REVIEW - Apex Legends Season 8 Continues To Iterate Smartly
Flame on.
By Jonathan Garrett
10/02/21
Reviewed on PlayStation 4 Pro & Xbox Series X.
Apex Legends has embraced the familiar cadence now expected of free to play battle royale titles; regular changes that upend the status quo, keep things fresh, and introduce new opportunities for a cheeky customisation purchase. The manner in which Respawn have avoided a bombardment of frivolous updates is commendable, and Season 8 continues their long established trend of meaningful new additions.
The clear stand out is Fuse, an Aussie, trash talking explosives expert whose flamboyance fits in nicely alongside less serious Legends like Mirage and Octane. His ability set definitely caters to newer players, with a well balanced Tactical (aptly named “The Knuckle Cluster”) designed to force dug in teams out of cover.
His Ultimate is also an interesting wrinkle, creating a wall of flaming death to lock players into a fixed circular position. It looks cool, feels good when used effectively, and potentially compliments other Legend abilities like Gibraltar’s Defensive Bombardment and Caustic’s Gas Grenades.
However, straight out of the gate, his passive (allowing him to stack more grenades per inventory slot, and launch them at far greater distances) feels unusually overpowered for a game that, for the most part, seems to get ahead of most balance issues. Grenades tend to be a secondary component in most Apex engagements, so while in a sense it’s nice to have a character that gives them renewed emphasis, it leans too far in the wrong direction for our taste. Being able to quickly hurl Arc Stars across distances normally reserved for scoped rifle fire certainly isn’t the one, and hopefully gets tweaked in a subsequent patch.
Kings Canyon has undergone some significant changes, and these are all winners. Explosive Holds, which can be breached with a grenade to access a cache of high tier items, are a much better way to bring some added value to existing throwables. Taking the time to break in adds the same level of risk inherent when plundering World’s Edge’s Loot Vaults, and they’re spread throughout the map ensuring reasonable opportunity for most squads to have a crack.
The real champion is the new locations added to the North, with massive, cover filled areas, new building templates, and an abundance of floor loot addressing a long standing issue with Apex’s meta favouring loot bins and air drops for the best stuff. It looks sharp on Series X, but PS4 Pro struggles a little when chaos reigns in the newer regions. Some further optimisation is perhaps needed.
Once again, Respawn have delivered a jam packed, substantial update that continues to make Apex Legend’s the best battle royale in the biz.
I’m always ready to bring the boom. With… mixed results.
WORTH IT?
At the bottom of every game review, we ask the question: Worth it? And the answer is either “Yeah!” or “Nah”, followed by a comment that sums up how we feel. In order to provide more information, we also have “And” or “But”, which follows up our rating with further clarification, additional context for a game we love, or perhaps a redeeming quality for a game we didn’t like.
YEAH!
Apex Legends Season 8 is a confident tour de force featuring smart map design and meaningful iteration.
BUT
While Fuse absolutely fits in alongside the other Legends, his Passive Ability needs a nerf.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
