Where to Play Apex Legends

It's quite rare for a game to come out without being hyped to the max these days. Games are usually teased with cryptic trailers, for years, or revealed at large gaming events like E3, but Respawn and EA just dropped Apex Legends with little to no fanfare. Released on February 4, 2019, this game seemingly came out of nowhere to surpass 25 million unique players and more than 2 million peak concurrent players in about a week. A new contender in the battle royale genre, Apex Legends is a refreshing take on the popular game type.

In Apex Legends, you're part of a three-person squad. You'll choose from eight characters called Legends, each with its own unique abilities. Then, your team will drop into a map with 19 other teams (60 players total) with no equipment. Your goal is to look for and loot the best equipment available, such as guns, ammo, armor, medkits, shield cells, and more. An ever-shrinking safe zone forces teams into a smaller space on the map, resulting in more firefights. Your goal is to be the last team standing. If a teammate gets knocked down, you can pick them up. If they are completely killed, you can recover their banner within a set amount of time and have them jump back into the match, so you can have a full squad once again. This is different from other battle royale games where, once a teammate dies, they stay dead for the rest of the match. A word of advice, the time to kill (TTK) of an opponent is a bit longer than a normal first-person shooter (FPS); you'll have to rely on several headshots, positioning, and utilizing all the unique abilities of your Legend, as well as working together with the rest of your squad.

So, what does this game cost? It's free. That's right, free. Zero dollars. Your money stays in your wallet and/or under your mattress. But what's the catch? Well, there are loot boxes. Now, before you release a rage of a thousand Star Wars Battlefront II day-one players on us, no progression is locked into the loot boxes. Yes, you can purchase Apex Coins, an in-game currency, to buy loot boxes, but they only contain cosmetic items, such as character or weapon skins. There are two locked characters you can buy with Apex Coins, which brings the total legend count to 10, or through Legend Tokens, which are earned in-game. This means you're not missing out if you don't spend your hard-earned cash, eliminating the pay-to-win mechanic that plagues other free-to-play games. You can unlock everything by simply playing the game. You just have to put in the time.

Microsoft Xbox One

You can play Apex Legends on the Microsoft Xbox One. While the Xbox One S should run the game fine, you should opt for the Xbox One X if you want the best Xbox gaming performance. Please keep in mind that you will need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play, since it is an online-only multiplayer game. This is an additional cost to the Xbox One.

Sony PlayStation 4

Apex Legends is also available on the Sony PlayStation 4. The standard PS4 can run the game, but the PS4 Pro will give the best PlayStation gaming experience. Normally, you would need a separate PlayStation Plus membership to play online multiplayer games, but for Apex Legends, it is not required.

PC

If you're really looking to play Apex Legends competitively, you should seriously consider purchasing a gaming PC or build your own. The precision of a keyboard and mouse setup compared to a controller is quite noticeable. Also, since Apex Legends is a first-person shooter (FPS), you would benefit more from a smaller monitor with a high refresh rate and low input lag. You should also aim for a gaming computer that adheres to Respawn's recommended system requirements for at least 60 fps (although we would personally recommend you try to go higher, such as 120 fps).

OS: Windows 7 (64-bit) or higher
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K or equivalent
RAM: 8GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290
VRAM: 8GB
Storage: 22GB (minimum)

Apex Legends is off to a great start, and Respawn has stated it will continue to work on expanding the game. It looks like the next thing on its agenda is the Battle Pass, which is a seasonal system that rewards players with exclusive cosmetic items and Apex Packs. Each season will run for approximately three months. There are also rumors about cross-play between systems in the future.

Have you tried Apex Legends yet? If so, are you enjoying the game? Did you get your first win? What about any legendary skin unlocks? Let us know in the Comments section, below.