Apex Legends' new lore tab is a game-changer if you want to catch up

Apex Legends just introduced a potentially game-changing feature for lapsed players.

Yesterday on Valentine's Day (as it happens), Apex Legends' brand new season, Revelry, kicked off around the world. Accompanying the new season is a new section of the Apex Legends website, dedicated to chronicling every in-game lore event and story Respawn has ever told throughout the four years of the battle royale.

This is a huge deal for Apex Legends, and live-service games at large. A dedicated resource pooling together every lore fragment from events, comics, trailers, and in-game Episodes is amazing for those looking to touch up their knowledge of every character in Apex Legends, or even lapsed players.

As it happens, I'm weirdly a perfect case study for this feature. I haven't touched Apex Legends for around four months now, shelving the game shortly after Vantage joined the Apex Games. Putting down Respawn's game, a shooter I've loved since day one, wasn't deliberate on my part - I just found other things that interested me for a change.

As the months drew on, I felt tempted to return to my beloved battle royale game, and all the characters I'd left behind. I was fearful I'd missed dramatic events over the weeks and months though - especially the in-game Episodes, which tell stories over several instalments over every season, vanishing from Apex Legends entirely after the current season wraps up.

With this new resource on the Apex Legends website, I can catch up everything I've missed, not having to worry about scouring the internet for a recap, or trudging through YouTube for an overlong reminder. Every story development I've ever missed is right there, just waiting for me to return and relearn everything whenever I want. 

There's bound to be others like me, who've fallen off the bandwagon, and desperately want to get back in on the action. This new feature gives us all a welcome avenue back into Apex Legends, without any time-sensitive pressure. 

The lore section is also a major win for game preservation. With each new seasonal event, Apex Legends cycles out its Episodes, in doing so jettisoning all the in-game writing from its team contained within. Now though, all that hard work and effort is effectively stored away, so Respawn's writers have a place they know their work is saved, to go back to whenever they need it.

This isn't an in-game feature for Apex Legends, but it's arguably one of the most exciting updates surrounding the game in quite some time. If other live-service games like Destiny 2 or Fortnite follow suit, storing every in-game lore development and story in one easily-accessible place, this has the potential to be an industry-changing feature.

Earlier this month, EA reportedly cancelled a new Titanfall game that would've incorporated elements and characters from Apex Legends.