Apex Legends has a wide roster of hero characters, from poisonous defensive players to speedy and aggressive guerilla fighters. Every hero lands with a signature weapon, too – from Mad Maggie’s Mastiff shotgun to Fuse’s 30-30 rifle.
While signature weapons don’t generally give the hero an edge when using it – unless we’re talking about Maggie’s extra speed with any shotgun and Rampart’s faster reloads with any LMG – they feel like a suggestion from the developer: this gun suits this character’s playstyle.
Sniper rifles have, for the most part, been left out of the conversation, and there’s no hero built around fighting from long-range, despite that being a viable option on the battlefield. We got the chance to chat with some of the devs and Respawn and pick their brains about the reasoning behind this.
“A sniper is definitely something that we haven’t explored yet within Apex,” senior character designer Devan McGuire explains. “But it’s certainly an option that’s on the table for us to take a look at in the future.
“Generally, we don’t want to put too much of a heavy focus on the sniping – it’s a niche part of the game. Most of the fun and exciting combat comes when you’re in the thick of it and moving into those closer engagement ranges. So having a character that was only focused on sniping as its core element might pull some of that away.”
“That doesn’t mean there aren’t ways of addressing that particular play space, so that’s absolutely a great spot for us to be looking at for future Legends. It’s just that there’s a dynamic that we want to be respectful of.”
Season 13 of Apex Legends – dubbed ‘Saviors’ – lands on May 10, along with Newcastle, a new hero who is about as far away from a sniper as you could get.
Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF.
