This past February, Respawn released Apex Legends, a game that takes place in the Titanfall universe. Taking its own twist on the Battle Royal genre by giving players to play as a character with different personalities and most importantly abilities. Many are very memorable, like Wraith’s phase ability, or Life Lines fun dialogue. Apex stood above the rest as something different with its limited mode to just a team of 3 and a much smaller island than Fortnite or PUBG. Apex focuses on what matters and that is the gunplay. It was a solid start to the Battle Royal genre and Respawn should be very proud.
Fast forward to this October and Respawn has made huge changes to its famous Battle Royal game. To start, there is a whole new map called Worlds Edge. The map feels more diverse than Kings Canyon, offering different types of environments, such as a snow covered city, an active lava flowed dome, a big tree, or a train yard. Getting 3rd partied this season seems rather easy. The map is much more open than Kings Canyon so it feels like its easier for teams to cut across a field and engage in a team or teams that are fighting for an easy victory and loot.
This season also introduces a new character, Crypto. A hacker, whose abilities revolve around using a drone to get information on where enemy teams are and can use that drone to knock someones shield down by 50%. Crypto is a blast to play as. His dialogue is great. I found using his drone was extremely helpful in scouting buildings in Apex Legends new locations. Getting that intel was very important for some victories and take downs that I had.
This season also includes a new weapon, the Charge Rifle. I love the Charge Rifle. It is an energy based weapon so you only really need to track your shots horizontally. When shot, it shoots out a long laser that does a small amount of damage followed by a bigger blast which hurts much more. However some players have found this weapon to be overpowered to say the least. I tend to agree and whenever I find this gun sitting on the floor or in someones loot box, I immediately pick it up for some sniper action. Pair this with a mid range scope and its very deadly at even long range fights.
Of course with big season updates, some weapons received some changes. Most notably the Alternator no longer has its hop up attachment, disruptor rounds, which was overpowered last season. The Wingman and the Longbow, which both are heavy ammo weapons, no longer have the Skullpiercer hop up as it has been removed from the entire game. The R-99 has also received an ammo reduction by 2 bullets for each level of magazine that you get. Gold armor now has fast heal ability that was used when you had the gold backpack. Now if you have the gold backpack and you revive a fallen teammate you give them bonus health and shields so they don’t need to help up right away. Some of the changes are welcome and others a bit head scratching. Regardless, Apex Legends is still the most balanced battle royal in terms of its weapons.
One issue I was glad to see fixed is just the overall server performance. Sometimes after a match I wouldn’t be able to go back to the lobby and instead it would kick me to an error with a server timeout. I can happily report after the dozens of hours I played, that Apex Legends no longer has this issue.
Currently there is a timed even going on which gives players the ability to unlock new weapon skins and costume skins for the characters. The micro transactions are still a bit confusing, however that hasn’t stopped my enjoyment of the game. There is also a new mode that features King’s canyon at night. It starts as a solo mode and any legends that die get respawned as zombies and you need to make your way closer to the final circle to catch the drop ship out. Once it’s down to the last 10 legends you team up and help each other survive. It’s pretty intense although the melee on the zombies is a bit overpowered in my opinion with how fast they move.
Apex Legends Season 3 has been an amazing update and Respawn should be very proud of the work they have done for the game. I look forward to see what the rest of this season brings and what the future of the franchise holds.
