Following its release, the developers announced plans for cross-platform play, as well as ports for iOS, Android, and the Nintendo Switch, in the future.

Apex Legends received very positive reviews from critics, who praised its gameplay, progression system, and fusion of elements from various genres. Some considered it a worthy competitor to Fortnite Battle Royale, a similar game that had gained massive po[CENSORED]rity in the previous year. The game surpassed over 25 million players by the end of its first week, and 50 million within its first month.

Apex Legends is also one of the better-looking battle royale games on the market. Since it’s set in the Titanfall universe, it borrows the art style from the main series, with slightly more exaggerated and cartoonish character models. The game world has more detail to it than one might expect from a battle royale game, and the battle royale map itself is full of varied, interesting locations to see and explore. The map is surrounded by some of the alien monsters encountered in the Titanfall games, which not only helps it feel firmly rooted in the Titanfall universe, but also helps it stand out from other battle royale games.
While Apex Legends is set in the Titanfall universe and takes place about three decades after the events of Titanfall 2, it is missing some of the franchise’s key elements. Players can’t call titans from the sky, and there is no wall-running to speak of at the time of this writing. It’s easy to see how titans could break the game, but the lack of wall-running is disappointing, especially since the game otherwise allows a lot of mobility for the player.
Despite the lack of wall-running, Apex Legends shines when it comes to mobility. All of the playable Legends move relatively fast, and are capable of climbing over high walls, falling from great heights with no fall damage, and launching themselves from ziplines to quickly travel over great distances. The slide move is especially great, allowing players to zoom down hills and easily catch up to enemies on the run. Combine the game’s mobility with twitchy gunplay and Apex Legends stands out as one of the most fast-paced battle royale games there is.

It’s also one of the least frustrating battle royale games there is, and that’s for a few of reasons. For one, Respawn has managed to strike a fine balance with the time to kill, making it so shootouts aren’t over in an instant like in Black Ops 4‘s Blackout, and instead giving everyone a chance to win a fight, even if they’re taken by surprise. Secondly, dying in the game doesn’t mean that players are truly out, which isn’t the case in most other battle royale games.
When a player dies in Apex Legends, their teammates have a chance to recover their “Banner” and return it to a respawn station to get them back into the action. In most other battle royale games, dying often means sitting and watching teammates play for upwards of half an hour or more until they either win or, more likely, die.
Another reason why Apex Legends isn’t nearly as frustrating as some other battle royale games is thanks to its communication tools that help players relay information to teammates without even needing a mic. Apex Legends utilizes a ping system that allows players to easily call out items, enemies, and more, and it’s something that all the other battle royale games on the market should steal.

Apex Legends is a battle royale game borrowing concepts of the hero shooter, taking place 30 years after the events of Titanfall 2. Apex differs from most battle royale games by incorporating Legends, pre-defined heroes with unique abilities that fall into roles such as Offense, Defense, Support and Recon. Players are grouped into squads of three, each player selecting a unique Legend in turn, and each match features up to 20 teams competing. All teams start with no equipment and are flown over the game's map via dropships from a random direction from which they drop onto any spot on the map they can reach. Teams scour the game map for weapons, ammunition, and other equipment while fighting to be the last team standing, all while staying within an ever-shrinking safe zone on the map. A player can be downed into a vulnerable bleed-out state, leaving them only able to crawl for cover or reach a squadmate, who can revive them. If the player bleeds out, or an opponent uses a finisher move on them, they are then eliminated, dropping their equipment to be looted and a banner. The player can potentially be respawned if their squadmates recover this banner and take it to a Spawn Beacon, scattered on the map, in a limited amount of time. Apex features both voice-chat communication with squadmates and a contextual single-button communication approach that allows a player to ping map features like weapons, opponents, or rally points.

Apex Legends is free-to-play and supported through microtransactions for cosmetic items and heroes. New cosmetic items can be earned from opening Apex Packs, the game's version of loot boxes that contain a random assortment of rewards, or spending the in-game currency Crafting Materials, which are gained through Apex Packs. Apex Packs are freely earned as the player gains experience levels. Additionally, players freely gain Legend Tokens for playing matches as well as for leveling, which are used to unlock new Legends and certain cosmetic items. A final currency, Apex Coins, is bought with real-world funds and can be used to buy Apex Packs, unlock Legends, or purchase specific cosmetics. Respawn offered battle passes which reward players with new seasonal cosmetic items by completing in-game challenges. The game's first battle pass, alongside its first new playable character, were released on March 19, 2019.

It’s a good thing Apex Legends has its ping system, too, because there is no option to play without teammates. At launch, Apex Legends only allows players to play in squads of three, which is one of the more disappointing aspects of the game. The lack of a solo option or any options besides three player squads, whether that be duos for four player squads, is a letdown. Hopefully some more options are added later on, but at launch, players better get used to working in teams of three.
It’s possible that restricting players to teams of three was a deliberate design decision due to the hero-based shooter elements of Apex Legends. Players have eight playable Legends to choose from, who all have their own little special abilities and Overwatch-style Ultimates to give them an advantage in battles. Properly coordinating these abilities can be the difference between life and death in Apex Legends, though at the same time, the hero-shooter elements are not overwhelming and can almost be ignored.

In fact, we won games without ever really utilizing our abilities. Far more important than the abilities is the core gameplay of finding weapons and shooting enemies, so players shouldn’t confuse Apex Legends as a strict hero-based shooter. It’s more of a traditional battle royale experience with some hero-shooter flavor. For example, a healer character isn’t going to have a significant problem taking care of a tank like they would in other hero-shooters, so teams don’t even need a balance of different classes to be successful.

And speaking of loot, that’s another area where Apex Legends seems like it needs some work. Compared to other battle royale titles on the market, loot in Apex Legends seems relatively rare, and it seems to take longer to arm oneself at the beginning of a match. This can make for some frustrating starts when a lot of people land in the same area and there are not enough weapons to go around. However, this problem is mitigated if players make it a point to land away from other squads and avoid the high-tier loot areas.

To Apex Legends‘ credit, the loot system is still one of the better ones, as it almost completely eliminates the need to manage inventory at all. Players won’t often find themselves hiding behind walls and fiddling with their inventory, as the best gear and attachments are distinctively color-coded and automatically equipped. This keeps players in the game itself, and cuts out some of the more boring bits of other battle royale titles.

The loot system in Apex Legends is great, but the game does retain some elements of other battle royale titles that may rub some players the wrong way. Perhaps most notably, the game utilizes loot boxes for its cosmetics, as well as a couple of in-game currencies that can be earned or purchased through microtransactions. The game’s monetization have already drawn some ire, but since Apex Legends is a free-to-play game, its use of loot boxes is far more forgivable than it would be in a full-priced game. From our experience, Apex Legends is pretty generous with its loot boxes and they often have decent rewards, though it is a bit annoying to unlock cosmetics for characters that haven’t been unlocked yet.

Apex Legends is still in its infancy, but the game has already been a success, surpassing 10 million players worldwide within just a few days of its launch. If it’s able to maintain its po[CENSORED]rity moving forward, then it’s likely Respawn will aggressively support it with content updates like we’ve seen in other battle royale titles, and those updates could address some of our concerns. But even though Apex Legends has some missteps here and there, it’s still one of the better battle royale games on the market and could give the giants of the genre a serious run for their money.

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REQUIREMENTS

MINIMUM:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7

CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz / AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor

RAM: 6GB

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 / Radeon HD 7730

GPU RAM: 1 GB

HARD DRIVE: Minimum 22 GB of free space

RECOMMENDED:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7

CPU: Intel i5 3570K or equivalent

RAM: 8GB

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290

GPU RAM: 8GB

HARD DRIVE: Minimum 22 GB of free space

 

REVIEW FROM MULTI RESOURCE