5 Things We Loved About Apex Legends (& 5 Things We Hated)
Now one of the premier battle royale games, it can be hard to remember that Apex Legends released less than a year ago. It has gone through some changes during that time but it was very much a success right out of the gate, giving a strong, free, first-person option in the genre.
While it's hard to not feel like every video game on the planet is competing with Fortnite, Apex Legends did as much as possible to separate itself from the rest of the pack, bringing some of the best, and at times obvious, quality of life improvements to the genre. Not all of it was perfect though.
10 Hated: No Solo Queues
When the game originally launched with just the single playlist for three-player squads, Respawn argued that a solo playlist wasn't available because, among other reasons, the game was designed around three people and they weren't sure it would work well. Since then, solos have been present in the game as a limited time, unranked mode and it worked incredibly well to the point where the community has been begging for it to be added back in permanently.
9 Loved: Easy Looting
Finding the sweet spot between constantly sorting through attachments in PUBG and not having any attachments like Fortnite brings you to the incredibly easy looting in Apex Legends. Being able to look at an attachment and immediately know if it can go with the weapon you're holding and if it's better than what attachments you already have. Being able to switch attachments just by picking the item up instead of having to open the inventory makes looting much faster and easier, especially in a firefight.
8 Hated: Extremely Long Seasons
Ranked seasons last roughly four months or so for Apex Legends, which can be far too long. While it doesn't matter so much for the actual ranked mode, it does mean that the game and map won't see any significant changes during that period.
While limited-time modes and events still occur, things like a fresh battle pass, map updates, and new weapons all won't come until a new season. While it is by no means killing the game, it would be nice to see changes get implemented on a more regular basis, but it doesn't have to be anything ridiculous like Fortnite's weekly updates.
7 Loved: Hero Based
The only thing better than cool cosmetics are cool cosmetics made for your favorite characters. Having a "legend" based character system not only adds a layer of strategy to the game, but it also gives more personality and life to it. Fortnite and PUBG both include cosmetics, but neither feel as special as Apex Legends but it's just a different looking option on the same bland character. Having different quips and kill lines for all the characters make matches feel more lively as well, especially if you're playing without a headset.
6 Hated: Pricey Cosmetics
The flip side of having cool skins for your favorite characters is that they are wildly expensive. The battle pass goes for the standard $10 that most games have, but the current one only guarantees six skins and you might not even play as those characters. Regular legendary skins can be purchased directly in the store for roughly $20, the same amount that special event skins cost. The game is free, but lower cosmetic prices would encourage more spending. If you wanted the Pathfinder Heirloom set during the Holo-Day Bash event, it would take $160 to buy the 24 loot boxes necessary to get all the items, which is more than three times the price of a brand new release.
5 Loved: Respawns
Ironically, the company to introduce respawning into the mainstream battle royale genre is named Respawn. Before the release of Apex Legends, dying in a battle royale while playing with friends meant waiting for 15 to 20 minutes until they died or the match ended (or less than 5 minutes if your friends are bad).
Having the opportunity to respawn players adds another layer to combat encounters, where getting their banners and bringing them back in is more important than winning the fight. Fortnite added this feature pretty quickly after Apex Legends was released.
4 Hated: Terrible Loot Boxes
While most people hate loot boxes across the board, Apex Legends has incredibly frustrating ones. Despite the listed probabilities seeming decent, the boxes constantly give items nobody cares about or crafting materials that take months of saving to be able to make anything. The game was recently updated to continue giving boxes every couple of levels up to level 500, where before it cut off at 100, and they could only be purchased afterward. Event loot boxes guarantee no duplicates but cost roughly $7 when the basic cost about $1. Events also don't allow for any boxes to be earned, not even one, through gameplay. The game is entitled to earn money, but this isn't a good way to go about it.
3 Loved: Squad Dropping
Nowadays it seems like nobody wants to be the jumpmaster because it's too much responsibility, but it's far better than trying to coordinate four solo droppers to go to a single location. Having one person control the landing trajectory makes for more consistent team drops, even with the option to drop solo being available. In other battle royales, like PUBG, it doesn't matter if you have headsets on or are playing with friends, one person always solo drops Pochinki every match. Not a problem with Apex Legends.
2 Hated: Tough Ranked System
While it seemed inevitable that Apex Legends would get a ranked system, it was hard to know exactly how it would work, since every match had 19 losing teams and one winner. While the system is decent, it also can be extremely harsh. The way it currently stands, ranked points (RP) are given for placing in the top 10 squads. Getting kills adds RP and multiplies the amount earned up to five kills.
This system works okay, but it puts a higher emphasis on survival instead of kills, meaning that camping is a more consistent strategy. It will take a while to fine-tune it, but even something like removing the cap for points earned (not multiplier) on kills might improve it.
1 Loved: Contextual Pinging
Apex Legend's crown jewel, the contextual ping system feels like it should have made its way into multiplayer games far sooner than it did. Going somewhere? Single-button press to ping. Enemies? Single-button if you are looking at them, double tap if you aren't. Respawn ship coming in? Ping it and it will say specifically that. Games like this require a headset at the highest level, but you can get pretty close without one using the ping system.
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