2019 video game
Apex Legends is a 2019 battle royale-hero shooter video game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts, set in the same science fiction universe as Respawn's "Titanfall" series. It is offered free-to-play and is continuously updated under the games as a service model; the game was originally released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in February 2019 and was followed by versions for Nintendo Switch in 2021 and both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2022, with all supporting cross-platform multiplayer. A mobile version designed for touchscreens was briefly available until its discontinuation in 2023.
Before the match, players form into two- or three-player squads, and select from pre-designed characters with distinctive abilities, known as "Legends". The game has three gameplay modes - Trios, Duos and Solos. In "Battle Royale", 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. In "Arenas""," players form into three-player squads and fight against another squad in a 3v3 team deathmatch over a series of rounds to determine the winner of the match. Teams win when their team has at least 3 points and is 2 points ahead.
Work on "Apex Legends" began around late 2016, 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 game, although a number of "Titanfall" characters appear as minor characters or playable Legends. "Apex Legends" received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its gameplay, progression system, and fusion of elements from various genres. Some considered it a worthy competitor to other battle royale games. "Apex Legends" surpassed 25 million players by the end of its first week, and 50 million within its first month. By April 2021, it had approximately 100 million players, making it one of the most played video games of all time by player count.
Gameplay.
"Apex Legends" is an online multiplayer battle royale game featuring squads of three players using pre-made characters with distinctive abilities, called "Legends", similar to those of hero shooters. Alternate modes have been introduced allowing for single and for two-player squads since the game's release. 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.
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 25 playable characters (as of season 19), 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. Starting with Season 16, each legend is assigned to one of the five unique class styles: Assault, Skirmisher, Recon, Controller and Support. 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. 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.
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 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.
Season 9 introduced a new permanent mode named "Arena". In this mode, players form into three-player squads and fight against another squad in a 3v3 team deathmatch over a series of rounds to determine the winner of the match. Teams win when their team has at least 3 points and is 2 points ahead. Additionally, if a game should drag on to round 9 (where both teams have 4 points) a final sudden death round begins. Respawn stated this scoring system "prevents total blowout games from dragging on for too long" and also "lets more competitive games keep the heat going for longer". Rather than skydiving onto the map and gathering equipment like in the battle royale mode, players spawn in a "shop" where they can purchase equipment and charges of their Legend's abilities using materials earned in the previous rounds to prepare for the next fight. This variation of the game borrows mechanics from other shooters such as "Counter-Strike" and "Valorant". The mode is the first permanent deviation away from the battle royale format. It would later be removed in Season 16. Now Season 20 update, Breakout, introduces significant changes with upgradeable skill trees for playable Legends, offering MOBA-like progression and promising intense battles.
Seasons.
Each new season is intended to bring with it the release of a new playable character, usually new weapons and purchasable cosmetic items.
The game's first season started on March 19, 2019. Associated with seasons are time-limited battle passes that reward players with new cosmetic items, should they complete in-game challenges during the season. Alongside new cosmetic items, seasons can also bring changes to the map and additional gameplay elements.
Events.
In addition to the season contents, "Apex Legends" features limited-time events. These events offer unique, limited-time cosmetics themed to the event (for example, in the case of the Holo-Day Bash, Christmas-themed outfits) that can be earned in-game. Events also provide unique limited-time game modes (such as shotguns and snipers only). Some events also introduced changes to the current season map with a new point of interest (known as a "Town Takeover"), which is themed around one of the legends.
In addition to these major events, there were occasional minor events which only introduce cosmetics available to purchase (such as "Summer of Plunder" and "Arena Flash Events" which ran from season 9 through 10 and had 6 events occur.), or limited-time game modes (without limited-time collectible items), such as the Battle Armor mode (April 28, 2020 to May 12, 2020).
Characters.
"Apex Legends" has a cast of 25 characters, divided into 5 classes. Many of the character designs are based on "Titanfall".
"Mobile" exclusive characters.
Aside from the cast of characters in the main game, there were two exclusive characters that were only playable in "Apex Legends Mobile".
Development.
Developer Respawn Entertainment had previously developed "Titanfall" (2014) and its sequel "Titanfall 2" (2016), both of which were published by Electronic Arts (EA) who eventually acquired Respawn Entertainment in 2017.
According to design director Mackey McCandlish, initial design on "Apex Legends" started before "Titanfall 2" had shipped in 2016 and as of 2018 the entire "Titanfall" team at Respawn Entertainment was working on the project; however, executive producer Drew McCoy stated that work on the game did not begin until the spring of 2017. He also confirmed that the game had approximately 115 developers working on it, making it the studio's most labor-intensive project. "Titanfall 2", by way of comparison, had around 85 developers.
According to McCoy, the studio was not sure what their next game would be after completing the post-release support for "Titanfall 2", though they knew they wanted to keep making "Titanfall" games. As with the development of "Titanfall 2", the studio broke into several small teams to create "action blocks", small game prototypes that showcase a gameplay element, a weapon, or similar feature of a game that would fit into a "Titanfall" sequel. One such "action block" was inspired by the success of the battle royale game genre led by "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds"; this prototype, which applied gameplay mechanics of previous "Titanfall" games in a battle royale format, was considered very successful and the studio decided to expand this model. The designers decided that having the pilotable Titans (large mecha) from their previous games would not work well in a battle-royale setting and instead focused on creating strong character classes which felt appropriate for the "Titanfall" franchise. They also found that some maneuverability features of prior "Titanfall" titles, such as wall-running, would make gameplay too challenging in a battle royale format, as identifying the direction of threats would be too difficult.
Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella told "VentureBeat" that "Apex Legends", as a live-service and free-to-play battle-royale game, was a new challenge for the studio and represented a new way for them of developing games. Their design philosophy was focused on "chasing the fun" and designing all the mechanics around team-based play, rather than solo play. The final decision on major design factors, such as the size of the teams, the number of teams and the size of the map, were all based on what felt "most fun" to the developers and were strongly guided by "gut feeling".
Design director Mackey McCandlish also stated that with "Apex Legends", they were looking to challenge the conventions of the still relatively young battle-royale genre and to add their studio's unique touch to that class of games. They felt that the choice of three-man squads and a limit of 20 teams gave players on average a greater chance to win and also felt more in line with the type of intimate gameplay they were hoping to achieve. McCandlish claimed that the studio felt the need to create a "defensible space" in the battle-royale mode which could not be easily imitated and that the communication system, the three-man squads, and the smaller playing area were all aligned with this goal.
As part of the development process, the game underwent extensive play-testing to ensure that all elements felt fun and balanced. Collectively the developers spent 100 to 200 hours a day trying out the game, a process which executive producer Drew McCoy called "probably the most important part of development". To refine the game's non-verbal communication system, the studio play-tested the game for a month without the use of voice chat and applied fake names to the play-testers to predict how most players would experience the game.
With the game mostly completed, Respawn's director of brand marketing, Arturo Castro, began working on how the studio would name and market it. Castro recognized that the game featured many elements which players would expect from a "Titanfall" franchise game, but lacked core elements such as Titans, Pilots and a single-player experience. Additionally, it had already been reported that Respawn was working on "Titanfall 3" from a source at the studio. Respawn therefore decided that attempting to market the game as part of the "Titanfall" series would have been difficult and would risk alienating "Titanfall" fans. They, therefore, opted to treat the game as a new intellectual property (IP). Respawn were also concerned that as they at that time had recently been acquired by EA, players would think that EA had forced them to make a battle royale game. McCoy affirmed that they