Apex Legends was released by Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts on February 4, 2019, as a new battle royale themed game. Over the past couple of years, the battle royale genre had become oversaturated with so many titles such as Fortnite, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Call of Duty’s Blackout. All of which came out in a short distance from each other looking to profit off the new battle royale craze. With no marketing and a sudden drop, it seemed like Apex Legends was doomed to be dead on arrival since Respawn’s Titanfall game series was very well received by its fans it but did not sell very well and EA is not a very favorable company in many consumer’s eyes. That being said, it was then to the surprise of many that Apex Legends jumped out of nowhere and established a very solid player base of over 2 million concurrent players at its peak during the first week.

Unlike many other battle royale games, Apex Legends has unique features such as the Legends, six available heroes that you can select as your character before the start of a match. They all have different abilities, an unprecedented movement system, respawning capabilities, and distinctive communication mechanics.

Each Legend’s abilities cater to how the individual player wants to play. You can be a more defensive character with shields such as Gibraltar, or you can play as Lifeline to support your team by healing them, or you can scout out an enemy’s movement and see their location as Bloodhound. There look to be even more Legends to come in the further months as more content is added to the game, allowing for even more diverse playsets. It goes beyond how the character plays as well, with each legend having a diverse background. “…the player base of battle [royales are] comprised of a diverse group,” Jay Frechette, Respawn Community Manager said. “Having a diverse cast is super important. You want everyone to have someone they can connect to.”

The movement is very well-crafted and there are so many more ways to move as opposed to other games of the same genre. You can climb buildings, slide down hills, and some characters abilities even enhance movement to further levels. The map is not as large as the maps in Fortnite or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds but with the system they have in place, it is better that way. You do not need vehicles to travel around the map so it seems more personal as you can run into enemies even in secluded locations, allowing for a thrilling fight to be had on every inch of the map.

The respawn capability is unique to any other battle royale game. After a player’s health reaches zero, they are “downed” and available to be revived by a teammate, like other games. Unlike those other gamers, if a “downed” player is in some way deemed unavailable to be revived, you can recover their “banner” from where they died and bring them to a marked point on the map to be respawned.

The communication in Apex Legends sets a whole new standard for the genre. Once in the game, you can press a designated button that allows you to “ping” a location on the map. The “pings” have different icons, representing a place to go, enemies, an item, etc. With this feature, you do not even need to have a microphone to communicate. Anything you may want to say to your two teammates can be “said” through the “ping” system.

Apex Legends is not only a great battle royale game but a great game overall, no matter the genre. As the game continues to progress and update, it will look to improve upon the base that Respawn has already set. Respawn has already confirmed holiday events, the first being for Valentine’s Day, as well as new legends, cosmetics, guns, and more to come in the near future, starting in March. It looks like this game will be here to stay as Respawn looks to grow past the 25 million unique players it already has acquired just one week after launch.