Apex Legends has always been a team-based battle-royale. So imagine my surprise when I heard that Respawn Entertainment will be adding a Solo Mode, which has been a much-requested feature, on August 13th.
Now while this mode is only for a limited time up until the 27th of August, players will be able to experience what it feels like being a true lone wolf. That being said, Apex Legends has never been a game to be played alone. And for good reason. The mechanics don’t compliment solo play.
So how is Respawn Entertainment going to make Solo Mode work?
When Respawn Entertainment’s community manager made a comment on Reddit saying:
On 8/13 we’ll be trying out a Solos Mode in Apex for a limited time. We’ll talk more about Solos when it’s live and you’ve had a chance to play it. For now we’re going to put it out there and see what happens and what kind of feedback we get.
Jay Frechette
It becomes clear that Respawn is testing the waters to see if a mode like this will work. Awaiting for fan feedback definitely implies that’s the case.
So in order for a Solo Mode to work in this type of game, Respawn has to make a few compromises. As the downed and ping system will be most likely useless at this type of death match. So already, matches will become much quicker and faster-paced than normal.
If being downed is going to be taken away, then Mirage’s passive ability will become completely useless. Either Respawn will have to replace it with something else for that mode exclusively, or they’d have to find another way to compensate.
The same has to be said for another hero that isn’t well suited to combating by himself. I find it difficult to imagine Gibraltar as anything other than an easy target. He’s alone, he’s obvious, and he’s big. It makes him easy pickings.
Caustic himself, despite fairing better, can be a big and easy target even if he isn’t as obvious. His time to throw gas traps takes too long during a fight. And his ultimate ability isn’t swift either. So he can’t just use those abilities on the fly unless he has room, which he often relies on his team to give for him.
So unless there’s balancing plans for the heroes, I can already see Bangalore and Octane clones killing themselves on the battlefield.
The fact that Respawn Entertainment mentioned that they’ll be talking about Solo Mode as it releases implies that they aren’t just going to leave it at the state that it’s in. I, for one, am excited to see what kind of changes they have in for us in this mode.
Thankfully, the developers have proven to be listening to fan feedback. And we might be seeing a Solo Mode permanently in Apex should it be received positively.