Apex Legends made massive upgrade to its anti-cheat but there’s one glaring omission

Apex Legends developer Respawn has made a number of rapid changes to the game’s anti-cheat in order to keep players from gaining an unfair advantage, but there’s one thing missing that players are desperate to see changed.

The unfortunate reality of modern gaming is that cheaters end up infesting every game out there. From older games like Overwatch, all the way up to brand-new releases like Deadlock and games that aren’t out yet like Black Ops 6, cheaters will find a way to ruin the fun.

Having comprehensive anti-cheat measures is a necessary part of keeping a game alive when it comes to online multiplayer titles, especially free-to-play ones, and it’s been a constant battle for Apex Legends to keep cheaters of all kinds out of the game.

And, though it’s possible to cheat on console, PC provides the easiest access to not only what you’d traditionally think of in terms of wallhacks and aimbotting, but also third-party software.

This mainly targets players who were using controller-altering software like DS4 to smooth out their aim and artificially give themselves better accuracy.

And, while disabling this software has left some unable to use that software to hook up out-of-date controllers with PS4 inputs, Steam Input can bypass the issue on PC. This is a net win for Apex on PC, and it shuts down some of the more subtle advantages players can get for using controllers on their computer rather than a console.

There are, however, a number of false ban reports from players claiming they’ve been flagged by this new slew of changes and have been wrongly barred from playing, including some pro players. This, alongside widespread issues with the PlayStation version of the game crashing, has made it clear that this update has a few hiccups.

Additionally, one of the most complained about form of cheating has yet to even be mentioned by developers: Teaming.

Players sniping each others’ matches is relatively common, especially when it comes to higher MMR matches where the matchmaking pool is a bit smaller. And, though these players aren’t breaking any “rules” in the traditional sense of third-party software, they’re getting an unfair advantage by working together to win the match in a way that wasn’t intended.

This can be fairly difficult to detect, especially since players getting matched into the same games with each other a couple times in a row isn’t grounds to be banned. However, a more robust system for reporting teamers and flagging their accounts is something that’d go a long way for making Apex better.

Seeing as player counts have been dropping consistently to the lowest levels they’ve been at in years, the Apex Legends devs still have a lot of work to do when it comes to winning players back while retaining those who are still sticking around.