If I had one wish…
About a week ago, Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends removed the Limited Time Mode (LTM) – Duos. A massively popular mode, duos deviated from the typical three-man squad traversing World’s Edge and allowed pairs to duke it out. The only other time Respawn allowed us gamers to play in teams other than three was in the Fight or Fright Nights LTM and a much less gimmicky, Solo Mode.
In season 2, when Solos was an option, there was strong support from the community to keep it permanently. Now, the same voices are chirping again about Duos.
This got the Two Average Gamers thinking, which game mode was the better experience?
Thus began a heated discussion in the Average Gamer discord channel. Which Apex Legends mode was best?
We figured the best way to continue the conversation was through formal debate. We’ll each give an initial statement then respond to the opposing side.
After you get through our thoughts, let us know if we missed anything. Most importantly, tell us which side you’re on!
Opening Statements
Both of us wrote our initial arguments without looking at what the other wrote. Let the debate begin!
Solo Mode Opening Statements by Yoshyaes
If Respawn wants to bring back one LTM as a permanent addition to the matchmaking queue, it should be solos. No other mode challenges your game sense more than solos and you need to play with a heightened sense of awareness in order to secure the victory.
The player is fully in control of his/her responses. You are solely responsible for your wins and equally responsible for your deaths. You can’t hide behind a teammate or rely on other people to make decisions for you. It just comes down to whether you can kill the person in front of you and avoid being killed by the next person who wants your loot.
In the solo queue, you don’t have to waste time trying to thirst a kill. Very few enemy legends will have been fortunate enough to find a legendary knockdown shield so knocks are mostly final.
All the loot you find becomes yours! Every single item on floor spawns, loot bins and loot boxes are at your disposal. There’s no sharing of ammo, meds or throwables, unless you are sharing with your murderer, or challenging someone to a fistfight.
In the final circle, you only need to track a few people, all of whom are vulnerable and ready for the killing. You choose exactly who should die first and which battle should be your last. Apex Solos is the ultimate challenge of legend individual skill.
Duo Mode Opening Statements by Flash
The first LTM that needs to be revived by Respawn Entertainment is, none other than, duos mode. Apex Legends was born as a team-based battle royale shooter and should stay true to its roots. One could even argue that duos does a better job of promoting team chemistry than even the standard 3-man squads.
Communication and coordination are even more crucial when you only have one running mate. Drift off too far from your mate and you run the risk of getting stomped by an enemy squad. Each bullet fired has that much more value with 33% fewer guns available on your team.
The best things in life come in pairs. Bread and butter, Peanut butter and jelly, Shaq and Kobe, Jay Z and Beyonce, or Mario and Luigi.
Duos also birthed the Thicc Boys comp of Gibraltar and Caustic. Other great pairings: Lifeline and Octane for maximum mobility, Bloodhound and Bangalore for a smoke screened tag team, Crypto and Wattson for a defensive reconnaissance dream. The combinations are endless! Well not mathematically only 45, but you get the point!
And if you want another saying, the best things in life are enjoyed with a friend. Unless it’s cookies. I may have just made that up, but you get my point.
Whether it’s through revives or respawns, abilities or tacticals, or even simpler mechanics like pinging and quick voice chat, the truth is clear.
Apex Legends was designed to be played with a teammate. If anything, we should be seeing how 4 or even 6 man squads would look like in the arena!
Rebuttal
Next, we exchanged arguments and poked holes in the defense to invalidate the opposing view. Here’s what we came up with…
Duo Rebuttal by Yoshyaes
Plenty of games start one way and are transformed into something better. Imagine if Fortnite had stuck with the Save the World mode and never introduced their wildly popular battle royale!
Apex started as a team-based game but has the potential to be a blockbuster with some changes to the solo mode. The most obvious change would require changes to specific legends like Lifeline whose abilities apply directly to supporting teammates.
Without having to worry about communicating, you can shift more focus towards just catching bodies. Additionally, your bullets have the highest impact in solos because you can wipe out an entire “squad” with just one kill.
Some of the best things in life go solo: Justin Timberlake, water, supervillains, sunglasses. Pairs are great but aren’t required to have a good time.
If you’re like me, sometimes you don’t want to interact with anyone. In these moments, no one wants to be forced to play a game with other people. This is why the majority of games have a single-player campaign!
We already get enough of duos action in the normal squad queue after the third teammate goes down. 9 times out of 10, your fight will be a 1v1 anyways.
There isn’t enough of a difference between duos and 3-man squads to warrant the permanence of a duos queue. Respawn should do the right thing and just bring back solos indefinitely.
Solo Rebuttal by Flash
Solo mode may indeed have been the most demanding way to play Apex Legends. (Actually, I’d argue being the last survivor in Fight or Fright attempting to get to the dropship through ~30 zombies). That does not ignore the fact that this is a squad-based battle royale game.
In solo mode, if you die, you are gone. No downed state (unless you have a level 4 knockdown shield), which means no ability for revives or respawns. Respawn is the name of the developing company for goodness sake!
Almost every legend suffered to some degree by not having a teammate to share their ability with. Lifeline is a strong pick regardless of the game mode but how useful is a care package if you have no one to share your spoils. Or how many times are you using your healbot when you have fast heals by default. Crypto? Only a fool or a pro streamer would bother even using him in solos without the protection from a teammate. Sitting duck anyone?
In solos, you don’t have to fight over loot – true. But you also have to spend potentially three times as long searching for an attachment that a teammate could have easily pinged for you.
Yes, pings again. I said it in my opener, but a feature that revolutionized the genre and quickly spawned copycats *cough, Fortnite, cough* is now useless in solos. Pinging in duos saves you from not having to turn on your microphone if you are in a particularly antisocial mood.
As for the final circle, getting third-partied in solos is that much more devastating with no backup. Similarly, your last 15-20 minutes could come crashing to an unfortunate end from a camping Caustic with a peacekeeper. When you have a teammate, you can ping out the enemy for poetic justice and finish out the game properly rather than prematurely jumping back into the matchmaking queue.
Let’s first bring back duo mode and leave those wanting the solo experience for a free-for-all shooter like COD.
Which Side Are You On?
In a perfect world, we would have both Apex Legends playlists. However, if you had a Peacekeeper to your head and had to choose just one, would you bring back Solos or Duos? Tell us why in the comments or hit us up on social media!
