The last two weeks have been pretty interesting in the world of Apex Legends. They recently ended their two week Grand Soirée Arcade event that introduced some very fun limited-time modes; modes ranging from the ring constantly being on the move inwards to the ability for your teammates to revive once the ring moves to its next designated area. It was really interesting to jump into Apex Legends and experience a twist on the Battle Royale genre. But it also begs the question, why not make some of the modes a more permanent option for players?
Battle Royales have not really been my cup of tea. Sure, I enjoy Apex Legends, but after a few days of it I tend to put it down for weeks. Normally until there is a new content drop, or in this case, a new event. It’s not something that I play regularly, but the game is fun enough to come back to. The Grand Soirée Arcade event gave the game more flair and, for me personally, actually let me play the game a little differently. In the “Live.DieLive.” mode your teammates were allowed to be revived on ring movement. During this mode, my friend and I played a little more aggressively knowing that we did have some sort of lifeline (see what I did there) in case things went south. And to be honest, they did, but it was that small difference that made the match feel different from the usual Apex Legends experience.
Probably one of my favorite modes during this event was the “Always Be Closing” mode. This was where the ring was always moving closer to its center. Now, this was a really fun time. In some ways, it forces you to reveal yourself from cover to engage in a team fight so you could take out the enemy team to keep moving. Other times you could hunker down where the ring would close into, giving you the advantage as other players had to run to where you were. We actually won a game this way. We were at the final circle destination and simply waited for the remaining teams to get there. After some intense team fights, with multiple squads participating, we won the match at the very end. Winning in this manner was a different rush than usual. The ring was closed and there were several teams all globbed together just firing away and we won. It was really fun.
There were some other modes that were interesting to play through. The “Third-Person” mode was actually kind of cool because I could see my character and the cool skin I had on him (I mainly play as Mirage). Although it felt a little clunky, it was nice to run around in third-person. Another really fun one was “Armed and Dangerous”. This was where you would pick up golden shotguns and snipers, golden meaning the weapons were fully decked out in attachments. My friend and I actually played one of these games. Lots of sniping and rushing people with shotguns. It was a blast.
After all of this, my friend and I were talking about how some of these modes would be great regular additions to the game. I think it would make players, and me included, come back more often not only because there is more variety but also that some of the modes, we found ourselves winning more. And that is a good feeling. Especially in the “Armed and Dangerous” mode. My friend and I found ourselves in the top five frequently and it just made us want to play more to get that sweet sweet victory. I’m not saying all the modes need to stick around but I think allowing players to experience more than just the same old battle royale could be beneficial for Apex Legends. The game that is there is solid. Respawn should have a little more fun with it, and not for just two weeks at a time.
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