Apex Legends: An Evolving Battle Royale

Apex Legends:

Apex Legends: An Evolving Battle Royale

Apex Legends: The Peak of Battle Royale 

Time Played: 205 Hours

Highest Rank: Platinum IV

I started playing Apex Legends mid-season 4, sometime around April 2020. It's a part of the expanding battle royale genre, with twenty three person teams fighting in a futuristic arena. Apparently Apex is a spin-off of Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall series, which I've never played.

At the start, a dropship loaded with the sixty players traverses the battleground. The ship flies a straight line over most of the area, but always follows a different path. Of the many memory tasks in Apex, the simple one of remembering the path will yield many rewards. At any point during the minute the dropship is in flight the team leader can deploy, like a jet pack wearing skydiver, with the two teammates in formation. While it's easier to land near the dropship, a skilled player can maneuver to a further target. If aiming for a distant location, make sure to leave at the best possible angle from the dropship. Recalling the path of the ship allows one to estimate the general location of the players. That allows the player to move with an advantage on the map, to areas that are unlooted, and to avoid the largest groups of people. As the squad approaches the ground the two wingmen can break off and land individually, allowing the squad to secure more material.

Before a game begins, player chooses from a collection of Legends. As of Season 6 there are fourteen to choose from, but only six are available for new players. While Apex Legends is a free to play game, eight Legends are locked behind a play/pay wall. Players can pay to unlock heroes, or play to earn in-game currency. Over six months I earned enough by playing to unlock at five characters. Apex Legends also distributes costumes, stat trackers, weapon skins, and other cosmetics at frequent intervals for non-paying players, though it does offer a paying season pass for more rewards. The visual effects are colorful, flashy, and clear.

As the team lands, they can see the flight paths of their foes. On the ride down, wingmen should scan the skies to observe the paths of foes. They can alert the leader to immediate threats and plan their moments around nearby squads. This information, like knowledge of the dropship's path, rewards the team with a better chance of survival and superior equipment. A good touch down is mostly luck. Sometimes one will land with just their squad, and other times five squads will descend on the same location. With fifteen people, skill aids survival, but other factors, like the landing location of the players, and the exact distribution of weapons and armor, decides the outcome.

Apex Legends currently features two maps. The ranked season, which is split into two halves, alternates between the maps. Unranked play seems to randomly pick from the two options. While one map is a green, lush area surrounded by snowy mountains, and the other is a desert region with towering red rock cliffs, both include a number of locations, separated by vast open spaces. Each map feels distinct; World's End has a more open feel, and Kings Canyon has boxed in areas.

At any of the major locations items are scattered on the ground and in containers. Beyond the resource rich locations, items are few and far between. Apex includes a vast array of weapons, but they are collected into six ammo types; light, heavy, energy, shells, sniper, and special. A Legend carries two weapons at anytime, so only collect two types of ammunition. Players are limited by the size of their backpack, one of the four articles of gear. Gear, like weapons and ammunition, is scattered around the map. It includes helmets (which reduce damage taken from headshots), knockdown shields (more on those later), backpacks (which allow the player to carry more stuff), and armor. In Apex Armor isn't really armor. It doesn't reduce damage taken. It blocks it entirely, and is more commonly called Shields. Both armor and shields will be used interchangeably for the next paragraph. When I first started playing, Apex included a variety of shield types. White, Blue, and Purple, (which provide a standard amount of protection from damage), Gold armor which had the same effect but also improved healing, and Evo armor. Evo shielding evolved, or improved, as the player dealt damage. It would start at White, and absorb 50 damage. But after the player dealt 125 damage, the armor evolved from White to Blue, protecting against 75 damage. The armor continued to improve to Purple and then the Red Evo Shield, the best protection in the game. In season six Respawn removed regular armor and made all armor Evo Shielding. Instead of deploying with no defenses, all players started with a new armor, Evo 0, an armor that provides no damage absorption. Evo 0 upgrades to Evo White if the player does 50 damage to enemies. Players can still find White, Blue, and Purple Evo Shields on the map. While the change to only Evo Armor was good, Apex needs further slimming down. Players shouldn't have to pick up Helmets, Backpacks, and Knockdown shields every game. They clutter the process. Instead, everyone's Gear level should be the same as their armor. If a player has Purple Armor then they will also have a purple helmet, knockdown shield, and backpack.

Knockdown shields relate to the process of how players defeat each other. When a player loses all their shields, damage is applied to their health. When they've lost all their health they are knocked down. Knocked down Legends crawl around on the ground, dying slowly. A teammate can pick them up and stand them on their feet within a limited time. Meanwhile enemies shoot them to box them. If a knocked down player takes enough damage, or is not rescued in time, they die and leave behind a box containing the equipment they carried. Being boxed isn't necessarily the end. If at least one squad mate survives, they can pick up the Legend's dog tags and bring them to respawn beacon. Respawned allies return in a personal dropship with full health, but no equipment. To prevent being killed (boxed) a downed player activates their knockdown shield. It is a barrier to defend against damage. There are different levels of knockdown shield, like different levels of regular body shielding. While knockdown shields are fine as a mechanic, Apex Legends should give one to every player at the start as I mentioned above. For players concerned with their stats, a knock down doesn't count as a kill if the player is picked up by their ally. Boxing an enemy awards the kill to the player who did the last damage to knock them down. A player is still awarded a kill even if the Legend is later respawned at a beacon.

The abilities of the Legends effect the opening drop as well. Each Legend has a passive ability, an activatable tactical ability, and an ultimate ability. But before offering examples, the two key abilities of Apex are the player's ability to shoot, and their awareness of the area around them. Apex Legends is a shooting game first, and abilities only add a supplemental flavor. If one can't shoot as good as the enemy, or outmaneuver him for a better position, or catch her unawares, the abilities will do no good. But they are fun, they alter the characters in significant ways, and offer open up playstyles. For instance, Bloodhound sees where people have walked for his passive, can use his tactical ability to see enemies through walls for a limited distance, and sees in black and white, except enemies appear red during his ultimate. Other heroes can become invisible, toss poison gas, create ziplines, drop bombs from the skies, or create a defensive dome. Both the tactical and ultimate ability are on a timer, with the ultimate having the longer cooldown. Legends, based on their abilities, are divided up into four categories (though the first two are remarkably similar); Defensive, Support, Offensive, and Recon.

Should a team try to have one of each?

It depends on the squad's style.

Part II to follow next week.

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