You know when you think you’ve done something, but turns out you hadn’t? I could’ve swore I wrote something about the newest season (11) of Apex Legends but I guess something must’ve come up and I never did! The last time I wrote something was during last season where I finally returned to Apex after a few seasons out. And now in January 2022 we have entered the final month of Season 11. And it’s the best its ever been.
If you do a quick search on twitter then, as is always the case, it’s full of people complaining about certain aspects of the game. And if you delve through the hate (not recommended for your sanity) there is a nugget of truth in there. The servers do have a habit of collapsing on occasion. It is still too common an occurrence that you enter a game and everything stops moving, causing you to force close the game. If you’re lucky then nothing bad happens. If not then either two things will happen, when you sign back in it will automatically rejoin the previous broken game for you, or it gives you a ten minute time penalty for quitting the game early. Neither are ideal. That said, if you can overlook the occasional glitches in the matrix, what you find is the perfect FPS battle royale experience.
So Season 11 added a ton of new stuff. First of all the big one, a new map. Imagine Jurassic Park as a Battle Royale map and you’ll be partway to understanding what Storm Point is. An island environment with open plains, beaches and the further you get into the mainland, containment areas and industrial buildings. The gimmick being, there are Prowlers and Spiders roaming nests that are dotted around the island. Kill them and they drop items, kill an entire nest and you get crafting points. There’s nothing more exciting than a firefight in a Prowler enclosure. Enemies from the front attacking while you get nibbled on by a four legged beastie. It’s a tense moment on a map full of tense moments.
I suppose the best thing about this map is that there is no “everyone drop here” section of the map, at least with what I played. There is no “Fragment” on this map which everyone congregates too. Sadly though, we’re now into the second half of the Ranked Split, which means the new map has been replaced by Worlds Edge, so it’s back to everyone dropping on Fragment, holing up in a building and trying not to die. Maybe I’m just terrible, but when one of my challenges is to survive into the Top 10, I’d like to avoid moments where there’s four other squads in the same area.
Weapons wise, the newest addition is the CAR. The gimmick with this being it can take both heavy and light ammo, and is an absolute beast. It shreds shields and has become one of my go to weapons, providing I’m not forced to use something else in order to complete a challenge. They’re also brought the Triple Take (the best long range weapon) out of the Care Package and thrown the G7 Scout in there. A Triple Take for distance and CAR for close range is a killer combo.
Finally, we have the newest Legend joining the game, Ash. A robot lady who has the power to throw an electrified shuriken looking thing that can trap enemies in its range while doing small damage to them. Her ultimate being another teleport, which is faster than a Wraith but lacks the distance. By placing the marker at a distance in front of you you quickly jump to that spot, leaving the portal still open where you jumped allowing others to follow you. As far as Legends go, she won’t be troubling my top tier. Much like Wraith and a Pathfinder, traversal and escaping encounters aren’t my go-to Legends, much prefer an aggressive Ultimate personally. That said, she’s a cool design I suppose if that’s your thing.
So it’s been a pretty big few months for Apex Legends further cementing it as my one and only Live Service game. The new map is now my favourite, new weapon is also my favourite, the new Legends is…..fine. It’s safe to say, Apex Legends is the best it’s been. If you’re a lapsed player then maybe now is the time to get back in. Here’s hoping Season 12 follows this trend.
