Apex Legends season 2 launches with map changes and space dragons
Everybody walk the dinosaur VERY CAREFULLY.
Apex Legends, the battle royale hit and Titanfall 2 spinoff, is kicking off its second season today. Repawn have added a new playable character -- Wattson -- who seems like a bright spark, a new laser rifle, and (arguably most notable) a wave of map changes. Some git's gone and kersploded the big shield tower in the centre of the map, which has not only made a mess, but let some alien fauna in. There's big stompy creatures that have squished parts of the map, and cheeky crate-hoarding dragons, which are like magpies if magpies stole cars. Below, some videos of the new gubbins.
The new trailer includes a little peek at everything in this new season, plus a good idea of what Natalie "Wattson" Paquette can do in a fight. She's a defensive powerhouse in an otherwise aggressive game. She's able to set up electric barriers that slow and damage enemies, quick-charge her Ultimate from acellerants and then throw down the Interception Pylon. It's a local fortification that intercepts incoming explosives and repairs teammates shields within its range, making a last stand outdoors or indoors a lot more viable, at least on paper.
The new gun, the L-Star is an energy machine gun. Good fire rate, good magazine capacity, one big problem: It overheats if you lay on the trigger too hard. Short, controlled bursts then. The projectiles from this gun are slower than regular bullets, but have a much larger hitbox, so you don't have to be quite as precise as usual. Seems like a fun toy, but it only spawns in airdrops along with other 'power' weapons, and you won't find ammo for it around the map. Seems good for more up-close fights, which this update seems to lean towards.
Today being the start of a new season means there's a new Battle Pass, with some free goodies to earn, plus a tier of more exotic cosmetic items to earn if you buy in and put in the hours. There's a vaguely glammed up medieval look to the new seasonal skins you can earn, but they're of no interest to me. I already have everything I need; the plague doctor skin for Bloodhound that I miraculously drew on launch day. There's a few new types of cosmetic to earn this time round, at least, including alternate drop music, drop emote animations and loading screens.
Apex Legends season 2 is live now. While the game is free-to-play via Origin, the battle pass costs 950 Apex Coins (£7.99/$10.57 for the nearest coin bundle) and the fancy one that skips you to level 25 costs 2800 (£23.98/$31.73). You can read a bit more about this update on the official Season 2 page here.