Apex Legends Has A New Map and A New Legend

A slew of trailers has been released over the last week for the eleventh season of Apex Legends, titled “Escape”. One of the two headlining additions is the brand new Storm Point map, which is said to be the biggest so far. The other addition for the season is the new legend, Ash.

My first impressions are that Storm Point looks like a fun change of environment after the cloud city map of Olympus. I can only assume there will be fewer chances for me to embarrassingly fall off the side of the map as well, so I’m plenty excited already. Its island aesthetic also stands out from the more drab King’s Canyon and the busier part frozen, part lava World’s Edge.

From what has been shown across all the trailers and mentioned on the game’s blog, there’s no need to worry about the latest map not having any variance. From dense forests, coral reef caves, the ins and outs of a huge mountain, and plenty of water, Storm Point looks like it will be a fun new map to learn.

With it being the largest map so far at apparently 15% larger than the soon-to-be second-largest map World’s Edge, traversal is an important element. This time around there are a lot fewer redeploy balloons with only one on the entire map. Replacing them are the quicker and cooler-looking gravity cannons. They don’t seem to go as high and have a bit more air-time, but they’ll get you moving faster than waiting for a low balloon. I can’t wait to use them excessively and get sniped accordingly.

An important part of the new map also seems to be that there’s a lot more wildlife to deal with. The loot carrying Flyers from King’s Canyon and the aggressive Prowlers from World’s Edge have each returned, albeit the latter will stay near their marked Prowler Dens. A new enemy in the form of giant spiders can also be found within their dens and I will be doing my absolute best to avoid them in every game.

As fun as the new map looks, I’m admittedly more excited about the new legend. Valkyrie from the ninth season might have been the daughter of a villain from Titanfall 2, but Ash was a villain herself in Titanfall 2. As a fan of that game, I’m all for making more connections with Apex, especially if that leads to more interest in a Titanfall sequel.

Personal dreams aside though, I’m happy to see Ash just because she was such a cool character on her own. I liked the mystery surrounding her and her design. It wasn’t too much of a surprise to see her as the next legend when she directly appeared in a quest in the fifth season and was then sprinkled in later seasons through comics, story videos, and as an announcer for the Arenas mode.

From what is shown in the gameplay trailer, Ash seems to have unique gameplay that derives a lot from Titanfall 2. Her Arc Snare tactical is very similar to an ability used by the Northstar-class titan, while her Phase Breach ultimate seems to be inspired by a Ronin-class titan ability. Rounding out Ash is her Marked for Death passive, which allows her to see the location of recent deathboxes on her map and mark the surviving attackers.

“Escape” is also bringing another element from the Titanfall series with the C.A.R. SMG. While enthusiasts are happy to see the weapon make its debut in Apex Legends, those that have never had the chance to use it before will find joy in how versatile it is, as it’s the only weapon capable of using two types of ammunition rather than one.

Apex Legends has been a fun game to come back to now and then. Even though it feels like it’s only ever brought me back for a few days at a time after the launch period, this upcoming season does intrigue me with all that it’s shown to offer so far. Of course, that’s not particularly surprising considering how much stronger its ties to the Titanfall universe are becoming.

I can’t say with absolute certainty that I’ll be playing enough to complete a whole battle pass, but I do know that I’ll be checking out the new season for sure when it releases on November 2nd.