Apex Legends is turning five years old. Do you feel ancient yet? The game, released by Respawn Entertainment back during the height of battle royale fever, ripped a different sense of movement and skill expression from the bones of the Titanfall IP and gave it to the fledgling subgenre. It was regarded as one of the best FPS games out there. But five years on, do you care?
It’s the sort of question that every live-service game enjoyer has to ask every now and again, especially as their go-to game morphs and evolves from that evergreen initial month. Apex Legends, like countless games before it, is far removed from the refreshing game we all played back in 2019. The Legend pool has expanded, as has the number of maps, weapons, and cosmetics. Even if Apex Legends has that same core, it’s grown into a new beast in and of itself.
For one, it’s harder to get into now than it was before, purely down to a higher skill floor. This isn’t a problem unique to Apex Legends by any means, but it’s one that burdens the experience for new players. “At some point I (as several other players I know) got some kind of PTSD because of Apex,” 34-year-old player IDCh wrote to me over the weekend. “When you simply are not ready for the opportunity to waste 4 hours in the evening being the ‘bots’ for more experienced players.
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