First Week Impressions [ Edited ]

[pastaclown]

So! It's been about one week for Season 7, how's everyone feeling about it? I'm leaving my impressions here, mostly for my own benefit. 

What I Liked:

- New character is interesting, lots of combat potential. 

- R99 has returned as a weapon, and with it, all the low skill newbie complaints that it's OP. 

- New map is visually interesting and I can actually see. 

- Trident allows for easy rotations and for the most part works properly.

- They hired someone to be their communication manager, and hopefully we'll have more consistent comms from the developers. With that comes the hope of more beneficial changes for the betterment of Apex. 

- New map is third party heaven, lots of action, all the time.

What I Dislike:

- New character abilities are visually overstimulating IMO, too many moving air wisps, not enough clarity.

- R99 has returned as a weapon, and with it, all the low skill newbie complaints that it's OP.

- New map suffers from poor loot distribution, enhanced by the large amount of empty open ground with nothing in it. All the loot is centered in condensed POIs, which are often heavily disputed. A strange snowballing problem, where if I can't get off the ground early, I most likely won't be able to get off at all. 

- Trident allows for easy third parties early / mid-game, most of my matches end with my squad being third partied after winning our original engagement, regardless of whether we drop into a popular POI or somewhere off in the distance. Being starved for loot makes us easy targets.

- Lighting in some areas isn't perfect, specifically in Rift and dimly lit indoor areas. 

- Audio is still not working properly.

- SBMM is still not working properly.

- Server stability and performance are still lacking.

Verdict: Overall, more of the same from Apex. A sometimes genuinely frustrating experience when I tryhard matches, and an otherwise dull experience when I just play to grind out objectives. No changes to SBMM means despite how hard I try I'll still lose games because my teammates have worms in their brain, and the lack of solos still leaves much to be desired. Losing fights to longstanding issues such as audio and hit-reg have become the norm, but at the very least footsteps kind of work. 5/5, wouldn't recommend.  

[DarthValtrex]

@pastaclownPeople complaining about the 99 are not low skill. Season 6 had a nice balance of weapon usage. Some people had a volt, others had a prowler, others ran a shot gun.

Now we are back to the vast majority of people using the 99. It's not as bad as season 5, but some rounds CQC is nothing but 99's. It's rather annoying if you have a volt, kill a squad and all they have is light and heavy while you're left with 50 rounds of energy. But there is 600+ rounds of light ammo in the 3 death boxes and maybe some heavy..

[Anonymous]

I have now given this map a fair go with over 500 games and I can honestly say I hate it. Its too big. Its too open in many areas. The loot is so scarce! Even the ammo is not enough. You can get boxed in buildings so eaily. 

Even though I have a decent win ratio on this map, it is not enjoyable. I am literally counting the seconds to the return of Worlds Edge. And WHY did they NERF the RE45? I don't understand that. What was wromng with it? Hardly anynody ran with the gun to start with so they NERF it to make it even less useful or relevent? 

I am utterly confused by decisions made this season.

You take ou one of the best guns (prowler) and put it in supply drops. But here's the problem. Its virtually impossible to find. I have played over 500 games and I've found it ONCE! I'm not even joking here. It feels like more replicators drop that supply drops.I absolutely hate it.

And finally, I am sick of players just randomly leaving games. It feels worse this season. The amount of times a player will just drop out of the game is ridiculous. 

I have a feeling though that Apex will lose some of its players this season. I am now playing my PS+ free games. Started Shadow of War yesterday and will play Need for Speed after. I'll jump back in when World's Edge is back. Sorry but I absolutely hate this map and this season thus far.

[EdwardDLuffy]

I agree about loot and ammo. Yesterday I dropped in one of those circular buildings and came out unarmed and there was no gun there! How can you have a FPS without a gun? Later game I found an Alternator on drop but only a single stick of light ammo in six bins and two buildings. I downed one in my first engagement but then it was punching time.

To be honest I have yet to see a Prowler. It's stupid that two of the weekly tasks are Prowler based. 'Find a Prowler' would have been hard enough. I've found two Krabers.

I do like the map to be honest.

I think Horizon's Ult is OP. If you're too near you can't see and you can't move properly. Enemies can pick up off at their leisure. Compare that to sending out a grapple or being able to grab two items of loot a bit easier.

I played ranked yesterday and it was full of inexperienced players. I was being chased by a Wingman-armed LL across open ground on drop (I had nothing) ... she hit me twice so I though 'WTH', turned around ... and punched her to death.

[DarthValtrex]

@Anonymous Where are you dropping to? I have noticed sparse loot at Estates. I hate dropping there, it's a you get armor and gun, then get easy kills or get a P2020 and get killed. Even if we survive it, we are always out of something.

The loot distribution needs some work. I had a round in which I had 12 batteries 8 cells and 0 syringes and could not find anything for health despite running through a large portion of the map.

[Koochi-Q]

@pastaclownI’ve had quite the experience in this map. Fun battles, horizon and more 2nd places than I can count... I think this season I’ve already had more 2nd places than wins in S6 xD.

I like the map. Heard some ppl say that everything looks the same. Yes, some assets look the same, but in what (Apex) map is that not the case. Only place if you’d drop me inside and I’d have a difficult time to figure out where I am is Bonsai & that other twin tower location and estates and that copy-pasted other local.

Love the R99 back. Everybody runs it which I love. You just know that if you have a light weapon or 2 (which I’ve seen on both enemies and teammates) that you won’t go ammo hungry xD.

Map is big and open but you have many traversal options and if you utilize the surroundings to your advantage you can safely traverse most places, so I like that.

Only actual negatives are mostly the audio issues. One time with teammates we couldn’t even figure out where the enemy was since we heard them below but we were at the deepest part and then suddenly we get shot from above...

If you don’t like everyone running same weapon you won’t like the R99 obviously xD.

Horizon slightly underwhelming... but I’ll make a separate thread about that

[EDIT] own horizon thoughts: https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/My-Horizon-looks-bright/m-p/9725811#M120424

[hayhor]

@pastaclown Loving the map. Dont give a crap about the 99. Audio is wonky, especially right below scrap mountain or after being in horizons ultimate.

Loving the season overall.

[MassiveVernon]

@pastaclown I honestly would have been happier with no new content but improved server stability and fixed audio . That being said I do like the new map now I’m used to it , enjoy the r99 being back and have had some fun games but the overall lack of consistency with hit reg , lag and this terrible audio has made the overall experience pretty frustrating tbh - especially when you consider we’re 7 seasons in . So yeah again , great game , good additions and not faulting anything other than the poor servers and sound issues (which are a pretty big deal in a competitive FPS that’s been out for over a year and a half )

[rockyboy1998]

Just gonna reflect on your post

I personally think that the R99 is a difficult gun to control, it's never worked for me and to be honest, I haven't even noticed that I have been killed by it that much this season. 

I would disagree with the map being 3rd party heaven, but I have noticed that in many games I am fighting around 3-4 squads at one given time haha. 

Audio will always be an issue when a game does a big update and a new map and legend is implemented, it happens in loads of other games as well and always has done. Regarding the SBMM, yeah if you're playing PUBS then it is probably gonna get bad but if you're grinding through ranked then I personally do not notice it. I have also noticed that there are less cheaters (PS4) than there has ever been in this game. That is just my opinion. 

Good feedback though bro! @pastaclown 

[rockyboy1998]

@DarthValtrex Oh Darth please do not mention the Prowler, I miss it so much.

I'm probably one of the only players that preferred it in burst than auto haha!