One year has Apex Legends already. Specifically, one year and one week as of today. I write it and I do not have the feeling that it has been so long. I still remember the day EA announced and released its own Battle Royale by surprise, a game developed by Respawn that he wanted to go headlong to compete against Fortnite.
Since then it has rained its own, but the game remains quite faithful to its origins. It has obviously received all kinds of changes, from balance tweaks in both weapons and characters to major changes to its map, not to mention the arrival of a new legend with each season, but in essence it retains its spirit.
I say the latter thinking about Fortnite, his main rival, who in his two and a half years of life came to change so much that it could have been another game. It is enough to remember what happened when Epic put airplanes or those air tubes that allowed us to fly around an area of the island. Curious ideas, experiments, if you want, but the reality is that in the end a black hole had to come so that Fortnite make that kind of necessary clean slate.
But let's go back to Apex Legends, which is what it touches. From the first moment it was clear that the game was very good, that Respawn had done a superb job in secret and that they had pulled a really fun Battle Royale from their sleeve that, in addition, is set in the Titanfall universe. That led to some criticism, because no matter how good it is Apex Legends It is still not as brutally fun and spectacular as the multiplayer of the Titanfall, but hey, is that in the end we are talking about two different things. If the wallruns did not quite work here, then they are not included and ready.
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If there is something that the community has been demanding from practically the beginning, it is that Apex Legends include typical two-player and solo modes in addition to the standard team-of-three. Given the nature of the characters, which unlike Fortnite where there are only skins here, each one has its own personality and, above all, its own abilities, it is true that team play is favored.
While in other titles the collaboration between the different members of the squad is not so important, in Apex Legends It is especially useful to play with two other teammates because in the end it is the combination of the abilities of the three characters that can decide the outcome. Beyond the expertise of each of the players individually, it is clear that the special moves of the legends provide a certain degree of strategy that can be vital to succeed in a confrontation.
And from here, from team play, is where the other great characteristic of Apex Legends: your wonderful contextual communication system. If we have agreed that it is a game where working as a team is especially valuable, the truth is that depending on whether the players use mic or not, or that they can understand each other in the same language, is not ideal. At Respawn, fully aware of this, they designed an amazing system thanks to the fact that with the use of a button we can communicate with the rest of our team efficiently and without the need for a microphone.
With a simple ping we can point to a weapon and our character will speak aloud so that everyone knows what it is about, in addition to its location being marked, but also suggesting a route, warning of enemies, of all kinds of objects and many more actions that make it a very complete system. Seen what is seen, all games of this type should include it. In fact, Epic Games did not think twice and they put it in Fortnite when they reached season 8, although it is not nearly as good as Respawn or as complete.
Another feature with which Apex Legends It did not count in launch and that now, a year later, it is already the norm, it is the Battle Pass. Without it, I remember comments from the community in relation to the lack of incentives to continue playing regularly, since once the maximum level was reached there was not much else. But to be honest, having tried the just released season 4 and having seen what that pass includes, I think Respawn has not yet gotten the point.
The map has undergone interesting changes without breaking the mechanics or making it all too crazyI think that the grace of a Battle Pass must be that whoever pays for it has access to interesting cosmetics and for which it is really worth continuing to spend hours, but I also consider that the free part of the pass should be a little juicier. There are so many levels of the free pass that have absolutely no rewards and I have a feeling that FortniteIn this sense, it is much more generous.
But on the paid part, even though there is obviously a reward for each level, things are not wonderful either. There are few skins for the characters and the ones that exist are not the repanocha either (in this season things have improved a bit, I admit it, but a little more affection is missing there) and the rest, like the skins for the weapons, the new phrases for the characters or the movements to carry out during the jumps, are just fine.
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Just today, Tuesday, February 11, the duos mode is temporarily activated again on the occasion of Valentine's Day. And the truth is that, after a year and having tried both this mode and the solo mode when it was available for a limited time, I think it is time for them to be added permanently.
Yes, this contradicts everything we've seen of team play and the synergies between character abilities, but there are really too many occasions when the only standard available mode, three-player, becomes a match. practically alone because the other two strangers go their own way. And that means that on more than one occasion you find yourself alone with entire rival teams that sweep you in two seconds. The icing on the cake is put by your teammates when you see that they do not even have the intention of coming to revive you or pick up your card to return you to the game.
In short, I think that in general the balance during this first year of life of Apex Legends it is positive despite everything. The map has undergone interesting changes without breaking the mechanics or making it all too crazy, the new legends that have been added to the template are good and offer variety and the introduction of the challenges together with the Battle Pass have added that incentive that is was missing.
There is still room for improvement, but I am confident that Respawn will continue with its good work and we will see some good changes and improvements during its second year.
