I have never been a battle royale mode person. Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG was the first stand-alone game that was all about this game type and man did it just look gross and ugly like DayZ and Rust. I also did not have a computer that would have ran the game, even if I wanted to try it out. Then comes Fortnite. I think I would have been more into this game if it was not for the building aspect. I had zero desire to actually try and get good at it. Fortnite is battle royale done right though. Changing up the map constantly, new seasons, and a reason to want to keep coming back.
Enters the first AAA Battle Royale, Call of Duty Black Ops 4. It looks good, plays very well, and has that Call of Duty feel to it, which is solid. But it really just felt like PUBG, but more refined. Having the CoD name on it is great, but buying a $60 game when you can find 2 others that are free or significantly cheaper, it’s a hard buy-in.
Here we are to the meat of this blog post. Leaks came out about Respawn releasing a Titanfall based battle royale game. I was instantly intrigued. I still play Titanfall 2 multiplayer. It is easily the best feeling shooter I have played in forever. After hearing the stuff from the rumors going around, I was interested but sad that maybe Titanfall 3 got pushed to a back burner for a bad cash grab.
I was absolutely wrong. Apex Legends was shadow dropped on Monday as a free to play game. I jumped in and was instantly drawn in. It has all the tense feelings that a battle royale game needs, but the different characters and their respective classes are so important to this game. My favorite at this point is Gibraltar. I have won twice with him and have just felt like I have contributed to helping my 3 man team each game I have played. He is also the only defensive characters and his dome shield and ultimate are an absolute must for a good team comp.
The map is actually pretty cool, but it almost seems like its a bit samey? Or maybe the map is just smaller than most so I seem to end up in the same area in most of the games.
The PING system is a game changer for this genre. You can easily communicate with teammates and randoms you play with. I’m not someone who likes chatting with unknown people, especially in competitive games like these. People are just shitty. So having a communication device on the right bumper, along with a wheel is fantastic.
The game still feels like Titanfall. Sure, the parkour is missing, and so are the giant mechs that fall from the sky. But the weapons feel great and the sliding is absolutely amazing. Honestly, we need a game mode that’s just racing by sliding down a hill I would love it. The only thing that doesn’t feel great I have come across so far has been the grappling hook that Pathfinder has. the range isn’t great and just doesn’t have that same swingy feel to it.
The microtransactions are not intrusive at all. There are two characters that are behind a paywall unfortunately though. The worst part is that EA actually gave me more than enough of the Legends tokens to unlock one of the characters by being an EA Access member, and I fucked it up by buying a bunch of cosmetic boxes. Whoops. I am at the point where I might want to actually pay for the two characters though. Respawn is an excellent developer and have done a great job on this game so far.
I really hope that Apex Legends isn’t a flash in the pan. There have already been over 10 million players with 1 million concurrent ones. It is honestly what this battle royale genre needed. Characters and classes, and being really strategic together. I’m not sure if they will ever release a mode where you can be on your own. The characters are all great, but they really shine together. Much like Overwatch, not one character can really fly solo. The biggest test is to see what they do with their map. Will there be new maps, like PUBG rolls out? Or will they do something like Fortnite where they terraform the map and have random events pop? New characters have also been announced they will be implementing, so that is also super exciting. I can’t wait to see what other fun people they can throw in.
How have you been liking Apex Legends? Do you have a favorite character yet? SOund off in the comments!
The Tired Obsidian 
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