I wanted to get my thoughts out on Apex Legends here on launch day before I give the game a try. It’s very rare that I would do something like this but for this game, well, I felt it at least worth doing, and getting thoughts out before I play it — when my opinion is at its most pure beyond what I already think of the kind of game it is — would provide a solid basis for what I think of the game after I give it a play.
Now, keep in mind, these are my thoughts based on what I know of the game at the time of writing this. I could very easily be wrong on what I think and that’s absolutely fine, especially for the kind of article this is. With that said, let’s continue.
As is known by regular readers here I did enjoy Titanfall and quite like Titanfall 2 (I feel I actually need to get back to Titanfall 2 sometime soon, if this game doesn’t keep my interest) and Apex Legends is indeed a Titanfall series game, apparently set 30 years after the events in Titanfall 2. That means I pretty much am forced to at least consider it — not in a bad way forced, but in that “I might really enjoy this” way.
The thing is, it’s a damned battle royale game. The current hot genre, and one that I just have no fucking interest in. I could go on and on about why this doesn’t interest me but to keep it simple the genre takes everything I hate about online shooter gameplay and makes it worse. Really, there’s nothing about the genre that interests me at all. That simple.
Apex Legends goes a somewhat unique route with the battle royale formula though, in that it’s character based and uses a smaller squad based approach to its team structure, or so what I read says. The character based element is another turnoff for me, though. This is the same approach Overwatch takes, and I feel it dominates the games too much — people literally obsess over the characters for a game that’s all about shooting. Now granted, for gameplay they function simply as classes, but my point is they have no real function beyond that and as such aren’t necessary. At least with Apex Legends it looks like one can change the appearance and all that, so at least it won’t be 90 people all looking like the same 8 characters, but still… why the character concept? Just make it classes explicitly and that’s it! Done.
Still, the game has other more original traits like the revival system for downed team mates that sounds interesting enough, so we’ll see there. Beyond that, however, I don’t know. It’s going to be one of those games where unless you’re top notch you probably won’t have a fun time. Maybe. I don’t know. It lacks Titans, which is a bit of a shame but understandable — it doesn’t lack the other aspects that make Titanfall pretty fun, though, from what I’ve read, so, maybe. Maybe.
The most interesting thing at all about it is the fact that for once a company just stayed quiet about the development of the game and didn’t even hint at it being worked on until just before release — like, 24 hours or so before release. That’s impressive. Most companies at this stage are announcing games 2, 3, 4 or more years before they are “ready” (and even then they never fucking are) so this is pretty cool to see. It’s a free to play game like Fortnite, so it has that going for it as well – no reason not to at least give it a chance, which is exactly what I’ll do. I’ll download it tonight and give it a try tomorrow to see what I think.
I do want to say a major turn off before I even try is what I see in the art style – while not as vibrant it has a look somewhat like Fortnite, which given the normal grit of the Titanfall series just really doesn’t work for me, but maybe that’s due to the way the videos are done and the real game won’t be so bad when I get into it. Who knows..
I’ll let you know what I think following that. And yes, I’ll be playing it on the Xbox One. Could do PC, but given the graphics card issue that will have to wait…
It definitely is a pleasant surprise to a game come out of nowhere for once instead of the whole preorder thing thats everywhere these days or when announcements are made so early the finished game either is completely different (eg Aliens: Colonial Marines) or just never get finished (eg Scalebound).
I’ve heard it doesn’t have notable launch problems either so thats a thing.
It is quite the pleasant surprise for it to have been announced right before launch, that’s for sure!
I’m still downloading it (hooray “slow” internet, right? lol) but I certainly hope when I give it a go I can at least avoid issues. Who knows.
That’s not even getting on to if I’ll enjoy it or not.
I hope it does alright tbh, I can’t help but feel a similar situation happened a few years ago where a game with EA’s help comes out at and didn’t do well only for the developer to practically die off. Though I can’t remember what game it was from memory.