Apex Legends & Realm Royale - 2 new *free* battle royale games (PS4/XONE/PC)
Posted: April 5th, 2019, 2:41 pm
Two new battle royale games have come out on PS4/XONE/PC fairly recently -- Apex Legends and Realm Royale -- and they're both 100% free to download and play. (Like Fornite, they make money off hoping that players buy cosmetic upgrades in the game). I played both for a couple hours each during the past week. Neither hooked me, but I think they're both good games worth trying that serve completely different purposes.
Apex Legends is the big new battle royale on the scene, and it's stolen a TON of players from Fortnite. The game combines the hero model of shooters like Overwatch (i.e., it has 8+ characters with different classes and skills) into the battle royale model. There is no solo play - every game involves 3-person squads. And the total players per match is 60 rather than 100. The game uses an FPS viewpoint, rather than the 3rd person viewpoint of most battle royale games. Personally I disliked all of these differences -- I prefer playing solo, I prefer TPS view, I prefer 100 other players, etc etc. And I prefer Overwatch, with its small matches, over using heros in a large-scale skirmish. But who I am to complain? Players have spoken and this is the biggest new shooter on the market right now. And, while it doesn't meet my preferences, I have to admit that it's very well polished and plays a very solid FPS game. There's just better options for me.
Realm Royale is a lot like Fortnite, with cartoony graphics and solo, duo, or squad modes, all against 100 other players on a giant map that you parachute down onto. In some ways, I actually like this game more than Fortnite, especially because of these differences: (1) it removes the building element of Fortnite, which I could never get good at; (2) it matches you up to similarly skilled players; and (3) the aiming and shooting is much more forgiving, so I'm better at killing people in this game. I also like the infinite ammo, so I don't have to worry about scouring for ammo. On the downside, the map is smaller than Fortnite, so there's less opportunity for stealthy movement, which is one of my favorite aspects of Fortnite. I think gamers have mostly written off Realm Royale as a subpar Fortnite ripoff, but I actually like it more than Apex Legends. I might even like it more than Fortnite, but too early to say.
Anyone tried either of these?
Apex Legends is the big new battle royale on the scene, and it's stolen a TON of players from Fortnite. The game combines the hero model of shooters like Overwatch (i.e., it has 8+ characters with different classes and skills) into the battle royale model. There is no solo play - every game involves 3-person squads. And the total players per match is 60 rather than 100. The game uses an FPS viewpoint, rather than the 3rd person viewpoint of most battle royale games. Personally I disliked all of these differences -- I prefer playing solo, I prefer TPS view, I prefer 100 other players, etc etc. And I prefer Overwatch, with its small matches, over using heros in a large-scale skirmish. But who I am to complain? Players have spoken and this is the biggest new shooter on the market right now. And, while it doesn't meet my preferences, I have to admit that it's very well polished and plays a very solid FPS game. There's just better options for me.
Realm Royale is a lot like Fortnite, with cartoony graphics and solo, duo, or squad modes, all against 100 other players on a giant map that you parachute down onto. In some ways, I actually like this game more than Fortnite, especially because of these differences: (1) it removes the building element of Fortnite, which I could never get good at; (2) it matches you up to similarly skilled players; and (3) the aiming and shooting is much more forgiving, so I'm better at killing people in this game. I also like the infinite ammo, so I don't have to worry about scouring for ammo. On the downside, the map is smaller than Fortnite, so there's less opportunity for stealthy movement, which is one of my favorite aspects of Fortnite. I think gamers have mostly written off Realm Royale as a subpar Fortnite ripoff, but I actually like it more than Apex Legends. I might even like it more than Fortnite, but too early to say.
Anyone tried either of these?