What you need to know
- Apex Legends: Breakout is the next season for Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts’ big Battle Royale.
- Breakout is shaking a lot of things up, changing how armor works and introducing the Legend Upgrade system.
- Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 users will also be able to play Apex Legends: Breakout at 120 FPS.
- Apex Legends: Breakout is scheduled to kick off on Feb. 13, 2024.
As its premiere Battle Royale experience turns five years old, developer Respawn Entertainment is still innovating.
Breakout, the next season of Apex Legends, is bringing some big shake-ups to the formula, with changes that’ll affect the flow of gameplay and increase the quality of the experience. As shared by Respawn Entertainment, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 will finally have the option of playing at a higher framerate this season, with Apex Legends joining the list of 120 FPS games on current-generation consoles.
One of biggest changes in Breakout is the addition of the Legend Upgrade system, which gives players the opportunity to power up their character-specific abilities up to two times throughout a match as they earn EVO. These EVO points are earned for numerous actions taken in a match, including taking out enemy squads and locating rare EVO harvesters.
This Legend Upgrade mechanic adds to the flexibility of squad composition, with Respawn Entertainment noting that the upgrade decisions will usually happen around the early game and mid-game points of a match.
Meanwhile, shields and armor are getting a fairly major overhaul, as players will no longer be dropping Body Shields. Instead, each character has Legend Armor, which will increase in capacity as the Legend is levelled up in a match. Players will drop Shield Cores, which can picked up in order to overcharge a player’s shields for 30 seconds.
When does Apex Legends: Breakout arrive?
Apex Legends: Breakout begins on Feb. 13, 2024, across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. The original game first launched on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC back on Feb. 4, 2019.
Since then, the game has grown exponentially with maps, modes, additional Legends, and new story arcs. For a blast from the past that shows just how far the game has come in the last few years, check out the launch trailer below:
Analysis: Big changes for the five-year anniversary
Some of these changes are pretty major, and I’m expecting the one-two punch of Legend Armor and the Legend Upgrade system to have a radical impact on the way Apex Legends plays. That’s likely a good thing, and it’s great to see that Respawn Entertainment isn’t getting complacent in handling upgrades or being afraid to overhaul systems that players have used for years.
