New Apex Legends character Ballistic is a terrible father murdering everyone to protect his son

(Image credit: Respawn/EA)

Respawn has just debuted Ballistic, the latest addition to the Apex Legends roster, in a new cinematic trailer.

The latest Stories from the Outlands video introduces Ballistic - properly known as August Montgomery Brinkman - as a very sad, very rich old man. A former competitor in the Thunderdome Games, Ballistic looks regretfully back on a lifetime of ignoring his family in favor of his competitive career. But when his son qualifies for the Apex Games, Ballistic cleans up, puts on the old gear, and violently forces himself into a Syndicate base in order to offer himself as a competitor in his son's place.

The trailer is all cinematic, but it does offer a hint at Ballistic's gameplay abilities, as we see him fire a bullet that appears to teleport a guard backwards, at which point the enemy's gun stops working. A new page on the official site reveals a bit more detail on Ballistic's backstory, and confirms that he's going to be part of the Assault class.

As is customary with many Apex Legends characters, details on Ballistic seemingly leaked months ago. According to those leaks, Ballistic's tactical weapon shoots a projectile that will debuff enemies and cause their guns to overheat, his passive allows him to carry a third weapon, and his ultimate gives nearby teammates buffs like infinite ammo and faster reloads while upgrading the weapon in that aforementioned third slot to gold.

Ballistic will debut in the upcoming Arsenal season, set to launch on May 9. We'll get a better idea of what to expect from Arsenal with the release of the launch trailer on April 26.

A new time-limited mode for Apex Legends lands this week.

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.