Apex Legends Mobile - Review
When Respawn Entertainment released Apex Legends out of the blue one day a few years ago, there was no telling how it was going to go. There were a few other battle royale games around already and while it was connected to the world of Titanfall, it was doing its own thing. Now here we are, some years later and the game has hit all consoles, including Switch and now it has landed on Mobile devices. Is this a legendary edition of the game, or has it failed to reach the apex of mobile gaming?
What is important to know about Apex Legends Mobile is that while it is the same game, there is less content available in it, at least for now, but at its core is the same Apex Legends experience that exists on other platforms. One other thing to note, as the game was not publicly available around the world, at the time of this review, player count was random from match to match and while generally it was on the higher side, I did encounter a few games with less people that was ideal. With that said though, lets get into the gameplay, as I mentioned before the core of it is the same, you are in a squad, sometimes with two other players and your goal is to wipe out all the opposing squads, whilst staying within the ever-shrinking field of play, there is honestly nothing different in the core.
Where things change is in how you play, as the game doesn’t support – at least for now, any additional controllers, so if you play its on screen buttons only. I need to preface this next part with the statement that on screen buttons are the worst way to play any game, they are not as responsive as a dedicated input, at least to me and it was the same case here. As with most other mobile games that are replicating the FPS experience, the left side of the screen is where you move your thumb to control where you move and the right side of the screen is where almost everything else is located. This is where you shoot, jump, slide/crouch, aim and more and being honest it can feel overloaded at times. The shooting button is of course the largest of them, but even with that, there were times when the action was thick, where I would fail to hit the shoot button and instead change to aiming down the sights.
The right side of the screen is also where the aiming controls are and much like the movement side of things, the more you move away from the place you touched, the more you turn around. It does take some getting used to and thankfully the game does have options for you to tweak it, should you desire to, but even with that, there is still an adjustment for it. For the most part, the controls do what they need to do, but every now and then, the controls wouldn’t register my input, I would move my thumb up to start running and the game would just have me standing still and I would have to restart the motion for things to take effect. The same would also happen when I was trying to change the direction of where I was looking, now when this happened when there were no enemies around, it was annoying but not a real issue. The problem arose when it started happening whilst in the middle of a firefight and while it is quick to correct the issue, it is frustrating that it happens at all.
On the content side of things, the game was meant to launch with both World’s End and Kings Canyon, but due to some last-minute issues found with the King’s Canyon map, that has been pulled from the rotation. There were also a host of team death match locations and arenas to enjoy, making it pretty packed on playable space. Where the content drops significantly, if you don’t count the lack of Olympus and Storm Point of course, is the playable legend count out of the gate. There are nine Legends making the jump to mobile with fan favourites like Mirage, Wraith and Octane among them, but an all-new Legend is here as well, Fade. If you are someone who prefers to play elsewhere, Fade will eventually make their way over to the other versions of the game, just like other Legends will join the mobile release. This is not a watered-down version, or some top-down adaptation of the Apex Legends experience, no this is a full experience in terms of gameplay and yes there are some characters missing, it still feels complete.
Well, it should feel complete, but for some reason the developers opted to hide extra content behind a separate in-game download menu, which I don’t quite get. Sure, it does allow for them to avoid having to get the game checked when they want to update it, but as the game never told me that I could download extra audio or maps, which had me thinking it was lite on content. Some may make comparisons back to older games where it would allow for the download of a HD texture pack, the game would still be ok to play without it, but having it there makes it all the better and the same can be said here. The content is all there, don’t mistake me, but it isn’t all downloaded at once and with it not being clear about how to get the extra content, it ends up being confusing.
One the presentation side of things, there are some good and some bad, so let us start with the good, which is for the most part the game looks identical to the other versions. In terms of visual fidelity, it is more inline with the Switch release than say the PC but has a few extra levels of polish and a few lesser ones. Running around Worlds Edge, you will see the same familiar locations, but any detail on them won’t load in until you get much closer. Characters also look exactly like you would expect, complete with the same lines to hear, which really helps sell the authentic feel of the release.
The visual issues though, are as I mentioned before related to pop in of visual assets, for the most part it’s really noticeable when you enter an area with a lot of taller structures, where there is no land mass behind them. Even on ground level there are still times when extra detail will get added in, even with you just metres away from them and when the action is going fast, you will not notice is, but given there are times when you are just moving from place to place, seeing something change out of nowhere, can be frustrating. None of the pop in issues though impact the games performance, as it runs quite smoothly, be it running and sliding, zip-lining or some other action, it just runs great. Even when I was in a fight that had a few squads all battling it out, the game was still running perfectly fine.
If you have another platform, I would suggest Apex Legends there, the physical controls are really required to make the game shine, however if you don’t or prefer mobile gaming, then Apex Legends Mobile is still worth downloading. The game is feature complete, in terms of gameplay and while it may not have the same map or Legend count as its big brother, it is still loaded with content to enjoy. The controls are going to take a lot of adjusting to, some are due to the default placement and some are due to them not responding, but should you get your head around them, you will get a game that is fun to play and plays well.
The Score
8.0
Review access provided by Electronic Arts
The Pros
+Features almost all the content from the mainline version, but has a new character
+When the controls work, they work well and being able to run, slide, jump and shoot, feels great
The Cons
-It is when the controls don’t quite work when the frustration can arise
-There isn’t an easy way to just get all the content downloaded for the game
