Apex: Legends Has Finally Taken My Battle Royale Virginity

Battle Royales. Wowee. They sure are everywhere these days huh? We have Forknife and PUBG and Rings of Elysium and H1Z1 and CoD: Blackout and Realm Royale and Minecraft... some of them are good, some of them are bad. Chances are you've played at least one of them, and you probably have an opinion on it. If you've ever mentioned having fun playing one of these games to my face, you might have been able to determine my own opinion on the battle royale genre. What was it that gave it away? Was it the throbbing vein in my temple? Or maybe I screamed at you and threw a lamp at your head. Both equally plausible reactions.

We all know its a TRUE FACT that you have to either love or hate battle royales. If you enjoy a game like Fortnite, well, by nerd-law you're not a rEaL gAmEr and since I have a crippling desire to be accepted into the gaming community (or really just any community IRL) I think I have to let you know that I hate it, even though the truth is that I'm really just not that good at battle royales. I'll admit that on a basic level, I understand the appeal they have to kids and streamers alike. In a way, Fortnite is to the new generation what Halo 2 was to mine. Some of my fondest memories consisted of finishing all my school work and hopping into Big Team Battle to mess around with my friends. So at the very least, I can get behind the social aspect. But I digress, it only takes one 12 year old floss dancing over my dead body to convince me the whole genre is trash.

So for the last year or so, I've stuck to that narrative. I'd just stick to Destiny, and let the kids have their fun.

Enter, Apex: Legends.

Apex: Legends, developed by Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment, is set in the same universe as their previous Titanfall games, even if it doesn't have those giant sky dropping Titan mechs or fancy wall running/double jump abilities. (Turns out, it doesn't even need them, but we'll get to that in a bit). I was hooked as soon as the announcement trailer dropped. The comic book art style and marketing gave me a distinct Borderlands vibe, and the gameplay looked like the love child between CoD: Blackout and Overwatch, the latter of which got me incredibly excited. And the kicker? They announced that it would be free to play, and also, oh yeah, it's out now. (Nothing gets a gamer going like those three words, aside from maybe praise the sun).

When the game launched I was stuck behind a keyboard at work, but that didn't stop me from watching streamers flock to see what the hype was all about. Immediately, the game rocketed to first place on Twitch. In just an hour, it was hovering around the 400k mark, which was double the amount of Fortnite viewers. (As of writing this, it's still in the first place spot sitting at 237K viewers, which is still double what Fortnite is pulling). And then I realized that possibly, for the first time ever, I was actually excited to get home and play a battle royale game. When I was finally able to load it up, I found that everything just worked--something that unfortunately we can no longer take for granted. Loading into a match was quick, linking up with friends was a non-issue, and I never experienced any game breaking bugs or disconnects. It's increasingly rare that on Day 1 of an online game like this, you're able to just sit down and enjoy the game without feeling like you're fighting with it, and that's a great thing because Apex: Legends is a gosh dang delight.

Most of us are aware by now of what battle royales are and how they work, so I don't feel like I need to go into too much depth on the core BR staples. Your squad of 3 drops somewhere onto a large map, you scramble to get loot, and then you try to stay alive by any means necessary. What sets this game apart though, is the emphasis on teamwork using "hero" character abilities and specializations, just like something you'd find in Overwtach. Some of these abilities are massively beneficial and can get you out of a tight spot, like Gibraltar's dome shield, or Wraith's dimensional rift ability (which not gonna lie, is just Symmetra's teleporter). Much like Overwatch, the game is most fun when you're coordinating with your friends to synergize your abilities/ pull off strategies.

That said, none of the ultimate abilities are so overpowered that they can be used as a crutch. They have utility, but for the most part you'll still need to be good at first person shooters to get kills. That's fine, because the earlier comparison I made to CoD: Blackout means that the guns all have amazing sound design and feel fun to shoot. The weapons all scale in terms of rarity/effectiveness, but I'll tell you right now, the only gun you really need is a Peacekeeper shotgun or a Wingman revolver. Here's the full weapon list and different tiers they fall on with damage numbers, if you're interested in that kind of thing: https://rankedboost.com/apex-legends/best-weapons-tier-list/

Apex also boasts one of the most intuitive UI's I've seen in a battle royale. Because of the nature of the game, you want to spend as little time in menu as possible, so thankfully Respawn has made everything you see in the game easily distinguishable at a glance. Weapons, crates. and even areas the map are marked with different colors so you know what rarity they are or what they might contain. The color of damage numbers that pop up when you shoot an enemy will immediately tell you what kind of shield your opponent has, which will in turn let you know how aggressive you should be. There is also a super useful "pinging" system in the game that essentially allows you to mark anything for your team- especially useful if you have a member that doesn't have a mic. You can call out loot, enemy locations, what direction you want to head in, etc. Very handy. Unlike other BR's, death in Apex isn't always final. When you're knocked out, your squad mates will have 90 seconds to collect your banner. At that point, they'll have to head to the nearest respawn center (there are maybe a dozen or more scattered throughout the map) to get you back in. This in turn introduces some really cool risk/reward situations. Escaping a hot zone to get your mates back in the game is risky, but it feels really good to successfully pull it off. If you're the opposing team, you can also predict when someone might be heading towards one of these stations and attempt to cut them off (or you could just camp near one if you're an actual monster who enjoys sucking the joy from peoples lives).

Wrapping It Up

It's hard to say why Apex: Legends has managed to sink its hooks in me in a way that other battle royales haven't. I mean, it's different, but the fundamentals are still the same. The goal and how you achieve that goal aren't that different from any other royale, you just have slightly different tools and abilities at your disposal. It's possible that all I really needed was a dedicated group of friends to jump in with. Imagine that. Battle royales don't actually suck, they're just better when you have friends.

Anyway, all I can think about is the stupid fricking game, and I can't wait to see how Respawn evolves it over time. Could this be the game to topple Forknife? Unlikely, seeing as how there's no floss dance currently in the game. But time will tell. For now, I just want to get back in the game and learn the battle royale ropes with my friends. Maybe I'll even hop back into CoD: Blackout now that I'm starting to understand what makes these games tick. Thanks for reading! Jake