5 years later, Apex Legends is finally overhauling its systems enough to convince me to pick it back up again

When it first launched, Apex Legends absolutely enthralled me. A surprise release from Respawn, the Titanfall folks, that's a well-polished battle royale? Yes, please! But after a couple of seasons, there were other games a-callin', and Apex Legends quickly became just another live service game I kept up with through press releases only. And now, five years later, I find myself at a crossroads because the latest update coming with its newest season on February 13 feels like the perfect moment for lapsed players to get back on the proverbial horse.

It should come as no surprise to anyone at all familiar with the release cadence for live service games that whatever the current status quo is within any given game, be it Apex Legends or Fortnite or Destiny 2, it's the result of years worth of incremental updates. It's exceedingly rare for any slate within the greater entity to get wiped even close to clean; it's more common for a series of small changes to ultimately create new opportunities or experiences or patterns of play.

And while that is certainly still true to some degree in Respawn's latest attempt at reinventing Apex Legends' core gameplay – there's no sticking the cats plural that are previously released Legends back in the bag – it does genuinely feel like a significant attempt that should put a large number of folks back on similar, though not exactly the same, footing. In more ways than one, actually.

You got your RPG in my battle royale

For example, individual players will now level up over time during a match as of Season 20, earning points through things like combat or caches or assisting teammates, in order to increase their EVO level to bump up their body armor (white to blue to purple and so on) and unlock a total of two distinct and separate abilities out of a possible four. While there's previously been a version of upgradable body armor through a similar system, it's no longer a loot item at all going forward, and each Legend you encounter is likely to have a few more tricks up their sleeve behind the usual variables of position and loadout. The possibilities are not anywhere close to endless, but they are certainly much more complex than before.

The actual significance of these upgrades remains debatable at the moment. Without actually playing around with them myself, it's hard to say whether Gibraltar, for example, gaining the ability to revive allies with 40 HP or automatically reloading shotguns on knocks is enough to turn the tide, but it's certainly something that's going to offer a lot more variability to the game. Like, say, Mad Maggie's Wrecking Ball suddenly being on fire.

"We are rolling out the single largest change to Legends since the game has launched with the Legend Upgrade system," says John Larson, Legends game designer on Apex Legends. "In summary, we are adding four upgrades to the entire roster of Legends for a total of 100 new ways to personalize your experience from Legend to Legend."

This light dusting of RPG elements isn't the only major change coming to Apex Legends, but it's by far the most individually impactful. Everything else just builds from there. Crafting, for instance, has also been overhauled. Replicators have historically been able to produce a number of items – for a price. In the coming update, however, they will be restricted to support items like Med Kits and Shield Batteries, but will come at no cost, allowing each player to use each Replicator once per match. (Yes, you can still craft banners in order to revive teammates that have been left behind.)

"The crafting time has been sped up; it's almost instantaneous now," says Josh Mohan, Apex Legends lead battle royale designer. "As soon as you make your selection, the item appears a few seconds later. This makes the Replicator a reliable source of consumables, anytime you need them, without having to worry about whether you have enough materials."

Functionally, the rest of the game appears to be much the same, of course. You still drop into a map, you still fight over loot and spacing, and you still want to be the last group standing at the end of a match. Legends still have passives, tacticals, and ultimates, and the guns still largely do what… well, the guns do. For someone that hasn't played in a significant amount of time, all of that incremental knowledge gained by consistent players is still going to be there, and working against you.

But if you ask me, the changes that aren't incremental here are enough to even the odds. They're never going to truly be in the favor of the person that hasn't been playing, but if you're new or simply trying to shake the rust off, it's hard to imagine a better time to give it a go. The figurative train hasn't stopped, really, but it's slowed down enough for folks to try to catch up.

This does seem to be kind of the point. Hearing from Respawn, it's clear that the team is trying to keep things fresh and interesting while also providing a bit of a reset here, five years after launch. In some ways literally, as ranked has also been. Add six Legends being on offer for free through the completion of challenges in the coming season, and it really feels like the developers are trying their best to roll out the red carpet as a foundation for the coming five years. And, if I'm honest, it's kind of working for me…

Where we dropping, boys?