Respawn was founded by ex-Infinity Ward devs – the guys behind Call Of Duty: Modern WarfareIt’s no exaggeration to say that
this is utter genius; it’ll be copied by
multiplayer titles for years to come.
And it means that in Apex Legends,
nobody needs a microphone to
communicate. That’s big.
Contextual dialogue helps, too.
As the timer ticks down, one of your
team will mention how far you are from
safety and how long is left before the
ring shrinks. And if you’re under fire,
even if you don’t see your enemy, your
character will call out the attack so
your pals can get over and help. It’s a
small touch, but a very cool one.
Golden gun
Respawn has refined the weapon
systems, too. Colour-coded ammo
makes it easier to grab what you need
quickly. You can’t accidentally replace
your armour with a lower-tier version,
and when you pick up a weapon
attachment, it instantly clips onto your
weapon. These little quality-of-life
improvements make a huge difference
in minute-to-minute gameplay –
especially when things get frantic.
The weapons all feel pleasingly
hefty, as you would expect from a
Respawn game, and while enemies
can take a lot of bullets, the gunplay
moves fast and feels fair. You’ll soon
find a favourite gun, and when you’ve
got good attachments in every slot
and some strong armour, you really
feel powerful. It’s a sweet feeling.
As for the map, it’s great... for now.
There’s plenty of diversity, it’s not too
big and weapon drops are everywhere.
We can imagine it’ll start to get old
before too long, but with Respawn
promising planning plenty of updates,
some extra locations from elsewhere
in the Titanfall universe will help keep
things fresh.
In-game, all these things come
together beautifully, and after a few
matches you’ll really start to get into
a flow – grabbing weapons you like,ignoring the items you don’t need, and
pinging stuff left, right and centre.
With a good squad beside you, the
fast movement (knee slide! Zip line!
Wall-climb!) and frenetic gunplay make
every win memorable. If you’re bored of
the battle royale genre, Apex Legends
may not be able to change your mind.
But we urge you to give it a go – it’s
really bloody good. QULTIMATE
POWAH!
Well, not really.
Ultimates charge over
time, and will do
anything from putting
up a portal to
dropping an artillery
strike into an area.
They sound powerful,
but you have to be
smart to use them
effectively.
Importantly, none
of them are
overpowered. Unlike
Overwatch, your
Ultimate probably
won’t wipe out an
entire squad in one go- that wouldn’t be fair
in a battle royale
game with restricted
respawns. Instead,
they can give you a
slight edge, and add
another tactical layer
to every encounter.
It’s a perfect balance.
“This joyfully
diverse cast has
unique abilities
designed around
teamwork”
FAR LEFT The
Jumpmaster
controls where
your squad of
three lands on
the map.
RIGHT Your
inventory space
is limited, so
make sure to
carry only the
good stuff.OXM VERDICT
Take note, other
developers wanting
to jump on a trend:
this is how you do
battle royale.9
LEFT Dropships
are crammed with
good loot, but
they also play
host to hectic
murder parties.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 083REVIEW