The ninth season of Apex Legends is a big one – so much so that Respawn has decided to do away with the numbers, and simply name the new season “Legacy”. There’s a whole lot of Titanfall lore, significant map changes, and a brand new game mode called Arenas. It’s all part of Respawn’s much-teased plan to bring Apex Legends “beyond battle royale”, as game director Chad Grenier first told me in an interview for Season 7. Last week I got to take a peek at some of this in a demo session, and hear a little from the developers about the design decisions behind the mode.
In a Q&A session with press and content creators, Grenier said that Legacy was the culmination of “almost two years of experimentation and innovation,” and that it’s easily the biggest update for Apex Legends so far. “The long term goals for Apex were to go beyond battle royale: we’ve got this great cast of legends, really tight gameplay and gunplay – and we want to offer that in more ways to compete,” he added.
This has taken the form of Arenas, a 3v3 competitive mode that will remain a permanent fixture of Apex Legends, separate from the battle royale. It’s essentially a series of short, fast-paced rounds that take place on miniature maps – providing a more intense and less randomised experience than the battle royale mode. No third-partying to be found here, for instance. To win a match, a team must win at least three rounds and be ahead of the opposing team by two points – or else the two teams enter a tie-breaker ninth round.
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