Legends change the game. But they can’t do it without you.
I’ve never played the Apex Legends video game, released in 2019, though I believe it’s set in the Titanfall universe, and I did play one Playstation game in that series that I quite enjoyed. That was about fighters piloting mechs however, and this game is all about individual characters with guns – lots and lots of guns.
At first I wasn’t keen on getting yet another skirmish-level shooter along the lines of Kill Team and Deadzone, but I’m glad I gave this one a go, as it has a personality all of its own and some nice streamlined rules. Sure, the 49-page rulebook doesn’t give that impression at first, and the line of sight rules come across as horrifically complex, but since I’ve managed to summarise it all down to 3 pages, the core rules are very easy to grasp once you get your head around them.
The big difference here is the emphasis on shooting, filling your backpack with grenades and consumables, and kitting up your two weapons with different attachments. All the guns end up having a distinctive feel, and coupled with a clever but straightforward card-driven randomising system, the combat plays as just that bit different from other skirmish games. Add 6 very individual characters with different abilities, some of which represented by coloured plastic miniatures, and a bunch of different game modes with different rules, and there’s a lot of replayability here.
It’s an insanely over-produced package in a very big box – and I’ve only seen the core game – but you’ll find a tabletop’s worth of cardboard buildings in it, along with some very good graphic design. I was really impressed with Apex Legends once I got it to the table, and I was left feeling there really is room for another skirmish game in my collection. Check out my unboxing and review videos for lots more detail.
