Following the legends’ combined efforts to kill the giant sea creature featured in Apex Legends’ Saviors launch trailer, what remains of its corpse is set to become a new playspace in Storm Point’s first map update.
The POI represents a new high-tier location for squads to drop into in season 13, with buildings and infrastructure built around and inside the creature’s carcass, and the best loot left within the belly of the beast. It’s situated between North Pad and The Mill on the northwest side of Storm Point, with the goal of spreading the heat map of favored player drop locations more evenly across the island. Developers hope the Downed Beast will pull some attention away from the Barometer drop specifically, lead level designer Jeff Shaw said in a press conference last week.
All the Downed Beast replaces is a small section of barren land, described as an additive change instead of a destructive one. Apex maps traditionally required explosive solutions to map updates, with previous POIs torn up or flattened to make way for new gameplay experiences. With Storm Point, Respawn Entertainment wants the focus of its map update to be on only adding to the experience already there.
Despite the unique and unusual terrain that makes up the creature’s outer shell, squads can fight on top of the POI as well as inside it, allowing for opportunities to capitalize off high ground positioning. There are a variety of ways to climb atop the shell, meaning that flanks and pushes are still possible for teams aiming to dethrone any squad set up there. A number of flyers can be seen in the area as well, attracted to the carcass and waiting for an opportunity to pick at it.
While this is the first significant change to Storm Point since its release two seasons ago, Shaw says it represents only one of many stories that Storm Point can tell, and Respawn is not done with adjusting and adding to the tropical location.
“It’s really important to us that [Storm Point] stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the other maps on a competitive level. We want to keep it evolving and fresh,” he said. “It was built through this lens of looking forward and at updates, and building it with this method really allowed us to be additive with new content, rather than destructive.”
The Downed Beast will be joined by four new IMC armories dotted around Storm Point when the season launches, making for new experiences in both level and gameplay design thanks to the armory’s PvE mini-game focus. Players can explore both when Apex season 13, Saviors, launches on May 10.
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Published: May 2, 2022 10:00 am