When you actually stop and take a moment to look at all the best battle royale games out there, Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends is unique in more ways than one. Not only does it offer battle royale players a competitive Ranked mode, unlike Warzone 2, it’s also one of the few battle royale shooters to incorporate the unique character abilities you see in hero shooters like Overwatch 2. However, a rumoured Season 17 LTM might just be stripping this shooter of what makes it unique – while also throwing an overwhelming number of variables at players too.
Now, before we get stuck into what this rumoured Season 17 LTM is all about, we just want to say that we’re not sure this leak is accurate; however, it does present us with an interesting topic of discussion when it comes to just how far Respawn Entertainment should push the boundaries when it comes to alternative game modes in Apex Legends.
Anyway, onto the alleged Season 17 LTM leak. According to Apex Legends leaker ‘Osvaldatore‘ – someone who has seen sporadic accuracy with datamined content and unverified rumours over the years – has shared some information regarding Rumble, an LTM we could very well see arrive in Apex Legends’ Season 17 update.
This 60-player solo mode, according to the aforementioned leak, is going to throw players into a chaotic battle royale with random weapons, random ring behaviour, and a collection of interesting consumables. It all sounds quite interesting on paper, but we can’t help but wonder if there would be too much going on – that all this randomness would actually be detrimental to the player experience – if it was actually introduced to Apex Legends.
As mentioned above, Rumble is rumoured to completely remove legend abilities – something we haven’t really seen done before. For those of you out there desperate for Titanfall 3, this could be the closest we get. However, we can’t help but think that – all the chaotic randomness aside – getting rid of Apex Legends’ legend abilities would be a mistake; not to mention the fact that it wouldn’t make sense given the fact that the Apex Legends classes have just been spruced up.
However, the climb up Apex Legends’ Ranks is a long one and we’re not opposed to the introduction of things like Team Deathmatch and the upcoming Mix-Tape playlist to offer players a break from the standard battle royale experience. You just have to wonder if things like Ricochet rounds or Smart bullets are really the way forward. We have seen Disruptor rounds in Apex Legends before, though – so, that’s proof enough that Respawn Entertainment isn’t opposed to introducing interesting modifications to guns on a limited basis.
If you look a little closer at the leak and what Rumble could be bringing to Apex Legends in Season 17, though, you can find more already-established mechanics littered throughout the information shared. For example, the mentioned Cloak consumable would make you invisible for a short duration – but silences your weapons. This is something we’re inclined to suggest is something similar to Mirage’s cloak, which stops you shooting your weapons when invisible. Similarly, the Stim consumable sounds as though it applies a similar effect to Octane’s Stim – only a little more detrimental to your vision.
So, althought it all sounds like quite a lot for one LTM, there is a lot in this leak that could and has worked in Apex Legends – whether that is in the past, or now.
But, we just don’t think removing the one thing that makes Apex Legends unique (it’s legend abilities) is the right move – even if it boasts decent gunplay. It might be nice to not worry about where a character ranks on anyone’s Apex Legends tier list before you pick them, but it still takes away something at the core of the experience on offer. It’s like removing wall-running from Titanfall – would it really be as good as we all remember without it?