Apex Legends' success has come as a surprise to many, with the new battle royale game from developer Respawn notching up an impressive 25 million players in a week with a distinct lack of promotion.
But why has this free-to-play title captured gamers' attention so quickly?
The answer may be in its simplicity; while it does not do anything ground breaking, it takes the best parts of multiple games and implements them brilliantly.
The guns feel meaty, with the gunplay reminiscent of the smooth shooting experience of Respawn's Titanfall series (set in the same universe), as does the great variety of weapons, each with its own unique style.
The only thing that could hold you back at times is the amount of ammo per weapon you could have, which may lead many to feel shotguns are a strong first choice weapon, due to the capability of taking an enemy down without being punished for missing too many shots.
The game also deals with the inventory cluster in a smart but simple way; when you have an upgrade attachment or armour it will automatically swap it out for the gun or slot it surpasses. It feels like the weapons evolve as the game goes on, creating a better experience depending on your weapon attachments.
There are three tiers of weapons attachments and three tiers of armour to upgrade your character as the match goes on. There is also a backpack upgrade that will allow you to hold more items like ammo, and medkits to keep you going in the fights.
The game, like many, has a team competition, made up of sixty players in teams of three. If you jump in solo, you will be matched up with two random teammates. There are rumours of a single player mode and a duo mode to come in the future, but we will wait to see if these come to light.
The game follows the format of most battle royales; three players drop onto the huge open map and continue to loot gear and fight to the end to be the last team surviving. The play area is an ever decreasing circle, forcing players to one location to fight it out.
When you start you get the choice of eight characters. Each character has a special ability and skills such as the Pathfinder, who can deploy a zip line for the team to manoeuvre to an advantageous position on the map, or the Wraith, who can create a portal for your squad to get out of danger and reposition when needed.
A small change to similar revival systems in other games allows your teammates to stay in the fight longer. If a player is downed you can revive them whilst they are crawling around - as is the case in many other battle royale titles - but if a player is fully killed then they do not have to sit out for the rest of the game.
If a teammate grabs their banner (dropped when a player is killed) they can take it to a respawn beacon and bring them back to the fight. This does take some time and will leave you exposed as they have no items or weapons when respawning but the payoff could be worth it in the end.
Apex Legends really excels itself by combining the simplicity of a battle royale with these amazing features. The other major innovation that has set a waypoint for games going forward s is the ability to ping locations which lets your team know where items are, where you should be going or where the enemy team are.
This feature allows players without a mic to convey simple information quicker then talking. It's amazing when there is a gun you need or attachment you would like which your teammate can then ping, and then you can say you want it simply by pinging the same location.
Although Apex Legends is a free-to-play game, it does have loot boxes, which can be earned by levelling up in games or with real money. As with Overwatch and Fortnite, everything in the loot boxes is purely cosmetic, so there is no need to spend actual cash.
A slight drawback to this feature is the unlocking of two of the characters through the in-game currency. You can, of course, pay for these with real money, but it took me between 12-15 hours to earn enough in game currency to unlock both.
With Respawn releasing more characters this may something that puts off many players but as they are unlockable without the need to spend money it's not the worst situation. None of the characters are any better or worse then the others, it's just what suits your style.
We have been having a massive amount of fun in the game and can't wait to jump into our next game. Apex Legends addresses the many weaknesses of other battle royales and provides a polished experience.
The team play really does have an effect and can create some great fights between your team and the enemy.
The game is one for the long run, bringing some fantastic new features to the genre that set it apart from its rivals.
Are you enjoying Apex Legends? Let us know in the comments below.
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Price: Free-to-play
