Apex Legends
RESPAWN DROPS, LOCKS AND LOADS INTO THE BATTLE ROYALE GENRE STEPHEN ASHBY
PUBLISHER EA / DEVELOPER RESPAWN ENTERTAINMENT / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST FREE
and needs to make money somehow- but as it stands it’s impossible to
unlock everything in the game at
launch without opening your wallet.
But hey, it’s all optional. Look, let’s
just move on.
Ping that thing
The meat and bones of the game
are classic battle royale. Drop in, get
inside the circle before it closes and
survive until everyone else is dead.
The twist here is that, right now,
Apex Legends is squad-only. You’ll be
paired with two randoms before each
match and team play is key to winning.
What makes Apex Legends stand
out from the BR crowd isn’t just its
polish or its unexpected release.
Respawn has clearly been thinking
hard about what makes a BR title tick,
and it has built systems that work
so perfectly together that the whole
experience is a joy.
It starts with the heroes. This
joyfully diverse cast has unique
abilities designed around teamwork.
They’re all good fun and well balanced.We get it. You
enjoyed PUBG for
a while, but the
sparse landscapes
and endearing but
unpolished gameplay
turned you off. And you tried Fortnite,
but people explode into 30-foot
towers when you shoot at them, and
you always run out of wood.
No sweat. Apex Legends is here to
ease the pain. The polished, triple-A
battle royale shooter sprouted from
the minds behind the exceptional
Titanfall 2. And it’s free. Incredibly, it’s
also published by EA and packed with
microtransactions, but those things
don’t make it shit. No, we’re not sure
how that happened, either.
Let’s get microtransactions out
of the way first. Yes, it’s all cosmetic
stuff that has no impact on gameplay.
And no, there isn’t a Battle Pass just
yet, but it’s coming. We thought it
a little tightfisted to limit the free
lootboxes to 45 while you level up.
Still, we can’t really fault Respawn, or
EA for that – the game is free-to-play
The final picker becomes the
Jumpmaster, who controls when you
leave the dropship and the team’s
flight path. Well, unless you partner
with an asshole who decides to go it
alone, of course.
Each game feels like less of a slog
than other battle royale titles, too.
You’re never too far from somewhere
rich with loot, and you cover ground
fast. Balloons dotted around the
map fling you into the air and let you
redeploy your boosters to cover large
distances, too – great for if you get
left behind by your squad, or are about
to be engulfed by the ring.
Now let’s talk about the real good
stuff. The ping system lets you
highlight anything in-game for your
team as you explore. Tap RB on an
item and you’ll automatically tell your
pals what, where and how good it is.
Ping an enemy and you’ll tag them.
Ping ammo in your inventory to tell
your team you need more. It’s context-
sensitive, your hero will explain aloud
what you’ve pinged, and your buddies
can even dibs items they really want.short
cutWHAT IS IT?
A cross between
Titanfall and Fortnite,
without the giant
robots or
spontaneous
construction work.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
Have you played
Titanfall 2? If not, go
do that now. Hey, are
you back? Awesome!
It’s kinda like that.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Everyone, because
it’s free. But
mainly people who
love shooters and
wish Fortnite had
better gunplay.082 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE