Apex Legends is the best battle royale
Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale first-person shooter game. The game was released on Feb. 4, 2019, by Respawn Entertainment, and was a massive success, taking the gaming industry by storm. At its release, only eight playable characters were available in the game: Bangalore, Bloodhound, Caustic, Mirage, Lifeline, Pathfinder, and Wraith. Five years later, Apex Legends is now on its 20th season and has continued to thrive with 25 characters, hundreds of cosmetics, and an engaging storyline that ties all of the legends together.
The game is set in the same universe as the Titanfall series, meaning that they share lore including names, locations, and organizations. Titanfall takes place in a dystopian future where humans begin to wage war on each other. Humanity has found an alternative way to wage war on one another by using robot mecha suits called “titans”. Some interactive characters and weapons are released into the battle royale. Weapons like the Flatline, Alternator, and Volt are some of the many accessories featured in the game. There are also different categories for each legend: Assault, Skirmisher, Recon, Controller, and Support, with each category and their abilities helping your squad of two or three win the game.
Each legend has a different special ability, background, and a different reason for joining the Apex Games. Lifeline, known as Ajay Che to her friends, is a combat medic. She is the daughter of two war profiteers, who—after realizing she cannot stop their greed from taking innocent lives—leaves home and enlists in the Frontier Corps, a humanitarian organization that aids Frontier communities. She entered the games so she could win the funds needed to sustain the Frontier Corps. Lifeline’s goal is to help people while legends like Revenant are in the games for pure chaos—I love it!
In recent updates, Respawn Entertainment has released other game modes for players who may be tired of battle royale. Team Deathmatch is a six vs. six match where the first team to reach 50 kills wins. Gun Run, on the other hand, includes facing three other squads while ascending through 25 weapons. Control, another mode, is a nine vs. nine game similar to capture the flag. Teams capture and hold a base for points, with the first team to earn all the points winning. These different game modes are a nice way to take a break from the battle royale, and I prefer these because they allow me to mess around and just have fun with friends online. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, which is always relaxing.
The game is also very visually appealing to the point where I end up dying at times because I like to watch the grass move or the water flow. I’m convinced that if they wanted me to win, they wouldn’t make the game so visually appealing! Every few seasons, Respawn Entertainment releases a new map and with each release, I am more impressed and somehow afraid of the team’s graphics abilities. It takes forever to get used to the qualities of a new map, where to go, which spots have better loot, places I should be avoiding, etc. The maps are beautiful and incredibly unique but can be overwhelming for new and returning players alike.
Like every gaming community, Apex Legends also has its flaws as players can be both welcoming and frightening. I am a competitive player and my goal with playing these kinds of games is to have fun and get better while doing it. My personal experience playing these games as a woman has not been bright, but that could be an Opinion article of its own.
Apex Legends has come a long way and after 20 seasons, the game has done nothing but evolve and become better. The Respawn Entertainment team has put a lot of work and consideration into their storylines, especially with the characters they are creating. The representation within Apex has also been great as there has been a lot of LGBTQ+ representation between characters like Loba, Gibraltar, Bloodhound, and others. I cannot wait to see what other characters, abilities, and updates Respawn has to give us!
Thumbnail photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons