The Long Game
Developer Respawn Entertainment Publisher Electronic Arts Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Release 2019
Progress reports on the games we just can’t quit, featuring the sensibly expanding Apex Legends
Not even the bravest industry soothsayers came forward to proclaim Apex Legends heir to the battle-royale throne before it arrived in February. This is a genre full of unlikely success stories and puzzling flops, and making predictions isn’t easy. So when Respawn’s free-to-play game brought over 50 million players to Kings Canyon in its first month, the studio was suddenly faced with all the challenges an enormous and unanticipated userbase brings: server instability, cheaters and the question of how to keep players around in the long term.
These are challenges the studio has risen to confidently, calling upon the received wisdom of other stratospheric multiplayer hits such as Call Of Duty and Fortnite by rolling out free XP weekends and limitedtime events in which exclusive items could be secured. June’s Legendary Hunt event offered new character and weapon skins in return for completing specific – and very achievable – objectives. These additions don’t change the landscape of a game, but they’re tried and tested methods of holding an audience.
As for the less glamorous work to minimise instability, after a frustrating spell in March for server crashes the course appears to have been corrected. Regular updates have brought about long lists of quality-of-life tweaks, going as granular as loot placement and the time it takes to display armour in
death chests (prior to the June update, there was a pause before it displayed). A popular exploit that let players bunny-hop while healing has gone the way of the dinosaurs, while obvious cheaters appear rarely.
As Apex slips into a now-familiar seasonal release cadence for new content, it marks season two with an in-game event in which a Repulsor tower breaks and the mysterious leviathans previously spotted on the map’s edge now wander wild. These monsters stamp the ground at random intervals downing players beneath, while new dragon-like ‘flyers’ prowl the skies, picking up death boxes and dog tags until they’re shot. And it’s all new character Wattson’s fault, apparently. Her defensive abilities add a new wrinkle to the meta, nullifying proximity attacks and grenades. What’s most striking is that Respawn clearly had a plan from day one. Those Leviathans were present on launch day, and their significance is only now being revealed. What else is laying dormant in Kings Canyon?
Ranked play, introduced in season two, will colour Apex’s future. Here, as with the rest of the game, it’s clear Respawn has surveyed the lay of the land and decided on a kinder tier progression than most offer, rewarding not just wins but high-place finishes and knockdowns. Its fortunes are tied to the battle-royale bubble, but it’s taking the most considered approach of its peers towards – excuse us – the long game.