Apex Legends

THE NEXT EVOLUTION OF BATTLE ROYALE

Show ‘em what you’re made of in Apex Legends, a free-to-play Battle Royale game where contenders from across the Frontier team up to battle for glory, fame, and fortune.

        

Apex Legends is a free-to-play first-person shooter battle royale game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 4, 2019, without any prior announcement or marketing. A Nintendo Switch version is planned for release in 2021, along with a cross-platform play beta between all supported platforms that was released on October 6, 2020.^[1]

In Apex Legends, up to 20 three-person squads or 30 two-person duos land on an island and search for weapons and supplies before attempting to defeat all other players in combat. The available play area on the island shrinks over time, forcing players to keep moving or else find themselves outside the play area which can be fatal. The final team alive wins the round. The game is set in the same science fiction universe as Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall and Titanfall 2.^[2]

Work on the game began sometime around late 2016 and early 2017, though the project remained a secret right up until its launch. The game's release in 2019 came as a surprise, as until that point it had been assumed that Respawn Entertainment was working on a third installment to the Titanfall franchise, the studio's previous major title.

Apex Legends received positive reviews from critics, who praised its gameplay, progression system, and fusion of elements from various genres. Some considered it a worthy competitor to Fortnite Battle Royale, a similar game that had gained massive popularity in the previous year. Apex Legends surpassed over 25 million players by the end of its first week, and 50 million within its first month. According to EA, as of July 2019, the game had approximately 8 to 10 million players a week and by October 2019 it had approximately 70 million players worldwide.

Apex Legends is an online multiplayer battle royale game featuring squads of three players using pre-made characters (called "Legends"), similar to those of hero shooters.^[3] Alternate modes have been introduced allowing for single and for two-player squads since the game's release.^[4][5] The game is free-to-play and monetized through microtransactions and loot boxes, which allow the player to spend both real money and in-game currency on cosmetic items, such as outfits for the Legends and new colors for weapons.^[2][6]

Each match generally features twenty teams of three-player squads. Players can join friends in a squad or can be matched randomly with other players. Before the match, each player on the squad selects one of the 14 playable characters (as of Season 6), with the exception that no character may be selected more than once by a squad. Each character in the squad has a unique design, personality, and abilities that provide different playstyles to the team. All teams are then placed on an aircraft that passes over the game map. One player in each squad is the jumpmaster, selecting when the squad should skydive out of the aircraft and where to land with the concurrence of the other squad members. However, players are free to deviate from the squad's path.

Once on the ground, the squad can scavenge for weapons, armor, and other equipment that is scattered around buildings, or in crates randomly distributed around the map, while keeping an eye out for other squads. Apex Legends includes a nonverbal communication "ping system" which allows players to use their game controller to communicate to their squad certain directions, weapon locations, enemies, and suggested strategies.^[7] While the game offers movement options similar to other shooters, it includes some of the gameplay features of previous Titanfall games, such as the ability to climb over short walls, slide down inclined surfaces, and use zip-lines to traverse an area quickly.^[8]

Over time, the game's safe zone will reduce in size around a randomly-selected point on the map; players outside the safe zone take damage and may die if they do not reach the safe zone in time. This also confines squads to smaller spaces to force encounters. The last squad with any members left alive is crowned the "Apex Champions" of that match. Players are awarded in-game currency based on their squad's placement as well as experience points. Players who become knocked down in the course of a game can be revived by their squadmates. Should a player be killed completely, they can still be resurrected if their team member(s) collect their respawn banner, which appears at the place where they died, and bring it to one of several beacons on the island. The banner, however, must be collected within a time limit, before expiring and fully eliminating the player.^[3]

Seasons

The developers of Apex Legends have outlined their roadmap for the game's first year of additional content, with a new game season planned for every three months. Each new season is intended to bring with it the release of a new playable character, new weapons and purchasable cosmetic items.^[9]

The game's first season started on March 19, 2019. Associated with seasons are time-limited battle passes which reward players with new cosmetic items, should they complete in-game challenges during the season.^[10][11][12] Alongside new cosmetic items, seasons can also bring changes to the map and additional gameplay elements.^[13]

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