At its core, Apex Legends is a battle royale game with hero-shooter mechanics added in to stand out from all the competition.
Since Apex Legends is still a battle royale game, balance plays a huge role in ensuring competitive integrity. Respawn initially marketed Apex Legends as an FPS shooter where your ability provides some tactical opportunities.
In the recent patches, hero abilities did receive some buffs. On top of that, the Pathfinder and Wraith rework really changed the whole meta. In the process, Respawn created a more diverse meta where recon legends like Bloodhound and Crypto finally got the attention they deserved.
Season 7 of Apex Legends introduced Horizon as their new legend. This is probably the first time the whole community has unanimously agreed that Horizon launched in a pretty good state. Since previous Legend releases were oftentimes underwhelming, Horizon was a breath of fresh air.
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Is Apex too Focused on Abilities?
With the release of Horizon, some of the pro players in the Apex Legends community feel the game is currently moving away from its FPS roots and slowly turning into a game where only your abilities matter more than your gunplay.
Even some of the top content creators in the scene had the same thing to say about this new direction from Respawn. With these powerful abilities, the community feels the game is slowly turning into ‘overwatch.’
From all the recent changes to the meta, it seems like Respawn is slowly buffing hero abilities with each new season, but is that the right direction to take for a hero shooter that is also a battle royale game? It is really difficult to tell if it is the right direction, as we are in the early stages of the transition process.
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With a couple more seasons, Respawn might finally settle into a more refined meta. Until then, some overpowered abilities may stay exactly the same as before.
