Week 1 Player's Review
Before we begin, as you've seen in the title I've played since week one. My highest rank was Platinum back in the first ranked season, and as of 8/4/2020 I have about 920-950 hours played.
Stats:
-5.6k total games played.
-680 total wins.
-980 top 5 Placements.
-15.2k total kills.
-3.2 K/D Ratio
-667 Average damage per match.
Overview (TLDR):
Apex Legends is a fantastic game that I wouldn't recommend currently to anyone. Respawn has hit the nail on the head multiple times with tight, fluid, responsive, and exceedingly fast paced combat with Titanfall 1 and 2, and Apex Legends is no different. However, this is all bogged down by multiple tedious systems in place, alongside wildly varying and frustrating quality of matches that make Apex's core strengths the go from a shining star, to moonlight reflected off of mud.
History:
Apex Legend's was released on February 4th, 2019, and made waves in a stale overused overmarketed Battle Royale genre. While Fortnite had its wackiness, and PUBG its accessibility and realistic gunplay, Apex Legends quickly overshadowed both during it's initial release with fast-paced movement centered combat, a pinging system that allowed microphone-less players to communicate with the team, and the ability to respawn players who have been killed off in combat. These features, alongside color-blindness and other accessibility options quickly lead Apex to hitting 50 million players a mere month after its release.
However, the high quickly dropped. Apex Legend developers adopted a seasonal content update schedule, leading to many players feeling that the lack of content made the game incredibly stale. We all know how toxic the gaming industry can be, what with things like unpaid overtime and crunch time, so adopting a seasonal update schedule wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and many players across all social media platforms agreed that they'd rather have quality over rushed or buggy content. What the developers failed to mention, is that bug-fixes were going to mostly be seasonal as well, with only truly game-breaking bugs being addressed quickly, while "less important bugs" persisting for seasons on end. Examples of this include the old supply crate bug, which would shoot players across the map and often even outside of it, or the character Mirage being able to shoot at enemies despite being downed in combat. Since World's Edge's introduction in Season 3, the in-game footstep audio has been wildly inconsistent, with teammate footstep audio being louder than the enemy, to not being able to hear an enemy team sprint up behind you in a dead silent area. Season 3 first started on October 1st, 2019, and season 5 ends on October 17th, 2020, nearly 321 days later and this issue still hasn't been addressed.
Speaking of addressing things, the elephant in the room, and quite notably the reason why the Apex Legends developers no longer respond to any criticism of any sort, the Iron Crown Event was by no exaggeration, one of the most anticipated events in Apex history simply due to the introduction of a Solo play mode. On the Apex Legends boards, the earliest dated post requesting a Solo play mode is dated on February 5th, 2019, a mere day after the game was released. Yet the Iron Crown Event was a massive let down, despite the Solo mode's introduction. 7 Dollar loot boxes, and a 24 item pure RNG prize pool created huge amounts of backlash from the community. All 24 skins were only unlockable through buying the 7 dollar boxes, meaning that players who only wanted one or two particular skins, might end up spending 154 total dollars just to get the skin they wanted, as the event itself only gave you 2 free packs. On top of this, if you purchased all 24 skins, the heirloom (ultra rare item only unlockable through buying all 24 skins, or now only unlockable through spending 500 dollars for 500 Apex Packs) cost you an additional 35 dollars, for a whopping total of 189 dollars. In response to this backlash, Respawn developers issue an apology, stating that reform was on the way. However, their own developers might as well have poured battery acid into an already fresh wound, with 2 developers on Reddit responding to backlash by calling players "freeloaders" and other things that I can't actually put here on the boards. Ever since then, Respawn developers have put a lock on player to developer communication, with only a few comments here and there responding to positive comments only, as well as for PR reasons, shown with the recent Glassdoor review that was put out. Respawn's apology in short was a half baked, PR buzzword nightmare, explicitly stating that, "Our goal has not been to squeeze every last dime out of our players...", yet in practice was the complete opposite. Their "fix" to the Iron Crown backlash, was to not refund any player for any purchases made, and to put up a shop that sold each individual skin for a whopping 18 dollar per skin price point. They also mention that, "Over the last six months we’ve been learning a lot about operating a live service free-to-play game, and one of the take-aways from this week (beyond what was mentioned above) is that our messaging for expectations needs to be clearer." However, that remains to be seen as discussed in the next point.
As mentioned above, after the Iron Crown Event, player to developer communication was promptly put on lock, and with developers responding to positive comments on social media, communication from developers was now primarily through the seasonal update patch notes, AKA, every 4 months or so. A developer stream which was promised to give players a behind the scenes look at what's going on behind the scenes was created, but was only updated seasonally as well, and was usually just the upcoming patch notes read aloud for you. The lack of communication from developers beyond PR management made players across the social media platforms felt unheard, and was compounded by a few of the above issues, such as bugs being unaddressed for seasons on end. Fans of Apex Legends often came up with their own ideas on how to address criticisms of the game, and despite being posted on social media for the developers to see, often went without developer reply.
Returning briefly to criticisms of the game growing stale due to lack of content, many events were implemented in season to keep players playing despite seasonal content updates. These events were often met with mixed reviews, some players praising Respawn for delivering fresh experiences, while others reproving that they felt gimmicky. Despite mixed reviews, a lot of players requested that the LTMs delivered be constantly rotating and playable to offer players with different ways of being able to enjoy Apex Legends. As of this writing 8/4/2020, there are no rotating LTMs constantly available. To touch on Solos again, despite being heavily requested, the developers have doubled down on their statement, saying that Apex will never get a permanent solo mode as it hurts new player retention.
Lastly, SBMM has been a huge topic of debate ever since Apex Legend's launch. In Season 1 and 2, many newer / casual players expressed their frustration with being matched up against players who were much higher skill than they were. The public introduction of SBMM in Season 3 created backlash from a majority of the community, with newer / casual players being fine with it, and average to professional players abhorring the idea. For a time, it worked, however many players expressed their dissatisfaction with the system, and many newer players commenting on how their quality of match had improved drastically. However this too was not to last, as reports of newer players, created by newer players, facing off against high ranked players in unranked lobbies became more common, and high ranked players reporting that their quality of match dropped drastically, as the unranked matchmaker became just as competitive as ranked.
To put it simply, the fears of both parties came true. Newer and casual players started facing off against high skilled players as overall game population started dropping, and higher skilled players had to put up with every match feeling and playing like a ranked match, and being unable to enjoy the game casually or even with friends. This, among other various factors yet to be discussed, has lead to many players quitting the game altogether.
Personal Conjecture:
Apex Legends has a lot going for it, but falls short through failure from the developers in regards to easily fixed issues. A lot of player feedback that I've read is mostly complaints about how slow the developers are towards fixing issues that the community has pointed out. As mentioned above, audio issues have persisted for almost a year now, and have not been addressed by developers. The lack of developer communication after the Iron Crown event has alienated them from their community, and this is especially prominent when you consider that the community has been addressing criticisms of the game for developers since the game has been released. Community feedback is often unheard by developers, and the most prominent example of this was when the Peacekeeper pellet projectile size was increased, which made it way too strong, and it took developers a month to reverse the change, despite the community stating the obvious on the day the Peacekeeper pellet size was increased. Solos, despite being heavily requested, is still not in the game due to it "hurting newer player retention", which is easily solved by locking the mode off until they hit a certain level. Criticism regarding solos, most notably being that some characters would become useless, is fixed by giving characters solo utility that functions well in team-play as well. Bloodhound and Bangalore are prominent solo based legends that offer incredible utility in team play. Another criticism is that Wraith and Pathfinder will be the only characters played. After nearly 5 seasons of play, they still don't know how to balance Wraith. Pathfinder on the other hand had already been nerfed heavily, and manually selecting end-game ring zones for solos would solve the issue of them "abusing" locations that other characters can't reach. Simple solutions to problems that have risen from what could've been a test run of solos, but instead the developers have stated there won't be permanent solos.
A lot of people also parrot the, "Apex is a Team Game" mentality, which is true, Apex is a squad based shooter. However, you'll be hard pressed to actually find people who play for the team, and not for themselves. After 900+ hours of play I see the same behaviors match after match, day after day. People who run off solo and try to 1v3, only to die and leave. People who aren't awake while dropping. People who loot an area that you had already claimed minutes ago, or kills that they hadn't contributed to. People who purposely let their teammates die so they can loot their box. People who are looting while a teammate is fighting an enemy not 5 meters away. People who loot hog and don't drop supplies for others, people who ignore pings and run their own way only to die on their own, etc. etc. 900+ hours of play and I've seen every kind of scummy behavior you can imagine, and personally I think it's laughable to say Apex is a squad based shooter, and not 3 dudes who are all competing with each other for the same goal. The easiest allegory would be a 3 legged race, except with 3 people instead of 2.
Lastly, I just want to address one more thing before I move into the conclusion. The developer's say that Season 5 has been the best for player retention. It's important to understand that while the numbers matter, it's also HOW the numbers are reported. For a more indepth look at what I mean by this, I'm linking Wikipedia's article on the misuse of statistics, essentially how the numbers can be manipulated to say things that are not necessarily true. In this case for player retention, they put in a daily log in reward system, so it's important to separate how MANY players play on a daily basis vs. how LONG they play. How many of the players in their data play consistently day to day for an hour or more, despite the 45 day reward limit, and how many of them play infrequently but log had logged in every day for the daily reward?
Personal Conclusion:
Apex Legends is a unique take on the tired battle royale genre, offering fast paced combat, incredible art design, interesting characters, and gorgeous maps. However, the core strengths of the game, namely fast paced combat, are often bogged down through ever decreasing quality of match and teammate, using a skill based matchmaker that wildly under-performs for both experienced and newer / casual players, and offers players no real way to play at their own pace outside of creating a premade match group. Even then, premade players are subject to the HIGHEST level of skill on the roster, meaning if your friends or you aren't that great, but one of your buddies are Predator, you're playing against Predators. On top of this, Apex Legends fails to capitalize on their fast-paced combat by being unable to offer unique takes on their current design, by both the unfortunate refusal to add solos despite community requests, and by not actually having routinely selectable modes outside of the Battle Royale standard. The lack of player choice in regards to how you can enjoy the game is definitely alienating for both experienced and inexperienced players. Couple this with the developer's poor communication with the community, slow development, drip-fed content, and poorly balanced weapon and legend meta, it's not uncommon to feel that every fight plays out exactly the same way. Just to add insult to injury, every seasonal content update we've gotten has been rife with bugs, with some persisting for seasons on end. Changes are often not what the community expects, and are catered to newer players having a good initial time, increasing their likelihood of purchasing cosmetics through positive reinforcement, while everyone else suffers for it. It's unfortunate to be quitting what could have been an actual Fortnite killer, but the developer's have had a track record of consistently under-performing for even the simplest of features, both in game and community requested.
Referenced Articles:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Lets-talk-the-state-of-Apex/td-p/8671725
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/Who-s-Still-Having-Fun/m-p/8422248
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/Tomorrow-s-Patch/td-p/8798583
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/can-we-get/m-p/8795337#M42427
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/What-s-the-point-of-Split-Ranked/m-p/8734973#M67262
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Rage-inducing-battle-pass-challenges/m-p/9155767#M51838
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Does-this-look-right-to-you-riot/m-p/9194368#M52627
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Solo-mode/td-p/9319928
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/The-current-state-of-Apex-Legends/m-p/9319939#M97074
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/Why-players-are-quitting-Apex/td-p/9300317/page/2
https://www.gamesradar.com/apex-legends-players-are-using-bugged-supply-bins-to-soar-over-the-map/
https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends/news/iron-crown-collection-event-august-2019
https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends/news/iron-crown-update
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Request-Solos/m-p/7420641/highlight/true#M21
https://www.dailyesports.gg/apex-legends-community-irate-over-sbmm-and-the-games-current-state/
https://www.vg247.com/2020/06/03/why-apex-legends-has-sbmm/
https://www.essentiallysports.com/esports-news-were-listening-apex-legends-director-on-sbmm/
https://www.ggrecon.com/articles/apex-legends-sbmm-pros-and-players-alike-have-had-enough
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Why-am-I-in-Apex-Predator-lobbies/td-p/8468833
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Bring-Back-Solos-Now/m-p/8163158#M27104
