Exactly 5 years ago, on this day, Apex Legends stepped into its second season. Do you like the game now, or do you prefer the older version?
Respawn released Apex Legends on February 19, 2019. In spite of the surprise launch, the game quickly became widely recognized, and by 2021, it had over 100 million active players worldwide.
Apex’s Season 2, Battlecharge, was released on July 2, 2019. It was one of the most successful seasons of this fast-paced battle royale that introduced so much new content into the game, such as Ranked mode, skydive emotes, L-star LMG, and more.
Today marks five years since Battlecharge was released. A total of 19 seasons were later released in the game as of today. Since Season 2, the game has undergone a great deal of change, both positive and negative. Here, we’ll highlight the big changes that changed the dynamics of Apex Legends.
New Legends
After Season 2 [Wattson], we have received 16 new Legends in the game. Among them, 3 Recon, 4 Skirmishers, 3 Support, 2 Controller, and 4 Assault Legends have been introduced.
New Weapons
After Season 2 [L-Star], we received 8 new weapons in the game. Among them, 1 AR, 2 SMGs, 1 LMG, 2 Marksmans, and 2 Snipers have been introduced.
New Maps
Starting with Season 3 Meltdown, Apex Legends introduced 4 new BR maps in the game. Now, Apex Legends has a total of 5 BR maps. The next BR map, District, will be released in Season 22.
Game Modes and Mixtape
Since Season 2, Apex Legends introduced more than 2 dozen game modes. Among them, some popular game modes are Winter Express, Armed and Dangerous, Shadow Royale, Control, Gun Run, TDM, and Three Strikes.
Based on popularity, Respawn included some of these game modes in Mixtape, which is always available in the Apex Legends playlists.
Rank Changes
The Ranked mode was introduced in Season 2. Since then, a ton of changes have been made to the popular mode. 2 new rank tiers, Rookie and Masters, were also later added to the rank tiers. Because of Apex’s competitive nature, Respawn needs to make continuous modifications to this rank system almost every season.
Armor Changes
Before Season 5, Apex Legends BR had 4 tiers of armor: white, blue, purple, and gold. However, in Season 6, Respawn disrupted the game with the introduction of the Evo armor, and the red armor joined the armor category. To keep the gameplay balanced, the armors received many adjustments until Season 20. In Season 20, Respawn completely revamped the armor system and replaced Evo armors with Evo shields. The update also removed the gold armor from the game.
Survival Items
Apex Legends introduced Mobile Respawn Beacon, the first survival item in Season 5. It was a game changer, as players didn’t have to depend on the fixed Respawn Beacons anymore. Due to the positive feedback, Respawn added Heat Shield in Season 8 and Evac Tower in Season 17.
Replicator
Another important feature, Replicator, was added to the game in Season 6. The original Replicator could craft many items like Ammo, Gear, Attachment, Battery, Med-kit, and specific weapons. However, in Season 20, Respawn made drastic adjustments to the Replicator. Now, you can only use a Replicator once and craft either Ammo, Battery, a Med-kit, or Teammates’ banners. The only positive thing is that you don’t need Crafting Materials to use the Replicator.
Hop-ups
In Season 2, Apex Legends had 6 available Hop-ups: Precision Choke, Selectfire Receiver, Skullpiercer, Turbocharger, Disruptor Rounds and Hammerpoint Rounds. After that, Respawn introduced 8 more unique Hop-ups into the game. However, most people still favor the OG Hop-ups.
Cosmetics
Apex Legends has improved a long way in the Cosmetics department. As it is Apex’s only source of revenue, it is understandable that Apex Legends focuses deeply on Cosmetics. Since Season 2, Apex Legends introduced several other types of cosmetics, such as Holosprays in Season 6, Emotes in Season 9, Prestige Skins in Season 12, Stickers in Season 15, Heirloom recolors in Season 16, Apex Artifacts in Season 20, and Exotic skins [Reactive recolors] in Season 21.
Perk System
In Season 16, Apex Legends completely revamped the Legend categories and introduced the Perk system. The revamped Legend system also introduced a new class called Skirmisher, renamed the Defensive class to Controller, and redefined Legend roles across all categories.
More Related: Apex Legends experienced its lowest 30-day average player count in more than 2 years
As it has been more than 5 years since Apex Legends was released, it is really difficult to pinpoint all the changes here. However, comparing the current version of Apex Legends to the older one, you can definitely figure out that we’ve come a long way and improved quite a lot. Although Apex has lost a small percentage of players in recent days, we all hope that the game will return to its former glory.
