The release of Apex Legends allowed players to collect, construct, and carry personal banners for a wide variety of characters to respawn at specified spots on the game map. In-game mobile respawns markers or mobile beacons meant that restocking bases could virtually take place on the terrain. Players also had the flexibility to move between maps as they pleased, rather than stick to a restricted number of characters per game type. In short, the ability to adapt made the game more fun to play.
Yet, all was not well in Apex Legends. Upon its release, many players expressed confusion over the removal of character limits. Many assumed that removing certain items would allow players to create characters capable of taking advantage of every item and level strategy used in the game. This, however, was untrue. Following the removal of bounds, many players found themselves unable to move beyond certain areas on the game map, despite having previously been able to do so.
The culprit was data miners. Data miners are the “ambulance chasers” of the Apex Underground. The objective of these monsters is to locate and destroy all items within a fixed range of them – including items placed on friendly heads. It seems that this method was used to “trick” the game into thinking an object was killed by the player when in fact, it had just been damaged.
As it turns out, this wasn’t the only problem with Apex Legends. The game’s difficulty curve is much steeper than Dead Frontier: shooter. The reason for this lies in the way the game handles its save files. In both Apex Underground and Dead Frontier, all data is stored on a single main memory address. With Apex Legends, the game treats every save file as if it were on its dedicated memory, effectively making the game incapable of accessing and reading any previous data on it.
Not only does this remove any possibility of data migration, but it also prevents players from enjoying the full potential of their ability to make tweaks to their gameplay. This problem has affected other PC games with similar structures (Droid War, anyone?). Apex Legends had a considerable following on Xbox Live before being remade for consoles. Now, with the increased popularity of twitch streaming technology, any chance of that kind of success would have been impossible.
The new system that has been put in place to remedy this situation is brilliant. Thanks to the clever use of “VR networking,” all player information is now automatically updated every time a match is played. This includes screenshots taken during each melee, player information such as name, level, and skills earned, and even statistics related to health, damage dealt, and other statistics. The game’s console version has yet to be given any visual makeover; however, the PC game is looking superb with a new streamlined interface, clean layout, and user-friendly menus.
This all sounds great, but the truth is that Apex Legends has a few problems that could make it shine. First, the game’s lack of game modes (excluding” conquest,” which is like an upgrade to the original Apex combat) leaves the rest of the player base frustrated with how there is no way to measure the effectiveness’s builds or other skills. Second, the lack of options for customizing your character leaves players hoping that one of the upcoming updates will at least grant them a way to make their Apex heroes stronger. Fortunately, according to the developers, this problem is being addressed.
As the popularity of this online strategy game continues to grow, we would like to see more of an expansion with a variety of modes. While Apex Legends already has several such as “coop,” conquest,” and “infantry,” the developer is considering adding “ranked” and “hero” modes at a later date. We have reached the point in which it is nearly impossible to complete an attack mode quest to unlock a particular character, so the developers may also feature a couple of new maps or a few new items in each existing one if they wish to make the game more interesting. With over a quarter-million player accounts currently playing the game, more content should be added before the end of 2012.