Apex Legends, released in 2019, is a hero shooter game in the Battle Royale genre.
It has excellent graphics, a friendly gamer community, and operates on a free-to-play model.
This review will delve into Apex Legends, its gameplay mechanics, and the good and bad of the game. Read on if you’re wondering whether it’s worth your time!
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Verdict
Our Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✩
Apex Legends adds a nice twist to the Battle Royale Genre. It offers great performance and is fun to play, but it suffers from an aggressive monetization system and poor matchmaking.
Pros
- Plenty of awesome maps, legends, weapons, and skins
- Great performance and not too heavy when it comes to PC resource consumption
- Available on a wide range of platforms, such as PC (via Steam), PlayStation, and Xbox
- Friendly and welcoming community
- Excellent gun play and smooth movements
- Free to play
Cons
- Focus on squad play and teamwork can be frustrating to solo players due to inconsistent results depending on who you are matched with
- Heavy monetization system focused on legends and cosmetics
- Can be stressful due to how action-based and fast-paced it is
Gameplay Mechanics
Basic Game Overview
Apex Legends is a hero shooter game that focuses on squad-based gameplay.
In Apex Legends, you’re surrounded by a giant ring that keeps on getting smaller. As it gets smaller, you will encounter other squads, and you’ll need to fight them.
While you get some amount of gear upon drop-in, you need to look for more by exploring the map or taking gear from fallen opponents.
The aim of the game is to be the last surviving squad. Don’t get killed – but if you do, there may still be a chance to reenter the game with the Respawn Beacons.
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Modes
While Apex Legends is best known as a Battle Royale game, it now goes beyond that with several other modes. Battle Royale itself gets several twists in Apex Legends with the introduction of modes such as Battle Royale Duos, Battle Royale Trios, and Firing Range.
Each has its benefits and disadvantages. For example, in Battle Royale Trios, you have more people to watch your back; on the other hand, you also have more people to fight compared to Battle Royale Duos.
Mixtape is a rotation of Team Deathmatch, Control, and Gun Run. In Team Deathmatch, you play in 6×6 battles, with each team trying to kill its opponents, and with the first team to win 50 points winning the match.
In Control, you have teams of 9×9, with the goal of capturing and controlling points on the map, and in Gun Run, you face three other squads.
These twists on the Battle Royale genre make the game more exciting.
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Maps
Apex Legends has five main maps for Battle Royale modes, all located on planets in the Outlands:
- King Canyon: Kings Canyon is an island, formerly inhabited by the IMC research group but later abandoned by IMC and the place of many freaky events.
- World’s Edge: Talos, which was formerly thought to be inhabitable due to volcanic activity, was later found to have a precious mineral under its surface. The IMC group created large towers to cool it down. One of those towers exploded, leading to a flash freeze and total abandonment of the area.
- Stormpoint: This tropical island, once a destination for IMC settlement, was later abandoned due to the harsh weather. It is now roamed by Spectres.
- Broken Moon: The backstory is that the moon of Boreas was broken by a meteor. While this meteor sent the planet on a path towards destruction, people didn’t realize it until strange weather events started occurring, at which point people banded together to heal the moon.
- Olympus: This was once a utopia later devastated by a virus brought by an Icarus Fleet ship.
Additional maps are available for the other gameplay modes.
All in all, in terms of maps, Apex Legends gets five stars.
There are enough maps to keep you busy and make the gameplay exciting for a long time, and the visuals and ideas behind the maps are excellent.
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Characters/Legends
Of course, a review on Apex Legends would not be complete without a closer look at its legends, or characters. Fortunately, Apex Legends once again gets five stars.
Various legend categories are available, such as skirmisher and assault legends. In either case, when playing in Duos or Trios, it’s great to choose legends that complement your own legend’s capabilities, as each legend has its own strengths and weaknesses.
For example, Conduit can send a surge of energy to generate shields for teammates, while Crypto has the ability to deploy a surveillance drone to get a better view of what’s going on.
If the drone is destroyed, another one can be deployed after 40 seconds.
Fuse can launch cluster bombs, while Bloodhound is good for tracking and Gibraltar is great for protection, as he can throw up a protective dome shield to protect against attacks.
As you can see, each legend is unique, so select your legend carefully if you want to get a better chance of winning.
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The Good: What I Love About Apex Legends
Weapons
There is a wide range of weapons on Apex Legends, ranging from submachine guns to assault rifles to pistols. The wide range of weapons makes the game more exciting, and the weapons are well-designed, look futuristic, and just feel good to hold and shoot.
Each weapon has its strengths and weaknesses. Some are better for long-range shooting, for example, while others are great for short-range battles.
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Good Mix of Skill and Luck
Some games require more skill, while others are almost entirely based on luck. Apex Legends has a good amount of skill required, which makes it more exciting.
While you will encounter moments that are definitely seemingly dependent entirely on luck, there’s quite a nice bit of skill involved, especially when it comes to shooting.
Even if your weapon doesn’t have as many attachments as your opponent’s or any at all, if your shooting skills are decent, you can still win.
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Innovation and New Features
Another thing I really like about Apex Legends is that it’s always exciting, as new additions are made every season.
New weapons and maps are added all the time, and some weapons may even be removed.
It shows that the developers are invested in the game and want to keep improving it. Overall, it keeps the game from getting boring.
Obviously, the more you play any game, the more repetitive it will seem. No game can escape that, but Apex Legends does a good job, in my opinion, of keeping things fresh.
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Community
The community is honestly one of the best things about Apex Legends. It’s a friendly and welcoming community.
Some gaming communities are just so toxic. Apex Legends is a comfortable place, regardless of which Discord server you join.
While there will always be toxicity (that’s the nature of the anonymous internet), it’s much better than many other popular gaming communities, with a positive environment.
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Things I Didn’t Like
There are not that many bad things to say about Apex Legends, but there are still some areas in which it could improve.
For example, the monetization system is pretty bad.
Yes, Apex Legends is free to play.
As with most popular free games, there are optional upgrades. That’s normal for a free game.
Battle Pass Premium, for example, will give you rewards and unlock Epics skins for certain legends. There is also Battle Pass Premium Bundle, which gives you even more perks.
However, overall, its monetization strategy is focused not only on legends but a lot on cosmetics, which is pretty annoying. In fact, you will often unlock skins rewards for legends you don’t even have, which may cause you to feel you need to buy Apex Coins to unlock those legends.
While it’s a good thing that Apex Legends requires a good amount of skill, it’s also a drawback. After all, if you’re a new player, there’s no chance you can go up against skilled players who have years of experience.
While the teamwork aspect of the squad-based gameplay is nice, it could also be a serious drawback. You can get matched with someone who is just not that great and then have to team up with them to fight someone with a lot of skill, which could put you at a real disadvantage.
Finally, while it offers a smooth gameplay overall, there are still some audio glitches, lags, and server issues.
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Conclusion
Apex Legends is a great game and a lot of fun. I love how smooth and fast-paced it is.
It has a diverse range of characters, maps, and legends, and it is free, which is great. Besides, it has a great community.
On the other hand, there are some disadvantages that can be frustrating, such as poor matchmaking and fighting more skilled opponents, as well as a monetization system that makes it seem as if the developers care too much about their profits.
These cons prevented Apex Legends from earning a full five stars, otherwise it’s worth investing your time in.