Competitive shooters are all the rage. The Battle Royale genre is probably the most popular on the internet, followed very closely by team-based arena shooters. It's only natural, then, that someone would eventually combine the two. Apex Legends come from the team that brought the world the incredibly underrated Titanfall series, and it quickly became a sensation. Though the hype has died down significantly from its earliest days, it's still a game with a lot of players and even more potential. Taking a look at the game's component parts makes it a bit more apparent why the game has been so successful.

Concept

Apex Legends feels a bit like what you'd get if someone threw Fortnite and Overwatch in a blender. On a very basic level, it's the same kind of game as every other Battle Royale - show up on an island and try your best to outlast everyone else. Unlike Fortnite, though, Apex is always cooperative. You work in a squad, with each player having a defined role. This is helped by not only having unique characters with special abilities but by grouping each character into one of a few basic classes. It's a very team-focused game, and the player classes go a long way towards making it work.

Graphics and Audio

Given its disparate influences, it makes sense that there's a fair bit of variety in Apex's graphical presentation. A bit more taxing on systems than Fortnite, it puts a lot of effort not just into the world but into its characters. Like most class-based games, you can get a good idea of what a character can generally do just by glancing at them. The thing that makes Apex work well, though, is that each character manages to stand out as unique while still fitting into one of a few profiles.

The sound design in the game is also solid. You'll be able to hear plenty of weapons and player pings, both of which you'll need to pay attention to function well in the game. The background music is fine - nothing special, but it works. The real treats in this game are all visual.

Gameplay

The real star of this game is how it is played. It takes the Battle Royale concept and makes it team-based in a way that simply having squads can't match. Every player has a role, something helped by his or her own unique character choices. From there, working together is fairly easy - you don't even need a mic, thanks to the wonderful ping system. The game is challenging to be sure, but all of the design elements feel like they're meant to encourage new players rather than to scare them away.

Apex Legends is a fun take on the Battle Royale genre, one that's more hampered by slow content release schedules than any faults of the game itself. With a nice roster of characters and some truly lovely gameplay mechanics, it's definitely a game that's very friendly towards new players as well as competitive gamers.

Apex Legends is a team-based battle royale game with a fun roster of diverse characters.