You know that feeling, right? It’s like America copied your favorite British show, or your most prized childhood book got the Hollywood treatment. You’re excited because getting more of what you love is never a bad thing.But you’re also nervous because of the reason you Like it may not be the same reason other people like it. I get the same unease every time I find out that a game I love is getting a port or a remake. I’m both dizzy and a little worried, and I’ve learned — mostly the hard way — to keep my dizziness under control when a favorite franchise gets mobile healing.
In Respawn’s defense, Apex Legends Mobile isn’t a port. Built from the ground up for mobile, Respawn has the irresistible battle royale game I love – its striking style, great sound design, great cast and delightful gunplay – and Wrap it up in a gorgeous new thread designed for mobile. Not all games land – especially with its confusing UI and complex progression and currency systems; more on that later – but even if you’re new to playing shooters on mobile, there’s a lot of fun here.
For those unfamiliar with Apex Legends, it’s a delightful twist on the team-based battle royale formula, offering the usual weapon scrambles, shrinking rings, and life-and-death battles, though each sport has one. Charming characters – legendary – their own special abilities. Most of them are well-balanced and will bring something different to the battlefield, depending on your comfort zone and gunfighting preferences.
On the mobile version, we get the standard battle royale mode with ranking changes, arenas, and team deathmatch, and you can play on a slightly trimmed version of the excellent map you’re probably already familiar with. Ten Legendaries – most of them from the game’s OG lineup – are up for grabs: Bangalore, Bloodhound, Corrosive, Gibraltar, Lifeline, Phantom, Octane, Pathfinder, and Ghost.
The tenth place is Fade. As a mobile phone exclusive, it is undoubtedly the biggest attraction for Apex fans. Employing flashback tactics – not unlike Wraith’s Interdimensional Void or Tracer’s ability in Overwatch – he can return to his previous position in time to escape tricky situations, and his passive acceleration is most important of gliding. His ultimate is especially interesting, though, as it allows him to throw a projectile that briefly invulnerables his teammates and temporarily stops opponents from dealing damage.
These modes are pretty standard fare, especially if you play a lot of shooters, but I’ve always thought the Apex’s biggest draw was its main battle royale mode, and Mobile didn’t change my mind. They unlock very intelligently as you progress through the ranks, allowing you to get used to the speed and range of one race type before trying another. There’s no cross-play, but I’m not going to complain – if there were, my screenshots wouldn’t be in the throes of death.
While the game looks strikingly similar to the version I liked on the console, the control scheme definitely isn’t. There’s an effective and comprehensive tutorial when you first join – Mirage walks you through all the basics with his usual charm – although it’s not fair to direct my question to the developer, I don’t think I All errors are also purely user errors. While the early lobbies are full of bots to get you one step ahead while you get used to the controls and gameplay, no amount of forgiving AI can offset the frustration of hitting the wrong button, shooting a gun, and accidentally revealing my location sense against nearby opponents.
It’s for this reason that I’ve never quite gotten used to Apex Legends Mobile’s on-screen control scheme, not even for a few games. Maybe there’s just too little space on my iPhone 13 – I’ve had better luck on my (older) iPad – but with so much information crammed into such a tight space, you’d usually be cramming it with a controller or mouse /Keyboard-triggered commands – crouch, jump, punch, etc. – compete for space with your minimap, special ability status, kill feed, and more.
That said, the on-screen controls are fully customizable – never a bad thing – which means you can reposition pretty much anything you want to reduce the UI to your precise configuration, but even that’s not enough to eliminate Finger fumbles and button bugs – hits.
Thankfully, having a Bluetooth connection to the controller of your choice — in my case, it’s a DualSense — alleviates most of these frustrations, even if controller support isn’t quite there yet. It still caused some annoyance – I was only able to use my controller in matches, not on the home screen – but even a shaky controller was better than nothing.
There are also some mobile-only features that make it more forgiving on smaller screens, especially if you’re transitioning from the original game. These include a visual indicator when you’re shot – a factory innovation, especially if you’re playing in a noisy place or have forgotten your headphones – and a default command to automatically sort out loot, which sounds cool, especially since Backpacks in Apex Legends Mobile are more spacious than those in the main game, allowing you to carry more ammo.You’ll also find that you can also switch between first and third person view, which is an interesting but puzzling addition since I don’t know why anyone Won’t If available, use increased third-person POV visibility in shooters.
While Apex has always eschewed surrealism for its bright cartoon aesthetic, I was impressed with how faithfully the world of Legends fits into the small screen.
Perhaps most notably, though, now that your legendaries have an additional system, I suspect this will be of particular interest to existing fans. I’ve been playing Apex Legends Mobile for a few weeks, though, and I’m still very conflicted about it.Although Apex has never been full level Playing Fields – Players who make great use of Legendary skills are usually better than me, no matter what crapola weapon they use – The mobile version offers Mastery Points that you can use to unlock and equip new perks, such as restoring a lifeline for an extra 25 her The health of her fallen comrades recovered for a while.
It doesn’t cost a cent to do it, and you can only equip three at a time, but it does feel like it will give time-poor players more advantages on the battlefield, and that kind of thing always makes me uncomfortable. Your ability to win matches should come down to skill and RNG heist luck, not because you have time to binge-unlock all of your favorite characters’ perks.
Speaking of discomfort: the challenge, currency, and progression menus here are unbelievable and dangerously close to offensive.That’s it a lot of It’s everywhere, all the time, with mandatory battle passes, loot box-style mechanics, and a confusing hodgepodge of currencies — currency or otherwise — for you to unravel.
Yes, all rewards are cosmetic and nothing (other than the perk system, anyway) gives you an edge in the game. But with not one but two Premium Battle Passes and many other limited-time challenges vying for your attention endlessly, it’s just an ugly expansion on top of an otherwise clean and polished experience.
In many ways, I doubt that Apex Legends Mobile will be the Switch port that many have been hoping for. Once the game is out of testing, as long as I have a reasonable signal and/or wifi connection, I rarely experience errors, glitches, or slowdowns, and while Apex has always eschewed surrealism for a bright cartoon aesthetic, I’m not impressed with the legendary Impressed by how faithfully the world fits into the small screen. While I can’t say I have any obsessive compulsions to go back to using the on-screen buttons – it’s been my controller all the time now – I’m glad Apex Legends Mobile dropped, shocked and shocked me in all the right ways.
