A flagship hero battle royale with solid core shooter mechanics
Apex Legends is EA and Respawn Entertainment’s flagship free-to-play battle royale launched in February 2019, founded on the back of the popular but ultimately underserved hype train that was Titanfall 2. Announced on the same day it was released, Apex Legends became a zero-marketing play uncharacteristic of one of the industry’s more infamous money-making companies that gamers love to hate.
Apex Legends drew in eight million players on its first day and 50 million players in its first month. Instead of a typical marketing cycle consisting of months or even years of hype before release, EA and Respawn decided to drop the game and let streamers and social media influencers spread the news. It worked.
The game was in excellent working condition upon release. It offered a solid core shooter experience with the added touch of unique hero abilities and squad-based combat, all wrapped up with a battle royale ribbon. Apex Legends currently boasts over 100 million players worldwide.
Story and concept
Set over three decades after the events of the Titanfall 2 campaign, Apex Legends revolves around the Apex Games, a battle royale-style bloodsport popular in the region of space called the Outlands, where gladiator-like competitors known as Legends duke it out in squads for the entertainment of the masses. That’s all you need to know. As potentially interesting as the lore and backstory is, these have little to do with the game itself.
Of course, the main story relates directly to the Legends’ personalities, backgrounds, and relationships and how they interact primarily in-game expressed through occasional banter that can range from tense to humorous. Ultimately, however, anyone can jump in and play regardless of how much they know about the story.
There’s also whatever lore and story extras Respawn decides to implement per season—these can range from actual mini-games to in-game teasers to unlockable comics, which has become the norm thanks to working restrictions brought about by the pandemic.
Essentially, the main game is a squad-based hero shooter battle royale. At the start of the game, 20 squads of three players, each composed of unique Legends, drop onto a map, scavenge for weapons and gear, and try to wipe each other out. A game flows from one round to another, defined by a timer that sets off an increasingly smaller ring, forcing squads to eventually engage each other lest they get damaged and die due to inflicted ring damage.
Players will have to navigate shooter mechanics, cooperative team play, hero abilities, and game sense (like well-timed recuperative item use and map knowledge) to emerge as the champions on Apex Legends’ primary battle royale modes: public and ranked lobbies.
Furthermore, two additional modes were made permanent in 2020 and 2021, respectively: duos and arenas. Duo mode is essentially the same public lobbies with 30 teams of duos instead of 20 teams of trios, while the Arenas mode is a squad versus squad deathmatch set in smaller maps that also features its own ranked version.
As of this writing, Apex Legends is one of EA’s live service games and releases a new season almost every quarter, which typically comes with a new unlockable Legend, a set of season-specific cosmetics, changes to game mechanics, and improvements to the quality of life (QoL), among others. New maps or changes to existing maps also occur during game events and nearly every other season so far.
Graphics, sound, & atmosphere
Apex Legends can certainly put modern video cards to work on maximum graphics, but it can also run in acceptable albeit potato quality on lower settings. Game mechanics and overall gameplay retain their integrity in potato mode. You can’t lower a setting like draw distance or texture quality to reveal players from further away or efface foliage that would otherwise conceal characters. Naturally, though, you would be missing out on some awesome effects and skins if you’re into that.
In terms of sound design and atmosphere, Apex Legends gets a passing grade by implementing distinct atmospheric sounds based on their equally unique maps. In the rare instances where you aren’t running around trying to kill or avoid being killed, you might even enjoy the nuances. However, what Apex Legends does excellently in terms of sound design is making sure it matters to the gameplay loop.
Every gun has a unique sound signature, from firing to reloading. You can tell which character is running up behind you without looking, as most, if not all, Legends exhibit some sound cues based on their stride or their legs. Even Pathfinder, the robot, and Octane, who has metal legs, for instance, sound different.
Each skill or ultimate ability has a distinct activation or active status sound. Actions like resuscitating teammates, recharging shields, or using a medkit all play specific sounds and give players awareness of the goings-on around them without the need for visuals.
In short, sound cues help you make decisions during engagements. For example, you can figure out which characters you’re up against because you know the sound of their ability activating. Game sense built over time will help you recognize which sounds indicate strategic opportunity.
However, it would be remiss not to mention that the game has been known to frustrate players with sound bugs. One of the most annoying and persistent of which still occurs now and then is not getting any sound cues at all.
It isn’t all bad, though. By and large, the game works as intended. However, the few cases where it becomes an issue are understandably egregious for players who experience them, given that these bugs often cause ragequit-inducing deaths in high-pressure situations.
One final, if slightly tangential, caveat regarding sound design: you might want to use something like Discord instead of in-game voice chat. Apex Legends’ voice chat is known for reliability issues, much like its other sound issues. But again, just sometimes.
Gameplay
The core FPS aspect of Apex Legends revolves around the distinct characteristics of the weapons and how they handle. Movement bolsters the basic walk, run, crouch, and jump fundamentals with sliding, wall clambering and vaulting, and even wall jumping for more advanced players. Meanwhile, Legend abilities add another dimension to combat aside from the weapons and movement.
Tactical and ultimate abilities can deploy additional weapons and gear, form defensive perimeters, allow for even greater mobility for quick repositioning or retreats, and enable access to avenues of attack or escape otherwise impossible. Now top that all off with squad-based team play on a battle royale map, and that’s Apex Legends.
These aspects, individually, aren’t new or revolutionary, but Apex found a way to execute each facet satisfyingly (for the most part; balancing is an ongoing agenda season-by-season), and better yet, combine all of them into a workable hodgepodge.
The game also introduced new features or improved existing aspects of the battle royale genre. Using first-person instead of third-person and focusing on squads in a battle royale setting, for instance, already set Apex Legends apart from genre giants Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds upon launch.
But again, Apex didn’t just put different elements together; it found a way to make them work. For example, squads aren’t just three players put together; their unique skills create strategic synergy. Dropping as a squad of randoms doesn’t need to be chaotic: a jumpmaster is assigned and can be relinquished or separated from when dropping at the start.
Apex Legends also popularized (in the battle royale genre) a player respawn mechanic, and more impressively, an extremely useful context-sensitive ping system that, when used correctly, can eliminate the need for chat or voice comms — something crucial for squad cooperation.
Players can ping locations, points of interest, weapons, items, and enemies. They can respond in the affirmative or negative, call out dibs, and say thanks, or you’re welcome. Players can ping what they’re going to do (loot, attack, or defend a position, for instance), what ammo types or items they need, and even how far along their ultimate cooldown has gotten.
Respawn Entertainment had to take some cues from other games, though, and in later seasons implemented a crafting system — an addition more obviously gameplay driven as opposed to something that organically made sense to the lore.
The primary FPS mechanics driving Apex Legends are solid and translate well across battle royale and Arena modes. Players need to understand ammo types and various weapon attachments with their own upgrades, even hop-ups that change the behavior of applicable weapons. Explosive ordinance is likewise varied. Players need to understand which of the three grenade types are best to use with their unique characteristics.
Every piece of gear is upgradeable either by finding a better one or, in the case of body shields, doing enough damage to level up. There is also special gear with near-maximum stats and unique features. Admittedly, the RNG aspect of battle royale scavenging can make or break a game for many, especially in earlier rounds.
Assuming skill levels between players are equal, if you happen to find a lower level shield than your opponent, or can’t find enough of the ammo type that matches the gun you picked up, then a tactical retreat might be a better option.
Beyond skill with FPS mechanics, knowledge of Legend abilities comes in handy. Some Legends with movement-based abilities tend to be better at retreating (or attacking). Defensive Legends can lockdown a zone with traps or obstacles to slow down pursers or lead them into ambushes.
Others still are beneficial for support. Lifeline’s ultimate drops a care package guaranteed to upgrade armor up to its penultimate level. Loba’s ultimate opens up a deployable device that captures loot within a certain radius and provides as much ammo as there is in the area.
One aspect you won’t have control over is the game’s server tick rate, which is 20Hz — a third of the speed of PUBG’s 60hz and slower than Fortnite’s 30Hz. This is the rate that Respawn Entertainment swears by as it maintains the delicate balance of server-side and client-side networking for a battle royale with 60 players without being prohibitively costly. It’s definitely not optimal but generally passable. Just expect some no-reg shots every now and then.
The game’s battle royale mechanics are pretty standard. That means one of the aspects many FPS players find unappealing in the genre is also present in Apex Legends: spikes in gameplay pacing.
The scavenging aspect of battle royale tends to drastically slow down the game’s pace, especially in the beginning if players don’t drop near enemies or during the middle in case squads don’t come across one another or choose to wait for more suitable engagements. This is exacerbated by the fact that the game’s pace is different for everyone. A squad that has cooled off by spending a few minutes outside of combat can be at a disadvantage when coming across another squad fresh off a thrilling engagement and still in a state of flow.
However, this is primarily an issue of players pacing themselves, and for gamers who want a classic deathmatch, public and ranked lobbies in the Arenas mode are a decent alternative. Although, some abilities and mechanics meant for battle royale won’t be as helpful in a three-on-three deathmatch.
Replay value
The core mechanics of FPS, Legend abilities and battle royale make for a satisfying, if at times frustrating, gameplay loop due to RNG — not just in terms of loot you can get in-game but also random squadmates who join your squad. Naturally, it’s better to play with like-minded or similarly skilled friends, especially on Ranked mode.
The game does have an unofficial “solo” mode by letting you tick a checkbox that forces the game to not squad you up with random people (except for Ranked modes), enabling you to mess around or experiment with playstyles freely.
It’s worth noting that once you get used to map rotations, map layouts, and gameplay nuances, you find more and more value in replaying. Public lobby matchmaking can sometimes throw a wrench in your enjoyment, however, when the algorithm decides to give you a challenge and match you with a higher skill ceiling. Ranked mode is pretty consistent, as you are guaranteed to slow down and get locked into an appropriate rank based on skill and game sense.
This also means, however, that if you want to go higher, you either need a pre-made squad, genuinely improve your skill cap, or use alternative and grindy measures like ratting (avoiding more than engaging in combat to survive long enough to gain points), or skeeving (exclusively third-partying ongoing engagements because your squadmates are gone). Or all of the above.
When new Legends, maps, or limited-time modes (LTMs) drop — or more wide-ranging or meaningful balance or QoL changes are made — the game can genuinely feel quite new and different, adding to replayability.
For players keen on the loot box aspect, the game’s store regularly cycles through batches of cosmetics and other items and offers a season- and LTM-specific selection. Apex Legends also has daily, weekly, season- and LTM-specific challenges that provide their own rewards.
Final thoughts on Apex Legends
Apex Legends combines many different aspects brought together effectively into a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. And those individual parts deserve a lot of credit on their own. A solid hero FPS put into a squad-based battle royale setting, the appeal of Apex Legends extends across quite a few overlapping genres, and anyone who wants to enjoy the experience needs to juggle FPS skills with strategic use of Legend abilities along with teamwork and game sense.
Its replay value hinges entirely on its core mechanics, for many. Although, season-specific changes and additions make it more attractive to return to the game after a break. It has a notable and deserved spot in both the FPS and battle royale genres. Its future depends on how EA and Respawn Entertainment handle it as a live service game, but so far, it’s proven to be more than competitive since launch.
