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I have bounced off of almost every battle royale game there is. Conceptually, I like the format of a multiplayer shooter that relies on teamwork, exploration, and survival beyond quick and precise aiming, but most of them are bogged down with features I'm not interested in engaging with or don't strike the right balance between depth and approachability. Since firing up Apex Legends Mobile for the first time last week, though, I've found myself struggling to put it down. It may not tout the same fidelity of its PC and console counterpart, but makes for a streamlined battle royale experience that maintains a satisfying match pace and depth that many mobilized versions of battle royales fail to do.

Same but different

Apex Legends Mobile is mostly the same game as the original Apex Legends, which is to say it's a multiplayer shooter where teams of three combatants drop onto a massive map with the goal of eliminating all other teams using weapons found scattered across the environment. It also features all of the signature touches specific to the original Apex, like additional mobility options, characters with special powers, a ping system, and more.

Functionally, it feels like a port of Apex Legends. Even the match length is about the same. They key difference though is that this game has no cross-play with the original Apex and has some different tuning and control options for movement and shooting that make it manageable to play on a touch screen and allow for players to develop a sense of precision despite the less-than-precise control method.

Slide, scavenge, shoot

The secret to Apex Legends Mobile's success for me is just how easy it is to dive into a match and instantly be a competent teammate. By default, this game does things like auto-ping enemies and items so you're constantly being useful to your team even if your aim isn't on point. You can also auto-loot gear so you don't have to develop any sort of specialized knowledge about what weapons, attachments, or items you should or shouldn't be picking up.

It also helps that Apex Legends Mobile feels about as great as you can make a mobile shooter feel right out of the box, and if that doesn't work there is a staggering amount of customization options you can dial to your exact preferences. Given all of the options at your disposal (including competent controller support), there's a way to make just about anyone feel comfortable controlling it.

The apex of unweildy menus

It's astounding how Respawn Entertainment has managed to simplify its battle royale while still cramming in all of the depth of the original game, but it comes at a cost. When you aren't actively in a round of Apex Legends Mobile, the game is a nightmare of menus and splash screens that are both hard to look at and unintuitive to navigate.

Everything from choosing the kind of match you want to play to redeeming battle pass rewards just feels a lot harder to do than it should, and every moment the game uses to try and show off animations or cinematics, the whole thing ends up feeling really slapped together. Out of all the things to drop the ball on, I guess it's fortunate that the sloppiest parts of Apex Legends Mobile don't affect how matches play, but that doesn't mean that these aren't problems that need to be fixed. I'm not sure the menus will get too slimmed down over time due to the game's free-to-play nature (which, by the way, seems very focused on keeping gameplay balanced and promoting/selling cosmetic items), but I'm hoping the nested maze of menus at least gets a more coherent flow and better navigation buttons down the line.

The bottom line

Apex Legends Mobile is the most fun I have had with a battle royale game, on mobile or otherwise. It makes all of the nitty gritty aspects of playing such a multi-faceted experience easy without stripping out depth, and offers such a multitude of options to get yourself feeling like a precision player even if the overall experience isn't as sharp and honed as PC and console battle royales.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/apex-legends-mobile-review/

Super Evil Megacorp's latest mobile release is a multiplayer top-down shooter known as Catalyst Black. You may know this developer from their previous work on the now languishing MOBA Vainglory, which was a game designed to clear the hurdles that otherwise make this genre inconvenient to play on mobile devices. A lot of the same design ethos has been poured into Catalyst Black, resulting in some fast and fun shooting action despite its bothersome free-to-play design and the fact that it has essentially zero personality.

Shapeshifting shooter

Catalyst Black is a team-focused shooter where every player has full control of their loadout and abilities. On top of choosing a primary and heavy weapon of choice, heroes can equip a wide variety of special actions (i.e. teleportation, shields, healing, etc.), passive talents (i.e. faster reload, auto-shielding teammates, etc.), and even their character's overall appearance to make the exact kind of hero character they might want from other hero shooters like Overwatch.

One of the main selling points for Catalyst Black is also that every character has the same ultimate ability: to transform into magical monsters known as primals that allow you to shift the tide of battles considerably. As with hero characters, primals are fully customizable in that the handful of available monsters have unique sets of abilities that can also be swapped out for the ideal loadout.

Condensed combat

Across the four primary game modes in Catalyst Black, players can find themselves teaming up for a standard death match, skirmishing to complete objectives using limited lives, taking part in large-scale territory control contests, or all working together to cut down monsters in a completely cooperative coliseum mode. Outside of these options, Catalyst Black also has a rotating 5th game mode that can be things like capture the flag or a unique mode that places bounties on unique AI enemies for teams to try and rack up points faster by taking them down ahead of their opponent.

No matter which way you decide to play, Catalyst Black mostly revolves around outwitting your opponents and working together as a team (though it helps to have good and quick aiming, too). Luckily, the action in the game is super easy to control and maps are full of interesting features like brush to hide in, obstacles to take cover behind, and even random monsters that will attack and kill you if you aren't careful.

Cobbled together customization

Catalyst Black is about as easy and convenient a shooter can be on mobile. It has high quality social features for managing friends and lets you drop in on matches at a moment's notice. Queue times for matches are also lightning quick and each mode serves up a different average match length, ensuring players wanting long sessions with the game or quick bursts of action can have a good time.

With all of this customization and comfort comes a trade-off, though. By keeping things so modular, Catalyst Black doesn't really feel like it has a firm sense of self. The AI mobs, primals, and other unique features of the game feel like they are there purely to make the game stand out, and otherwise don't feel like they gel or give additional dimension to the experience.

On a final note, perhaps the most irksome thing about Catalyst Black is its free-to-play structure. Progression in the game involves collecting currencies to make weapons and abilities more powerful than those of other players, which ultimately tips the balance scale in favor of those willing to put money into the game. In my time with Catalyst Black I haven't felt like I've played a match with someone who paid to be powerful, but the fact that this is possible is annoying and could eventually become a big problem for the game.

The bottom line

Catalyst Black is a fun shooter, but it's hard to get too excited about any of the other stuff in it that makes it unique. I definitely plan to keep returning to it because of the way it feels and the variety it offers, but I find little else endearing about it, which is a weird way to feel about a game.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/catalyst-black-review/