After years of anticipation, months of speculation, and weeks of limited beta testing, Apex Legends is practically here: it's now available for pre-registration on the Play Store (here) or the Apple App Store (here).
That's not to say you can play Apex on your smartphone just yet: the full version is coming later in XNUMX.
The full Apex Legends game was released over 3 years ago, in the month of February 3, and given the sheer popularity of mobile games, the port was pretty much guaranteed from the start. But so much has changed in XNUMX years and, from this writer's perspective, it's too little, too late.
block game time
I have been playing mobile games for years, but it was in the Covid lockdowns that I truly reached my mobile gaming peak.
I spent the first few months in a rickety basement staring at my PS4, but when the lockdown monsters eased and I decided to go back to see the sun, I was no longer happy curling up in a hoodie and playing No Man's Sky for hours - no, I went outside. garden, I sat under the windows and no longer considered the console experience necessary.
Or, more likely, I got bored of my PS4, but not of the games.
I started playing games like Call of Duty: Mobile, Rome Total War, XCOM, and Tropico for the most part nonstop, each and every port of other games, all great on phones or tablets. I dove into new titles like XCOM XNUMX, Northgard, this runner from Crash Bandicoot, and Mechanicus as they came out throughout lockdown. I have become huge in my mobile games, spending hours each and every day on these titles.
I could play in bed. I play in the bathroom. I play in the kitchen. It was paradise (well, it was like that back then, but looking back, putting life on hold for a couple of years so you could spend every hour of the day staring at screens on the exact same floor surely did more harm than good). well).
Apex Legends 2020
I had a fixation with battle royale games throughout a portion of lockdown. There was a time when my lunch break was part Apex Legends and part Warzone, and I got good at both.
I think this is the only way to enjoy multiplayer games: play it continuously. Otherwise, the average skill of the games increases over time and you are at too much of a disadvantage when you return after a few months of absence.
During the UK lockdown, I was very excited about Apex Legends Mobile and Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, two things that were just gossip at the time but are now confirmed. He would have devoured both if they had been released in XNUMX, or even in the first half of XNUMX.
But this is no longer the case.
The sun came out, we went out
There was a very unique moment in mid-XNUMX when I realized that although Covid was not over, I should treat myself as if it were. He had to get out of the house as much as possible, if only to see the sun; I had to go back to connecting with friends I had lost touch with, even if it was just online; I had to look into the future instead of just looking at the screens.
So I started spending more time socializing, more time focusing on my creative hobbies, more time exercising. Life stopped being about the 3 basic ways: sleep, work and play, and started to resemble life before the pandemic (as much as possible given any and all rules about leaving the house).
Mobile games have been a natural and immediate victim of this change. I no longer played very frequent Call of Duty: Mobile games, never completed my Mechanicus campaign, and even uninstalled most of the games I was adept at at one point.
It was not an intentional change. It was just a change in circumstances that meant my life wasn't just about gaming, especially mobile.
Since this happened, mobile gaming is no longer a part of my daily routine - I have to force myself to play a few times to test the phones, but it's really a part of my "testing moment", not something I do to relax.
Mobile Apex Legends in 2022
A couple of years ago, the imminent release of Apex Legends Mobile would have made me giddy. But given the rebound in my life after confinement, the idea of this new title fills me with apathy.
Am I going to play it when it comes out? I don't know and frankly I don't care. It could be a huge port. It can be horrible. I'm convinced the developers have worked hard and I hope it finds a captive audience, but I'm not even interested enough to estimate if I'm going to play it.
I can't be the only one in this position: Ever since the planet reopened, life has become considerably more focused on experiences that exist outside the confines of my home. Over the last few weeks, I've attended music concerts, drunk in weird and very fancy bars, played pool, watched movies I made at festivals on the big screen with captive audiences.
In the midst of all this, do I have time to play mobile games? Sure. But do I have the taste? No. Apex Legends Mobile would have been a blockbuster hit, but in XNUMX it's here too much, too late.