Hi all,
Just thought I would give some general opinions on this game having finally had time to sink significant minutes into it.
No real point to this, just some mad ramblings with fellow games / Ximers.
Just for some background info I’ve been playing with a Xim(4) since midway through Blops3, before that I was a decent control pad player (had around 2.5k KD pre Xim) and a long time before that I was a PC gamer on COD / UT2004 / Quake etc. Used to play for 12 hours + a day in my pants, you know the deal.
Used to love PC gaming but I’m getting on now (35 next month) and life took over so I became more casual (bloody kids!) and of course all my mates (and I) could no longer afford good gaming rigs and so I switched to Playstation and eventually Xim.
I consider myself a very good FPS gamer (hard to write this sort of stuff without feeling like its bragging, but it’s not the intention I assure you, it’s just for context). I have played most COD’s and now most BR’s out there (except PubG) – some of you may have seen my Fortnite or Blackout game plays.
This game however I have had some difficulty with, which I’m not used to. Don’t get me wrong I have some really good games but I guess it’s just an inner feeling of not being happy with my performance overall and lacking a little consistency– maybe I’m just getting old.
Anyway enough with the intro and blowing my own trumpet. Going to give some feedback on this game and even some tips – probably more useful to newer players.
Positive
• I think this game has set the benchmark for looting / farming – it actually makes it kind of fun which is a rarity amongst most BR’s. The system is highly efficient and never feels like a chore, care packages too are nicely balanced imo. Fortnite has even partially responded to this I think by giving shield and materials upon killing someone to reduce farm time (and encourage aggressive play).
• The legends or specialist abilities are actually pretty good or at least not highly annoying which is an achievement in itself, anyone who plays Blops 4 multiplayer will understand where I’m coming from – some of those abilities are just straight death and take no skill, which kind of ruins the skill gap.
Negative
• Although I like the loot system I don’t like how much your loot actually affects gunfights. Purple armour and a Devotion up against Mozambique and a white shield? Your sir are dead. There is no outplaying, there is no out aiming, there is only death. Whilst I appreciate that is similar in other games it feels far more exaggerated here – especially in a game where the time to kill can be higher than your actual clip size. Sinking a full mag into someone early game only to see them laugh at you is pretty annoying.
• Lag / Tick rate / Frame rate – this game feels very inconsistent, sometimes stuff hits, sometimes it does not. When it feels like you have no control over that it upsets me. It feels like early Fortnite before they made it 60 FPS and changed the game. Hopefully they can do something similar because in that game if I die I felt I could at least in some way look at where I went wrong and try and improve, in this game it feels like there wasn’t much I could have done differently.
• FOV – now I don’t know if this is linked to the ST and sensitivity or not, it may have no effect for all I know but it certainly feels like it’s easier to aim on low FOV but then you have tunnel vision and the pace of the game feels much slower. Now I know the pace is in reality no different and gold fish bowl effect plays a part but it can have an impact on play style – much like in UT2004 where you could customize FOV it would often lead to a certain play style. Low FOV meant hit scan shock rifle and calm turret like play whilst high FOV leant itself to dodge jumping into people’s faces with a Flak Cannon / Rox. Getting the right FOV here in APEX seems tough and it would be nice to know if it is having an effect our aim in a negative way when coupled with the ST trained at 70. Also of course the player models appear larger on screen at lower FOV so that may be the reason it feels easier to hit shots.
• No aim assist at 8 sense? Seems to be a thing, is this a bug? If it’s not a bug and its intentional then perhaps the ST should be retrained for 7 / 7 ? The fact is we don’t know how much acceleration occurs between 7 and 8 so it stands to reason we could be using an imperfect ST as we are not using the recommended settings. That is not a go at Mist / Odin etc because how could they have known that, however perhaps if it is not a bug then it should be looked at. On that note we don’t even seem to know for sure if there is more aim assist on say 4 ads compared to 7. Seems crazy to me that aim assist would be linked to sensitivity in that way, I really hope it’s not the case.
• Player models – this needs fixing ASAP again it seems mental to me that you are easier to hit and therefore at a disadvantage by using certain legends. Hopefully they will sort that as its kind of game breaking.
• No solo? Really annoying for a predominately solo gamer (play weird times due to kids and shift work) – This game isn’t really one you can carry people on consistently like Fortnite so I hope they change that.
I’m sure there are plenty of other things I have forgotten but this is getting very war and peace so ill leave it here for now – just going to leave a few tips that have helped me.
Tips
• Aggression is absolutely key in this game; attack is the best form of defence as they say. The fact you can pick up someone’s shield and be at full rather than waste time healing lends itself to aggressive mobile play. Swapping you purple shield for a blue even if the situation requires should be done imo, you can always swap back later, use it to your advantage.
• On that note, aggressive team play is the absolute boss. If like me you find yourself being the first into battle then I tend to try and down 1 person and then immediately bail out using an ability or natural cover as if you get team shot by 2 or 3 people you are dead. You cannot out build them ala fortnite! This is when you need to hope your teammates engage and start shooting. When this happens you may be very weak from the first fight and think “right, I need to heal”. In most cases this is not what you should do, sure try and pop one quick shield cell but get back into the fight and try to team shot the enemy again. The reason being is it’s just so powerful and can down people in seconds; it also helps prevent you being aggressively swarmed from all angles whilst you heal, if that happens you are dead anyway so you may as well try and down a second enemy or at least damage assist. If you can force your enemy to begin healing / reviving in some way then take the impetus and consciously try and stop yourself from “turtling”. This is my experience anyway.
• Extended mags – the most clutch attachment by far, it’s basically a must on most guns. If you have designs on taking out a full squad then make sure you have it, it also turns the R-99 and R301 into god guns, without it they can be underwhelming.
• Lifeline, Wraith and Pathfinder (personal fav) are pretty much the only legends worth using if playing with randoms like I do. There is an argument for Bangalore due to her speed burst and smoke but her missile launch thing often works against aggressive pushes (kill self) so I’m not a fan overall. Lifeline is easily the best though, firstly she has a small hit box like wraith but her main perk is the ability to heal and shield up faster (I think a phoenix kit takes like 7 seconds or something), she’s a solo vs squad dream – add in her heal drone and guaranteed high end loot from her drop a few times a map and there is no comparison. Pathfinder and Wraith for the quick getaways basically.
• Guns I guess are personal preference in some cases but for killing whole squads pretty much solo then you just need a Spitfire / Wingman / Devotion (if you have ammo) / R301 / R-99 – my personal fav combo is a Spitfire and an extended mags R301 or 99.
Lastly ill leave my setup and a recent game play vid for those that want to try it
https://community.xim.tech/index.php?topic=75575.0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtuwsvXIu1sFeel free to add you opinions / tips / thoughts on these musings down below, happy fragging gamers.