We just exited the last weekend of Apex Legends inaugural season. On June 5, Apex Legends’ first season will come to a close. Three days later, Season 2 will be released. Last month, we gave a progress report on how we thought Season 1 was performing. Now it’s time for final grades and a look toward the future. 

With news circulating that Apex is dying, we aren’t convinced it is a lost cause yet.

A Need For Improvement

While, in our eyes, Apex Legends remains the battle royal game currently offering the best experience, it has many things to add and change to stay fresh.

Any quick search will lead you to a few common themes. We’ll lay these out before we get into our personal choices.

More Legends

This is the most common and obvious ask. Of course, we want more Legends to use. We also recognize this is perhaps the most daunting challenge since creating a new character in a complicated game takes time. 

Ensuring balance in performance and fairness is vital to not break the competitive landscape. There has been a leak of the next Legend being Wattson. If this alone was a spoiler we won’t include any further details here. You can find that on your own. 

More Guns

Yes, Neo. We want lots of guns. 

Again, to ensure uniqueness and competitive balance, throwing a ton of guns at us all at once needs to be avoided. Also, be careful what you ask for. To ensure a certain level of loot distribution Apex will probably follow the path set by Fortnite. 

That is, guns will likely start being rotated out to make room for newer guns. For those still asking for the return of the double pump shotgun in Fortnite, remember that sometimes it’s good to be thankful for what you have. 

Oh, Mozambique here!

Map Changes

It’s hard not to use Fortnite as the template for most of these changes, but Respawn Entertainment needs to find their own footing in how they want to keep the map fun and fresh. Maybe they will forego the Fortnite approach (drastically changing the map with events every season) and just provide an entirely new map. Who knows? 

Now that we got the most popular wishlist items out of the way, let’s explore what us Two Average Gamers want to see! Oh, and for the culture, “fix the lag!” There, we said it for you.

Julian’s Wishlist

More Guns

I know, I know. Not what we just said a few paragraphs ago. When I say more guns, I mean more gun spawns. 

Picture this: You land in a POI with another squad and you frantically search for guns. Upon entering the fourth building you have a collection of scopes, stocks and shield cells but still, no gun. Out of hope and will, you give up and are gunned down by the enemy.

This scenario probably wasn’t as much a fantasy as it was a recap from one or more games from your last playing session. 

I would like an increased drop rate of guns in general. To be clear, I’m not asking for a gold 301 or a turbocharged Havoc on every drop. I just don’t want to have to bring a knife fist to a gun fight so frequently.  

Better Tracking Teammates’ Information

As is, you can pull up the menu/map and see your teammates gear. I would like to expand on this in two major ways:

1. Teammates’ weapons – I realize this is a game built on communication, but knowing what guns my partners are rocking should be a visual inclusion. The same way we can see if our teammates have armor, helmets, knockdown shields or backpacks; add two rows below that with the gun images and attachment icons. This would lead to more proactive sharing versus having to ask for energy ammo for your turbocharged Devotion. Even better, it would hopefully stop your teammates from pinging the 7th skullpiercer hopup they found when you and the third currently have a Prowler & Tripletake and Peacekeeper & G-7 Scout.
2. Teammates’ ultimates – Let’s take a page from Overwatch’s book. Why can’t I see the ultimate charge of my teammates? Knowing my Pathfinder just got his ultimate might make me wait that extra second for him to deploy it instead of running off in the wrong direction. Or knowing my Gibraltar or Bangalore is ready to call an airstrike might help determine the strategy of the next engagement.  I would love a simple percentage next to or below the legends’ head shots. Additionally, a verbal cue (and caption) stating when ultimates are gained would be great as well. 

Button Recognition

I don’t want to comment on any stability or lag issues any further but I’m not sure if this is a result of them. I’m also not sure if this is either just a console problem or potentially even just a me problem. The button detection for picking up loot or grabbing ziplines is inconsistent for me. Meaning, I hit the button and assuming I have picked up the weapon or grabbed onto the zipline only to realize the enemy now has the gun or I’m plummeting to my unfortunate death. 

This type of performance issue is rather annoying because it forces a decision on me. Either slow down and risk death or pray that I’m grabbing the vital weapon as I wisp past… and risk death. Neither is ideal for a fast-paced battle royale like Apex Legends. I don’t think a Fortnite-esque auto-pickup is the solution, but maybe holding the button to quickly grab loot would help (similar to the turbo building mechanic. Thanks, Fortnite!)

Fred’s Wishlist

Improved Ping System

Pinging in Apex Legends practically started a revolution in battle royale games. I raved about it in my first post about the game. However, as with most things, there’s always room for improvement.

First, I want to know who exactly on my team called dibs on what item. In the frenzy of notifications popping up in the top-right corner of the screen, it’s difficult to see which squad member wanted the item that I just marked. Additionally, items should be doled out on a first-come, first-serve basis. If someone calls dibs, it should disappear from the map for the other squadmates.

I’d also like to see better recognition of pings so it doesn’t look like I’m marking locations or potential enemies. I think this one is more complicated since the developers need a balance of making it easy to ping vs allowing for more urgent callouts. I wonder how long it’d take me to adjust to having the ping weapon action assigned to its own button (and what that button would be)…

Endorsement Ratings

We have about half a dozen friends who play this game nearly everyday. Even still, we end up playing with randos from time to time. It’d be great to have an endorsement rating to give props to the good guys (and deduct points from the bad teammates).

I like the way Overwatch did this. It incentives players to act as good citizens and provides and option to only match with people who are above a certain ‘endorsement level’.

It’s cool that the UI of the game allows you to easily squad up with someone who you just matched with. I want to see them take it a step further with some kind of rating system. 

Here’s an example of the greatness you can achieve with someone you don’t know, with no verbal communication!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYLG0j_CcTQ[/embedyt]

Playground Mode

Let me do custom games, please!

I know, I know, this is right out of Fortnite’s playbook. But you know what? It worked so well!

It seems too common for these battle royale games to launch without having a place that players can practice against live enemies. Ideally, I would want a fully-customizable simulation land, similar to how Perfect Dark did it on N64. I know this is a lot to ask, but one can hope.

In the meantime, I’ll just be practicing my gunplay against targets in the training grounds.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZx8xnQEJjg[/embedyt]

Anything Else?

What did we miss? Is there anything else you would like to see in Apex Legend Season 2 and beyond? Is Apex the best battle royale game out or is Fortnite  still king? 

Did you buy Apex Legends Season 1’s battle pass? If you did, are you happy enough with it to buy Season 2’s? If you didn’t what would need to be included to convince you to make the leap? Leave a message below so we can hear your thoughts!

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