Official Score
Overall - 90%
90%
I reviewed this title on the PlayStation 4 Pro, and I have had a few crashes and even a couple complete lockups. Oddly enough, my teammate with the standard PlayStation 4 hasn't had this issue. Server lag can be a real thing, and when you finish a game, you are sometimes stuck in an infinite load loop.
It seems like every game company is trying to hop onto the battle royale train, and Apex Legends is the conductor for EA. Is this title a legitimate contender in the ring, or does it fall flat? Check out our review and find out.
Apex Legends Review
In Apex Legends, you and two others drop down with nothing but hope for a weapon and the dream of victory in a battle to be the last team standing. These dreams are often dashed quickly, as you sometimes cannot find a weapon before your opponents or are flanked from behind. Even after a defeat, the phrase “just one more” will often come to mind. After all, you can’t win if you don’t play the game.
That can be said about any battle royale game, so what sets Apex Legends apart? First off, it has a unique and diverse cast of characters, each with their own abilities to use in the game. The trick here is not making one character too strong, and so far that is done well. One character might have an advantage in a certain situation, but you never know if you will be in that situation in a match. For instance, Caustic can plant poison traps that damage and alert you that enemies are coming. Though this style of play is great for camping, it does not work as well for running and gunning. Meanwhile, Blood Hound can scan the immediate area and see if any enemies are near, making him a great pursuer.
Far and away the biggest and most important thing from the game is the ping system. It isn’t new, but the way it is implemented here is. With a simple button click, you can ping enemies, loot, open doors, track enemy tracks, or find a direction to go. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is a game changer in a battle royale title. Instead of saying which direction the enemy is, you can ping their location, and your whole team will know a fight may be imminent. I won’t go as far as to say that it eliminates the need for voice chat, though it does help when you have teammates who do not want to speak. With the ping system, you can mute the annoying person with the music blasting in the background and still communicate with them – quite the win in my book.
Another big thing about the game is the movement. The ability to slide is a much bigger deal then most people think. You can dodge bullets easier if you are low to the ground, and sliding down a hill increases your speed quite a bit. They also have zip lines to get you places quicker, and balloons to launch you into the sky. In a game where the high ground is a huge advantage, all these movements help you stay alive longer. Also, a zip line to a power slide into a kill is pretty much the best feeling ever. Some people are complaining about the lack of wall running, but that would be a tad too much.
Weapons in the game feel good and fun to use. Sub-machine guns eat through ammo and can quickly meltdown enemy armor and HP. Light machine guns take a moment to start, but hit like trucks when they are finally revved up. Assault rifles are good medium and long range, and they just added a new one a couple of days ago. Shotguns are devastating up close, and can actually make you feel like the Terminator after wiping out a team with them. Snipers seem to work well, though I am terrible with them. Every gun seems to have a place currently…except the Mozambique.
Being that it is free to play, it does have microtransactions. I don’t feel that they are particularly predatory, but one thing in the store irks me. You can buy new gun skins with in-game currency, but to buy them you must first either own the real money skin or buy it with real money to access the in-game currency skin. I cannot fathom how this got through; it is blocking you from using the currency that you earned. You can buy two characters with that currency, but after that, it just builds up for nothing. I’m hoping the Apex version of the Battle Pass fixes this issue.
I reviewed this title on the PlayStation 4 Pro, and I have had a few crashes and even a couple complete lockups. Oddly enough, my teammate with the standard PlayStation 4 hasn’t had this issue. Server lag can be a real thing, and when you finish a game, you are sometimes stuck in an infinite load loop.
Though I entered a skeptic of Apex Legends, my experience with the title has made me believe that it the best battle royale game currently on the market.
