Apex Legends’ new event sees player complaints of recycled content reach boiling point

Apex Legends confirmed its first new event of season 17 today, Threat Level, which will launch on May 23. The event is full of space-themed cosmetics and a featured LTM that the Apex community voted on. But judging by the reception to the trailer, it doesn’t seem like many players are actually excited about it.

Threat Level isn’t described as a collection event, like many of Apex‘s biggest events are, and it doesn’t have any sort of Heirloom or Prestige skin prize for unlocking all of the event’s new cosmetics. Instead, it has a series of skins that players can unlock, the customary free prize tracker for events, and a two-week period where Control will always be available to play at any time instead of rotating in the Mixtape playlist. And all of that seems to be exactly the problem: Apex players have seen all of this stuff before.

For starters, the skins are all recolored skins from past events and offerings. These types of offerings can be great for newer players or those who missed out on a skin they might have wanted from a previous season, offering a fresh take on a popular look for some of their favorite characters. But large segments of the Apex player base have made themselves clear on this topic before. Filling out events with recolored skins from past events feels uninspired, and in Threat Level, it’s not just a few recolored skins. It looks like all of the Legendary character and weapon skins shown off in the trailer and in Respawn’s blog are recolors.

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Then there’s Control, which won the Apex fan vote to be the LTM from the Mixtape playlist that got its own permanent slot for the two-week event. And sure, Control certainly won its popularity contest over Gun Run and Team Deathmatch, but it’s difficult for players to get excited about an LTM that’s always around in Mixtape anyway, even if they have to wait 10 minutes or so for it to come up in the rotation.

While season 16 of Apex aimed to be one of rejuvenation and working on things to fundamentally change the game for all of its players, some fans seem to think the event is falling back on old habits.

The only thing that actually seems to be new in the event is also a riff on an existing Apex LTM as TDM-Unshielded takes Control’s place in the Mixtape playlist as a rotating option during the event. This LTM is exactly what it sounds like: Team Deathmatch, but nobody gets shields. That might move the needle for some hardcore TDM players, but most players probably find it difficult to get excited about such a small tweak.

After a season where high-profile changes like the new ranked system and weapon mastery have garnered more criticism than praise, it doesn’t seem like that trend is relenting with Threat Level.