Respawn Entertainment's newest IP has finally been revealed. Titled Apex Legends, it's a squad-based battle royale with high-speed gameplay. We caught the livestream as it happened and it looks like there's tons of fun to be had in this game.
The Apex Legends stream opened up with a cinematic reveal trailer showing off a bit of the lore. Apparently, players will be entering into a sort of bloodsport kind of game. There aren't any regular characters in this game, either: there are distinct heroes, each with their own names, abilities, and personalities. These characters—appropriately called "Legends"—must be combined into effective squads to give you a chance at winning the game.
Of course, it wouldn't be a stream without a trailer or two contained within. If you missed the stream, you can check out the Apex Legends Deep Dive trailer right now. It'll give you a good quick overview of the eight heroes currently available in Apex Legends.
Each of the eight Legends revealed so far have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. As an example, the combat medic Lifeline is well-poised for defending fallen heroes and bringing them back to fighting form. If you're more focused on offensive power, though, you'd probably want to go with the weapons specialist Bangalore. Much like Rainbow Six Siege, it seems that Apex Legends will provide a variety of characters to suit different playstyles. There's tricksters, outright fighters, scouts, and even a chubby dude with a whole lot of explosive firepower.
There are more innovations that just the squad-based system of unique characters. Going down in battle doesn't mean you have to stay down for good thanks to respawn beacons. These one-time use locations will allow you to bring back teammates if you're fortunate enough to make use of them. The inventory system also boasts some interesting features. New pieces of equipment should be automatically attached, saving players from having to mess around with their inventory in the midst of a heated battle.
Since Apex Legends is a free-to-play title, the fine folks at Respawn Entertainment are obviously going to need to bring in money. A number of cosmetic options appear to be available including hero skins and weapon skins. Moreover, it seems like the game has left open the possibility for the addition of new heroes in the future.
The reveal stream stated that the paid items will be "fair" and will be for cosmetics or characters only. Presumably, players will be able to unlock these things through normal gameplay in some fashion as well. The fairness of a free-to-play title is what makes or breaks a game in this space, so let's hope that Respawn Entertainment gets it right.
Content for the entire first year has been planned out. The first season of the game will kick off in March—just a month after the release of Apex Legends. Subsequent seasons are planned every two to three months from that point forward as shown in the image above.
How exactly is Apex Legends tied into Titanfall? Essentially, it takes place in the same universe but in another area of the universe. Unfortunately, it also appears that there aren't any big ol' robots for you to take command of. Titanfall certainly had more than its fair share of first-person shooter action, but the hook of piloting giant robots is unfortunately absent from Respawn Entertainment's newest free-to-play title.
Although there are no huge honkin' robots, Apex Legends nonetheless manages to stand out from other battle royales in a number of ways. Chief among these differences is the notion of having unique characters to play from rather than generic soldiers. The movement system and weapon styles of Titanfall are largely present, too, making this one of the more fast-paced battle royale games currently on the market. These strengths may very well make Apex Legends stand out in the highly-competive battle royale market.
If you're interested in checking out Apex Legends, you don't have to wait—you can play it for free right now! You'll need Origin for the PC version seeing as Respawn Entertainment was acquired by Electronic Arts some time ago. Console players can get it for the PlayStation 4, and Xbox One via their respective stores.
What do you think of Apex Legends? Does it seem like the kind of game you'd like to play? Let us know in the comments below!
