Respawn Entertainment’s flagship title has brought a refreshing change of pace to the battle royale genre. Although it is difficult to question Apex Legends’ unprecedented success, there is still an absence of certain features which would improve player experience tenfold.
Here are five features that desperately need to come to the Apex Games. We’ve also added some bonus ones that may hold their rightful place in World’s Edge.
1. Replays
Post-match replays are a handy tool for casual and competitive players alike. Whether you’re looking to add some cinematics or looks for areas to improve, Apex Legends does not currently offer that facility.
Players have been longing for a replay mode for several seasons — with the community requesting the feature on the Apex Legend subreddit mere days after the game’s release.
Despite there being no sign on the Apex Legends Tracker, Respawn will surely be looking to implement the feature in a bid to keep up with their battle royale counterpart.
2. Killcam
On the topic of learning from one’s mistakes, a killcam facilitates just that. Allowing players to identify how they were taken down not only permits you to learn for next time but also puts your mind at ease of being killed by one of those notorious hackers.
Being a much-requested feature on the Apex Legends subreddit, the logistics of a killcam are challenging to incorporate into battle royales. By quickly viewing your assailant’s point-of-view, you could dish out some vital information that your teammates could benefit from.
Although killcams have made an appearance in the likes of PUBG and Blackout, they may hinder certain Legends’ abilities during team scenarios. Therefore, a killcam might only serve its purpose in a single player (solo) game mode.
3. Permanent solos/duos modes
Solos mode was hugely popular among the battle royale’s faithful following during its brief appearance in the Iron Crown Collection event.
Albeit only live for just over two weeks, the single-player mode was the silver lining in the event that was otherwise plagued by its monetization issues.
Following on from the success of the limited-time solo mode, Respawn launched a temporary duo mode on November 5. Since the game mode will likely have an expiry date, it appears that the developers are testing the waters before integrating either mode permanently.
4. Cross-play integration
After Sony enabled cross-platform multiplayer access to developers, Fortnite and Modern Warfare were among the first to utilize the new tool.
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Respawn have previously made their intentions clear with cross-play, and a leak has revealed that they are potentially making moves to incorporate it. However, Lead Developer Drew McColl has previously stated: “If it wasn’t a ginormous amount of effort and work, we’d probably already be doing (cross-play).”
Not only would it be logistically tricky to implement cross-play with such a small team, but Respawn would also have to find a way to mitigate the movement advantage PC players have before they hop on the bandwagon.
5. Favorite Legend system
Ever gone AFK only to come back and find that Respawn decided it was time for your character to hang up their bionic legs and trade them in for a heavy Gun Shield and extra 200 lbs of weight? The final feature on our list is a simple yet effective filter system that would rid that entirely.
Reddit user ‘deadend1755’ devised a smart tool that would allow you to favorite your top three Legends. That way, if you prefer to play a more gung-ho style, you can filter your top three characters accordingly.
This feature would be potentially the most straightforward for Respawn to add and would avoid being lumbered with accommodating your play-style to suit a character you’d otherwise have no business playing.
Bonus features
Although the above features are perhaps the most frequently requested, that’s not to say there aren’t any additional features that Apex would benefit from. For example, to replace a killcam in team-based modes, a ‘best play of the game’ cam could be integrated to reward the flashy plays that would otherwise go unnoticed.
On the flip side of the coin, there is currently no facility to report players for rogue play — a tool that would have been handy to feedback when players were teaming up during the solo LTM.
In terms of features that would directly influence the game’s dynamics, perhaps there is scope to incorporate weather dynamics into the server. Ideally randomly generated, the varied climate within World’s Edge provides the perfect arena to include the effects of all weather conditions on player-vs-player interactions.
Should a player find themselves in a sticky situation (whether that be served by a harsh gale or an oncoming squad), an ability to build similarly to Fortnite would add another intriguing dynamic to Apex Legends’ already sophisticated movement system.
Of course, building a sky-scraping tower might seem impractical when Pathfinder could scale it in a matter of seconds.