In April, people believed that Respawn killed Apex Legends‘ blazing momentum within the ever-changing battle royale scene with a lack of content, a plethora of technical issues, and an absence of communication with its player base.
It wasn’t looking great for the promising new free-to-play title, especially with many players heading back to older, more well-known games like Fortnite. These fears were solidified when the game’s first season and Battle Pass were released. Most people agreed that it was incredibly underwhelming and it lacked content and general appeal.
Although it took a bit of time, it looks like Respawn has finally made some big strides to improve itself and its game. Season two has been a substantial upgrade from its predecessor, but will it be enough to push Apex back into the limelight after its fall from grace?
Satisfying their hunger
When the season one Battle Pass dropped, people were understandably disappointed because it had almost nothing new for players who were already hungry for more Apex content. The pass had lackluster weapon skins, bland character skins, and no real incentive to grind out its 100 levels.
In the battle royale scene, a game’s life can be fleeting. Many people know that a developer must keep entertaining its player base if it wants the game to survive. With season two, Respawn has made huge steps to combat this problem with the addition of multiple new features and cosmetics.
First, Respawn completely revamped Kings Canyon and brought in a bunch of new features to the map, including fliers and leviathans. This was already a great start for the second season. Changing the map provided different experiences to players who had played on the original map for too long. Wattson was also a welcome addition to the game’s roster, while the season two Battle Pass was improved in a great way.
The icing on the cake was when Respawn introduced the Iron Crown collection. With a huge selection of new skins, event challenges, loot, and a completely new area on the map called Town Takeover, this new event was an amazing touch on a successful second season. Respawn has even added a Solos mode for a limited time, which is exactly what players wanted from the game’s launch.
Keeping things clear
One big thing that Respawn worked on was its communication with the Apex player base. After a huge part of the community raised complaints about how quiet Respawn was when it came to updates and problems, CEO Vince Zampella said that the team would become more active when talking to the public about possible changes to the game.
Whether it’s on Twitter or on Apex‘s official subreddit, Jay “Jayfresh” Frechette has been extremely vigilant in answering as many questions as the player base has to offer.
He also makes community check-in posts where he updates Apex fans of any crazy updates or changes that are happening to the game, while also acknowledging and updating players on any problems that are in the process of being fixed. There’s even a regularly updated public Trello board where Respawn shows everything that the team is working on, from quality-of-life features to bugs and other issues.
The air has been cleared between Respawn and its player base, and Apex is doing pretty well because of it. Although the game’s viewership has dropped significantly on Twitch since its release, for example, it’s still remained a top category on the streaming platform since the start of season two.
Nothing is perfect
Of course, not every release will be perfect. And with Apex, there are still some things that need to be addressed by the team. There are a plethora of bugs and errors that are plaguing Apex players, like the infamous code: wheel and code: leaf.
These issues can frustrate players and need to be figured out for this game to really start ramping up again as a top contender in the battle royale sphere. The gameplay is solid and the content is impressive, but if games are failing due to bugs and errors, then all of those changes are for nothing.
But still, Respawn has made some great strides toward improving its game and caring for its community. It shows that the developer really learned from its past failures. People should be excited to see what Respawn has planned for Apex in the coming months because it’s proven that it can create some great content for this game.
