Apex Legends: Enter the Wild Frontier

Season one of Apex Legends is upon us at last. Coined ‘Wild Frontier’, this is Respawn Entertainment’s first major update/content drop for their still blossoming title. With the launch of season one, we also see the introduction of their own variation of the ‘battle pass’ concept, popularised by Fortnite, and the addition of the first new ‘legend’: Octane. With a lot of info to dissect, let’s get to it!

Value For Money?

With microtransactions being such a thin line to walk in modern day games, it’s imperative that Apex gets off to a good start regarding its battle pass. Right from the get-go, it seems that Apex has nailed the price point. Coming in at 9.99 euro, directly comparable to other games’ respective battle passes, it seems that Apex has certainly got off to a good start with regard to value for money. One Reddit user in particular crunched some numbers and came to the conclusion that through the investment of 950 Apex coins (in-game currency), the player would be able to generate over 7000 Apex coins in return upon reaching rank 100, which seems to be a worthwhile investment for devoted players.

Content, Content, Content

So now that the value for money box has been ticked, let’s get into the actual content on offer. This is where a lot of people in the Apex community feel their expectations have not been met.

image courtesy of GameSpot

With many people expecting vibrant and eye-catching character and weapon skins aplenty, a lot of those people were left feeling disappointed. Many tiers in the one hundred tier battle pass yielding underwhelming rewards such as new stat trackers or merely a badge showing what level of the battle pass you are. The fact that the reward for reaching level 100 is a skin for the Havoc Energy Rifle, a weapon that no one is overly keen on, is truly a weird design choice. Having said all that, perhaps we were expecting too much from Respawn’s first attempt at a battle pass model and should withhold judgment until later seasons.

It’s The Little Things

This update saw extensive patch notes being released alongside it. To summarise, they fixed/tweaked various things from simple quality of life improvements to making changes to the hitboxes on character models. Respawn have shown quick response times to issues raised and a willingness to listen to the community.

Fresh Blood

The biggest thing this update has to offer is the introduction to the new playable character, ‘Octane’. What seems to be the love child of ‘Krieg’ from Borderlands and ‘Junkrat’ from Overwatch we get this psychoactive lunatic character as the end result. An ability to boost movement speed at the cost of health, a passive ability that regenerates health over time and an ultimate ability that allows the player to place a bounce pad on the go, all go hand in hand with the frantic personality of ‘Octane’.

Initial fan opinion seems to be overwhelmingly positive and it seems that ‘Octane’ will fit right into the already existing cast of ‘Legends’. Definitely adds some new gameplay possibilities that we’ll surely see in abundance very soon.

What do you think of the battle pass and launch of season 1? Feeling underwhelmed or satisfied? Be sure to comment and let us know!

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