On Friday night I made a serious mistake: I sent a DM to the group chat about a comment about Apex Legends I had seen on TikTok. For some reason my For You page had been feeding me a steady stream of Apex Legends content for the last day or two, including the saga of iiTzTimmy, CaseOh and Jynxzi. I hate to admit it, but I was affected – the comment that sums up my current mental space: “Life got so serious that I started wanting to play Apex again.”
A friend replied: “I'm in the 'I should call her' phase with that game.” I told him I would call her if he did. Soon the third got involved, and before we knew it, our Easter weekend free time was consumed once again by Apex Games. It had been years since we played seriously together, but at one point the game dominated our lives. For three years in a row, it topped my most played list on Xbox, and it remains my favorite battle royale game of all time.
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Of course we eventually drifted off. It happened gradually: after playing nonstop for so long, we slowed down to a few weeks per season, then so infrequently that we barely noticed we'd stopped. I can't pinpoint the last time we played together, but it was sometime after Ballistic's addition Apex Legends. Now, two or three years later, Apex Legends has changed so much it barely feels like the same game.
We first started playing the day Apex Legends shadow released in Season 0 and played/finished every Battle Pass for years.
Apex Legends is still Apex Legends, but…
All that defined Apex Legends remains, to be clear. My favorite part remains intact: the way Respawn's battle royale game amps up speed, rewards aggression, and produces unforgettable firefights. Respawn understands motion in video games better than any development studio out there. Then there's the skill required in any Apex match, the way you coordinate with a good team, the rotations and map understanding, the control of pace and purpose in a match, the situational and contextual use of all weapons and abilities – everything still feels like Apex Legends. Heck, it was also just like Apex for the game to go down on Friday; it may not be quite nostalgia, but nostalgic it was (as a rural player, it's largely better in this regard as well).
Drag weapons to fill the grid
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Drag weapons to fill the grid
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It felt like coming home, in so many ways. Did my Octane charge into a firefight unprepared? Yes. Have I encountered many-a-sweaty Wraith? Yes. But it's a home that's undergone serious renovations over the years, so much so that it's a whole new game (or house, to continue the metaphor).
One of the first areas where we really felt the extent of these changes was Apex Legends' weapons. In the earliest seasons, for example, there was a clear delineation of sorts where you used weaker weapons to advance to higher level, better weapons. You'd be consistently improving your kit through a match, and while it still largely works, there are so many ways to lock down a kit, so many options, so many changes, that it all feels fresh.
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The hemlock isn't a blasted weapon anymore, sorry? And it has a breaking shot? The new Hemmy is so OP in Apex Legends
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I knew about the Akimbo P2020s and Moçambiques, but come on, see them in action with any BRA with Moçambiques? So many Mozambique jokes were made.
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The R-301 and R-99 are still so good, which is nice to see, but they feel boring compared to some of the other weapons right now
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Changing the RE-45 to an energy weapon feels so wrong
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Changing the Spitfire to a light weapon is even worse (we were there for that, but STILL. It will always be a heavy weapon in my heart).
And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this aspect of Apex Legends. Factor in how you build your kit, choose your upgrades, and use AMPs in Apex Legendsand the whole gun meta feels drastically different than it used to (but more importantly, not less powerful). AMPs are a huge change, for one. I love the infinite batteries the most, but I won't lie: one of iiTzTimmy's TikTok posts about the infinite ammo booster and Kraber made my heart stop. WOW. In conclusion, the whole weapon meta feels so refreshing after being gone for so long.
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Apex Legends legends are Apex
It's not called Apex Guns for a reason though, and the same high-quality bar can be said about Apex Legends' character meta. I was there for the metas where Gibraltar was broken. I remember metas where Gibraltar was weak. Now apparently we're back in an era where Gibraltar is getting polished, and I love that for him. But beyond just characters we've never played Apex Legendsthe major changes to the playable characters make it a completely new game:
It was exciting and fun to see a Fuse head fire his Ultimate and see it work completely differently, in real time. Lifeline's redesign makes it where she lives up to her name, leaving behind the days when the Care Package was released. There's just so much — I don't even want to mention it all, check out your old head unit Apex Legends right now. Even in the times when I can recognize the macro changes, I'm not entirely sure I can accurately articulate all the changes at the micro level. Heck, even switching to a duo's Apex Legends game in the menu works differently.
Life got so serious that I needed to play Apex again
If you haven't played Apex Legends in at least two years, it feels like it's time to return. What greets you is a different game altogether Apex Legends of your memories, and everything mentioned here is just a drop in an ocean of changes. The result is a great combo, at least for my friends and me. Life in 2026 is something, and it has shown no signs of slowing down. Something about Apex Legends hits differently because of this, as well as developer Respawn Entertainment's hard work over the years.
- Released
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February 4, 2019
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood, Violence
- Publisher
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Electronic Arts
