Apex Legends: Escape's Storm Point is a much-needed course correction | PC Gamer - stellateps1959
Acme Legends' tropical getaway is a more than-needed course correction
It doesn't take much snooping around YouTube or Reddit to realise Apex Legends isn't in a great state. The game's current season, Emergence, has been infested past problems—from Seer's staggeringly irresistible toolkit at launch to servers being instantly unplayable mid-room through the time of year, and a general sense that Vertex hasn't had much to offer over the gone 3 months.
Arriving as a tropical getaway for our butt-sliding murderbuds next week, there's a lot moving on Season 11: Run to place some wind back in Respawn's sails. Last week I spent a week moving around the sunrise season, and I'm excited to enounce it's a strong return to form for Respawn's battle royale.
Ashes to ashes
A new season means a new Legend, and this clock time around sees the return of Titanfall 2 baddie Ash tree. Avowedly, her announcement gave me intermit. I've long been leery of Respawn pulling so directly from the Titanfall constant when Apex did such a strong job expanding that universe—and while Valkyrie paid court to the previous games while doing something untried, Ash is away and large the same mean robot young girl she was in TF2.
That said, Respawn has done a decent job phasing her into the Apex games over the past year—giving her strong ties to Apparent horizon and Pathfinder, even letting her run her ain spin-soured Arenas mode for a bit. But mechanically, she's too yet another fully Offense character in a game well-stacked full of them, and I can't help but compliments we'd gotten a long-overdue new Support or Defensive submarine sandwich.
Ash arrives As a terrifying hunting watch-cause of death. Death boxes will show on her map as they appear, fading ended metre but openhanded Ash tree an insight arsenic to where and when fights have happened. She force out also use a data tongue connected boxes to ping where their killers are. Her Q is a thrown snare drum inspired, interrogatively enough, aside Titanfall 2's Northstar Titan—transaction damage and retardation foes if they effort to bunk its grasp.
Ash tree doesn't play like Shade, so very much like she plays how Wraith mains want to play Wraith.
But Ash piloted a Ronin in Titanfall 2, and her ult pointedly echoes that sword-swinging mech's phase crash ability. On energizing, Ash can teleport a substantial distance in a straight billet, leaving a one-way portal for her team to follow done. It's a immoderate more direct bring up connected Wraith's portal—trading service program for the instancy of your entire team bursting out of the void to ruining someone's day.
At a glance, you'd expect Ash to play likewise to Apex's resident ghost girl. But Ash tree is truculent in a sense even Wraith can't finagle, fit to track down and initiate fights with terrifying precision while using her Q to pin up foes WHO adjudicate to break for it. She doesn't play equal Wraith so very much like she plays comparable how Wraith mains want to play Spectre, a character apparently built for streamers World Health Organization exclusively land Fragment.
I nates already see where players wish absolutely dominate with Ash. Her loadout excels at initiating fights, letting her squad become the final tierce company—but it's equally elementary for her to doom her squad in sick chosen fights. 'tween her hyper-aggressive playstyle and an "I studied the blade" aesthetic that absolutely overlaps Wraith and Revenant, expect Ash to be extremely popular on establish. Hell, I derriere't even complain when her interactions with Visible horizon are so perfectly gut-wrenching.
Summertime Lovin'
Ultimately, I quickly discovered my playstyle doesn't map to Ash's moveset, getting squashed before I could seizure any worthy footage of her abilities (regretful). But a murderous image ISN't the only thing arriving in Escape, with Season 11 adding a sprawling new map in the build of Storm Point.
I can't undersell how absolutely colossal Storm Point is. Respawn told the States the map out is about 15% bigger than World's Edge in plain footprint, but that doesn't convey how dense and upright the arena unfeignedly is. Force Point is a hot island built around a prodigious mountain, whose highest locations extend to a higher place what would traditionally have been the sky limit of previous maps. Going from the Fish Farm at the coast clear up to the Lightning Rod at the elevation legitimately feels look-alike mounting a mountain.
These locations are as wel layered in fascinating shipway. My best drop power saw us land at Checkpoint, which at first appeared to be a decreased bundle of buildings suspended in a volcanic crater. It wasn't until the dust of the first fight cleared that I completed in that respect was an total forest beneath these structures, complete with its own streams and caves and houses to scramble over. In lieu of redeploy balloons, Force Compass point also features Glory 3-style somberness cannons that punt you in a single direction. Complete exemption to rotate is listed for a faster, more direct jump out that lets you retain control of your weapons and abilities.
That ordered series also allows the map to depict a fascinating grade of biomes, plausibly transitioning from white sandy coastlines through sweltering hobo camp to rocky windswept scores valleys. But Storm Point mightiness, in point of fact, represent a bit too big. Acknowledged, preview games never met the untouched 60 player cap (often opening with only 30), simply it was legitimately alcoholic to pin out other teams, spending long stretches of the match wandering aimlessly.
The island is besides thriving with life, complete of which craves a Legend-sized snack. Apex has had dragons and reptiles tucked away in maps in front, but Storm Taper is absolutely rotten with Prowler nests—vicious beast-lizards emerging to chomp at you if you stray overly close. Spider nests line the deeper, darker corners of the map, with swarms of slimy critters bursting from the walls should a stray iridescent smasher their eggs.
They're dangerous, but thither's good reason to hunt the local wildlife. Beasties will drop attachments, items and crafting material when killed, and shooting them will even count as damage dealt towards boosting Evo Shields (though to a lesser extent than shot players). I've a sneaking suspicion that adding so many aggressive beasts is also meant to throw gunshot more frequent, helping isolated teams track each separate through the jungle.
Holiday essentials
While to a lesser extent provocative than a new hero or map, I rapidly found myself loving Escape's new Railway car SMG. Other Titanfall atavist and a capable close-range shredder in its ain right, the Automobile's ric is that it can take both heavy and light ammo, with extended mags for one applying to both. Unfortunately, ammo type doesn't change how it handles Beaver State deals damage, but you're effectively unrestrained of ammo concerns.
Respawn also had good news for the Wattson mains out there (yes, all troika of you). After months of clamouring, our Daniel Chester French lightning lass is finally getting a caramel brown—and while specifics will be shared in upcoming patch notes, Respawn wants to bring i placing her fences faster and easier, halving cooldown and increasing placement range by 50%. Interbreeding fences will also be much more punishing than it is currently.
Escape will also make weak but significant adjustments to Ranked bring off, notably changing the points structure to put less emphasis happening match placement and more on how many kills/assists you demesne. So there are weeny, welcome changes look-alike bringing narrative back into the gamy with time period chapters. Few huge addition, but their omission in time of year 10 felt pointed in robbing Seer of a chance to suit a part of the ongoing story.
Last, Respawn did note that IT was aware of the host issues that have been plaguing the game this class, and is "double down" on resolving these by expanding its dedicated server team and determination new ways to make a "technically monumental live game" require inferior bandwidth.
I'm still having fun with Apex, but I commode't say Emergence felt anything different than serviceable. A bit of downtime wouldn't even have been that evil after Season 9 added an entirely new gamemode, but despite some welcome map changes and the Bulwark's well-earned place in my loadout, method issues and underwhelming events have made this current season feel like unity of the weakest yet.
Relief valve feels like Respawn at one time again firing on all cylinders, and after just now one night I'm hankering to get back into that version of the game. Like Olympus, Storm Point feels like an exciting, meaty change to what an Apex map can be—and patc Ash might not be my cuppa teatime, she's a worthy gain to the roster whose presence escalates so much of what I love near Apex of the sun's way's ongoing soap Opera.
We'll just have to see if Respawn can keep up that momentum pursuing Apex Legends: Escape's launch on November 2.
20 days ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future first—and she's non stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and having herself developed critically acclaimed teeny-weeny games like-minded Can Androids Pray, Nat is always looking for for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the side by side unexceeded independent Darling, or simply individual modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She's also played for a competitive Splatoon team, and unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-tropical-getaway-is-a-much-needed-course-correction/
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