The initial surprise of Apex Legends may have been shat on by blabber-mouthed influencers, but the fact Respawn’s battle royale went live, picked up one million players in eight hours and continues to run smoothly is the real triumph here. It’s a good game, maybe even great in time, offering quick thrills, snappy gunplay, and…
The initial surprise of Apex Legends may have been shat on by blabber-mouthed influencers, but the fact Respawn’s battle royale went live, picked up one million players in eight hours and continues to run smoothly is the real triumph here.
It’s a good game, maybe even great in time, offering quick thrills, snappy gunplay, and some neat additions to a stagnating genre. With barely any hype it’s been well-received, apart from those crying that it’s not Titanfall 3, but you’re never going to please a crowd that doesn’t know what it wants. Times have moved on, and Apex Legends is a confident and ballsy shot at battle royale and hero shooters in the face of giants such as Fortnite and Overwatch.
And this smooth launch embarrasses an equally experienced games development studio like BioWare – owned by the same publisher – which launched its VIP demo for Anthem two weeks ago with all the grace of a circle of clowns .
“EA is quite happy to snatch that pre-order money and hope it can knock together a competent experience in time for a demo months later. It’s a fast-talking grift with no guarantees”
BioWare’s VIP demo was for those elite pre-order customers who paid out £70 for something that didn’t exist at the time. Respawn’s full-game is free to anyone with a console or PC and 22GB of space. One worked straight out the gate, the other tripped on its own shoelaces and was blinded under the glare of its own spotlights. It’s not a beta, it’s a demo, it said.
