Apex Legends has quickly established a foothold in the battle royale video game genre. Free-to-play battle royale games have been sweeping the industry for the past year with games such as Fortnite and Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds—PUBG for short—the number one and two most popular games in the genre respectively.
The game is now entering its second month after release and has more viewers watching gameplay than PUBG on Twitch—the most popular video game streaming service. According to PCGamesN, Apex Legends had 50 million established players within its first month.
While Apex has been following the same formula as Fortnite and PUBG—free to play with options to spend money on aesthetics—it has established a few key differences. Apex does not have a complete free for all experience, instead opting for squad play, where players are put into 20 teams of three players each. The focus on team play and communication, along with the choice to utilize a first-person camera, makes the gameplay stand out.
Similar to OverWatch and League of Legends, Apex also has multiple characters to choose from. Each character has different abilities and traits, and the added abilities allow for a multitude of play styles throughout the game. For example, the Pathfinder character is a scout that moves around the map on its own, while the Lifeline character is a medic that sticks close to other players.
A large strategic aspect of the team game is choosing characters to compliment each other to gain a victory. You can see teams that are wellbalanced, super aggressive, or more defensive. This helps Apex give each match a different experience, which makes the game more fun to play.
The standard match runs fairly quickly and averages 15 minutes of gameplay. However, the time constraint makes gameplay more aggressive than some players might prefer.
As of right now, the game is limited to just squad matches. In comparison, Fortnite and PUBG offer various styles such as solos, duos, and custom games, where you can play without an objective or create your own objective. Apex also has no story or progression outside of a video explaining—poorly—that you are fighting in an arena.
After playing for a couple of hours, I didn’t experience the same repetitiveness as I did with Fortnite and PUBG. I would recommend Apex Legends to anyone that’s eager to try a new video game.
