I’ve never cowered behind a dinosaur leg before.
I’m not convinced that’s what these gigantic, groaning beasts are designed for, but – as is often the case when it comes to battle royales – I’ll take what I can get. The buildings I knew so well here are gone, trampled by this beast and its clumsy footwork. Whereas I’d usually duck immediately behind, or into, a building for cover, much of Cascade’s been flattened, so I’m forced to use the gargantuan leg of a nearby Leviathan for cover instead. It doesn’t end well for me – that’s also often the case – but at least my untimely death was at the hands of a warring Legend and not the feet of an angry dinosaur.
I’m not sure what I was expecting from Apex Legends’ Season 2, but the arrival of these groaning beasts and their flying kin – called Flyers, somewhat unimaginatively – wasn’t it. They’ve stood at the periphery of Apex Legends since the game dropped earlier this year, only back then they were little more than curious background animations chiefly only noticeable when you leapt from the plane, your puffs of neon dust streaming behind you. Fast forward six months, however, and these behemoths are now staggering across King’s Canyon and devastating the landscape in their wake.
The cinematic introduction offers a glimpse into the catalyst behind King’s Canyon’s catastrophe. A mysterious individual – widely speculated to be the yet-to-be-released Legend, Crypto – deactivated the forcefield that safeguarded King’s Canyon from the beasties around it.
This place was ready for change, though. There’s no doubt your success in Apex is intrinsically tied to how well you know your surroundings – when every second counts, a single zip wire can be the dividing line between life and death – but the single map with its recycled hot spots and snipe shots had certainly begun to feel a little stale. Whilst sometimes it feels like you could trek for days in PUBG’s inaugural Erangel map and not bump into another soul, Apex Legends’ tighter, denser King’s Canyon packs more action into a smaller space, inevitably leading to quicker matches and significantly more combat owing to its smaller lobby. But rather than ape PUBG’s approach of dropping new maps into rotation, Respawn took a leaf from Epic’s book and simply made some creative changes to the current world instead.
Apex Legends Wattson Story Trailer – New Legend in Season 2 Watch on YouTube
The charred, decimated forest is now flourishing with lush, green life. Settlements have been destroyed and rebuilt. Devastated bridges lie in splinters at the bottom of canyons. It’s everything we know, but it’s paradoxically different, too.
Sadly, beyond howling at the sky – usually when I’m trying to determine what direction enemy footfalls are coming from – and acting as impromptu cover, the Leviathans don’t bring very much to the game. You can’t land on them nor be easily squished – although I have seen it happen! – and right now they seem rooted to the same areas (but will possibly relocate with subsequent updates, perhaps?). If you’re lucky, you might occasionally find high tier loot hidden underfoot. Literally.
The flying variant, however, offer small tactical advantages for those of you brave enough to give away your position and shoot a loot box from their talons. They’d begun sweeping across the map a few days before Season 2 officially rolled out, their spoils carried in crates seemingly – and a little inexplicably – donated by a pal from either your or one of your squaddies’ Friend Lists.