We had the pleasure of speaking about the 8th Season with some of the key members of the Apex Legends team:
- Team Director Steve Ferreira
- Game Designer for Fuse OT Harrison
- Level Designer Rand Stayer
- Game Designer for Weapons and Ranked Games Eric Canavese
- Game Designer for Modes and Events Brian Vidovic
With the arrival of the new Legend, and the addition of the 30-30 Repeater to the game's arsenal, players will have plenty on their plate.
First of all, the gameplay trailer shows the makeover of Kings Canyon. The goal of the development teams was to make certain areas more attractive, in order to improve the rotations between two locations — and to facilitate the intervention of third party groups by adding a new portion of the map.
The combat zones will also be less congested thanks to the spacing of points of interest, and the verticality level of the map will be improved with the addition of elements that can be climbed.
This will not only give you a decisive advantage in the game, but also a perfect fresh start for the arrival of a character like Walter Fitzroy — aka Fuse.
Fuse
According to OT Harrison, Fuse's Game Designer, he was created to be an explosive addict who knows how to handle bombs better than anyone else. When asked in which situations he would really be effective in the game, the answer was: many.
Adding him to a team immediately gives him more value, thanks in part to his passive. It allows him to stack several grenades, and to be able to throw them farther than any other legend, which necessarily gives him more control at long distance.
With its explosives, he is able to push people out of their cover much more easily. If you see an enemy squad positioned near a cave entrance for example, Fuse will be the man for the job!
OT Harrison adds that his ultimate ability to trap his opponents in a circle of fire means that he "works well with the capabilities of his allies."
The 30-30 Repeater
In addition to a new character, players will be able to get their hands on a brand new weapon: the 30-30 Repeater, a powerful rifle that will be devastating at close range.
Eric Canavese, who's in charge of designing the weapons, confirms that "the 30-30 Repeater will be introduced in the game without replacing an existing weapon".
Some players have noticed the Prowler SMG in the gameplay trailer, and legitimately wondered if it would finally make its comeback as a "non-legendary" loot. Unfortunately we had the confirmation that it won't be the case.
Note that the supply pods will remain unchanged for the next season. So, if you are lucky enough to loot a legendary weapon in a drop, it will be a Peacekeeper, a Kraber or a Prowler.
The developers of Apex Legends decided to add a new weapon attachment: the gold magazines.
Eric Canavese explains: "It will have the same capacity as the purple magazines. So there will be the same number of bullets in it. With the legendary version, storing your weapon will automatically reload it after five seconds".
In other words, this legendary magazine won't allow you to do more damage or give 100 bullets to an R-99. Instead, it will encourage you to switch weapons, but also to make close combat — which can sometimes take a long time — much more interesting.
Eric Canavese specifies, however, that it will not replace reloading. If you have the opportunity, it will always be good to do so.
For those who requested it, he also confirmed that a damage tracking will be implemented. With this feature, you will see how much damage you do while in game.
Mayhem
With the addition of Fuse, the 30-30 Repeater and the golden mags, the development team wanted to offer a new and explosive gameplay to the players already present in the game.
"We had to break the routine and push the limits of the Apex rules and of course have fun with it all. This is what season 8 will be like. We obviously hope that by doing this, new players will join the adventure, but that wasn't the first strategy" explains Team Director Steve Ferreira.
You can play Apex Legends Season 8 right now and test out all those new features.
Original content by Clémence "Idril" Lemoal.
Apex Legends has been missing an explosives expert. With Season 8, Respawn Entertainment is addressing this by introducing Fuse, the game's 16th Legend.
