Hi folks,

So I've been catching up on my bombcasts of late and hearing Brad, Ben and Jeff just positively rave mad about how amazing Apex Legends was I decided to give it a go on the PC and console. So far I'm left feeling like I'm missing out on something when I play this game. To be fair I will be giving it more time but I'd love to know some tips on how to get the most out of the game. I'll admit I'm not entirely a fan of the forced team mode, while it's a different approach I can't say I like it a whole lot. That said the communication tools are impressive. Using a mic I've worked okay with a few teams and haven't had quite the awful experience I feared but it just hasn't ticked with me. The squad inclusion makes me constantly feel like a liability and I've had matches where we've landed and died instantly... that isn't much fun. That said, I know some of this is down to being new to the game.

So, have any useful tips on how I can enjoy the game a bit more? Would appreciate it.

I played a lot of Titanfall 2 and have been a big fan of BR games in the past, but the shooting in Apex feels terrible, i think it's a combination of armour increasing the time to kill, default mag sizes being fairly low and the netcode being adjusted to allow for more players, it all contributes to firefights feeling not at all satisfying.
Besides that i've never liked characters having special abilities in ANY shooter, so i fell off this game right from the start.
I've got no advice for you, just chipping in incase, like me, it doesn't meet the very high mark everyone seems to think it does.

One of the best online shooters I've ever played, it does so many things right first time out the gate I'm kind of in awe. What kind of tips are you after? Basic fps tips or apex specific? How is your general fps skill level? Have you played many comparative fps before?

It’s just you. I enjoy the gameplay but there are plenty of things about it that can make it a bad experience. Generally I had a lot more fun in Titanfall 2 multiplayer because it was more frenetic and immediate. Battle Royale still struggles with spending 15-20 minutes of creeping around only to die instantly, and the relatively quick and sparse encounter make it hard to get better.

Apex Legends was officially the game that cemented the idea that battle royale games were simply not for me.

I think Apex is the best playing and most cleverly designed of the major entries in its genre. I think the ways it innovates non-verbal multiplayer communication are triumphs that should be considered and implemented in a host of other games from a variety of other genres. And I think the sheer level of polish from top to bottom represents a benchmark that all major studio releases should aspire to meet.

But every time I play Apex (or any battle royale, really) I realize I just don't like the non-linear nature of the encounters or the unwieldy balance of the guns in the sandbox or the impact that high-end armor has on the feel of late-game gunfights.

I much prefer a more traditional deathmatch style shooter experience. And you know what? Those games are out there. I can just go play them. The genre of battle royale is a style of shooting game I can acknowledge and bypass the exact same way I acknowledge and bypass simulation racing games.

I struggle with this exact logic. I figure, well, everyone universally loves PUBG/Fortnite/Apex, so if I'm the lone man on an island not getting as much out of the experience, there's got to be something wrong with me, right? There's some weird self-imposed social pressure I'm placing on myself to appreciate--and, in turn, succeed at--these games to the same degree everyone else is.

But it's okay to step away. It's okay to stand outside arm's reach and salute a game for the things it does right, even if you aren't getting any joy from playing it.

The main reason I enjoy it so much is just how good it feels to play. For me that is everything in an FPS. All of the brilliant stuff they have crafted around the side is just an added bonus. If it just doesn't feel awesome to play for you, then I suspect nothing will change your mind.

I think it plays really well. I got in right away so my skillset early on mostly matched those around me. Now I find the game a bit more swingy between running into opponents that I can mostly match and then running into those who instantly wipe the floor with me. The armour aspect can take some getting used to as opponents take a lot more shots than you'd initially think to go down. I find it can be frustrating that "knock downs" don't count for kills - but that can cut both ways.

To me it's a game that I look forward to playing pretty much most nights, and I think I'll sink a little bit of money into it to get some of the other characters and the Battle Pass when that comes out.

But I wouldn't characterise it as 'something wrong with you'. I liked PUBG (and still kinda do) and really like this, but to each their own.

Tips to enjoy it more would be:

- Just follow along with your team and contribute where you can, try using your abilities and alternates more

- If you're jumpmaster, just drop hot. I've never had a team complain about that - always a good chance to practice the combat and people like getting into fights

- Once you've done character select and are in the screen where you're flying over the island, hit "start" (or options or whatever the hell the console calls it. two random squares on the Xbox I think), hit R2 (or R1) to go to the 'squad' section, then you can mute your fellow players. As with any online game, this has occasionally come in handy.

It's not just you. I can totally see reason's why people would hate Apex, and all Battle Royale games. That said, Apex Legends has really grabbed me, and I'm finding it really hard to put down. But I'm probably not your typical player. A little background, I've played shooters for probably over 20 years now, but really didn't get into playing more seriously until Destiny 1's Trials of Osiris in Spring 2015. After playing Destiny PvP causally but in a somewhat serious manner for the past few years, as an above average player (roughly top 5-10%), I've been able to develop a friends list of FPS players that are often vastly better than myself or at least as good. Keep in mind, Apex Legends is more or less Destiny the Battle Royale mode in the way both abilities, weapons, and TTK's function (they are both extremely similar), so a lot of that game translates to Apex Legends, honestly as much or more than even other BR's like PUBG and Fortnite, so I already had a huge advantage between the similarities and that strong FPS friends list. But I've also not been without issue.

The technical issues I've seen in Apex Legends has actually been quite frequent. I've been on PS4, so maybe PC hasn't been this bad, but up until the last week or so both myself and friends have had all kinds of server issues. From slow motion games that lag like crazy, to cannot connect to EA Servers, to no reason boots from game, to full on Console freezes (that force a hard shutdown and restart), the game has been full of technical problems. And nothing is more upsetting, than either being the one booted, or having a teammate booted when you are in the final 3 teams and feel like you have a serious shot at winning. Another unavoidable issue, is going either solo or in a duo, can result in widely varying degree's of an experience. I've actually won at least 10 games solo queue, and don't get me wrong, that feeling is amazing to know you won with only the communication born of Pings (I'm almost 100% of the time in a Voice Chat on PS4 with somebody, even if I'm not playing with them, and I honestly don't care what my random teammates have to say, I'm getting way too old and grumpy for all that), but that is rarely the experience you will find with random people. More likely you will get teammates that either grief, steal your loot (by never leaving your side and vacuuming any loot you come to), or engage enemies 1500 yards from you only to give away your position to the team that was actually in the building next door (don't even get me started on the 2 guys who cussed me out saying I suck when I downed 2/3 of a team, only to have to bail because they ran away, then got chased and downed 2/3 again before dying only to realize they were legit cowering in a pipe... in a video game). And beyond all that, the simply realities of Battle Royale games settles in once you win your first 5th party situation and don't even have time to heal before it becomes a 6th party and you easily get wiped after a massive 15 player battle your team just won. Sometimes you just feel like the game is against you, and then you don't even have a single engagement until final 3 teams and walk into the final 2 guys peak shooting each other only to easily wipe both in seconds.

All I can say is this game isn't for everyone. I'm surprised so many people enjoy it that aren't as lucky as myself to have super talented friends to carry me when I falter. Apex easily has that competitive spirit I love about something like Destiny's Trials of Osiris, a goal like Flawless to obtain in the form of Champions of the Arena and medals to earn and equip to your playercards, but I can totally see why it wouldn't appeal to players that just aren't into any sort of PvP game at all, especially one on the more competitive end with the way Battle Royale games work. One of my biggest suggestions though, if you don't have friends to play with, is do not solo queue if you can help it. There are resources around here that can really help solve that. One of the big ones is to join the GB Apex Legends Discord. There are a ton of both casually focused and talented players on all platforms. And if you are on PS4, you can probably catch me around there on occasion as well in the LFG. And if you are new, just be open about that with whoever you match with and take any and all advise those players give out. You will have a lot better experience I promise.

I hate all these battle royale games personally. Too much time just wandering around doing nothing looking for your 10 second gun fight. Probably die and repeat. Not fun. But I guess im in the minority.

Unless you're really good then you need to have a squad that utilizes the ping system in the game to know everything around you and loot quick as a squad then move onto the action.