Apex Legends Mobile review: The most fun mobile shooter with some room for improvement

Respawn launched the much-awaited Apex Legends Mobile on Android and iOS on Tuesday. The game has previously been through extensive beta tests as well as a soft launch in 10 regions. Apex Legends Mobile offers an exciting shooter experience for casual as well as pro players. Just like the PC and console versions, Apex Legends Mobile is a free-to-play game, where you pick from a wide range of characters with unique abilities to defeat your enemies. Due to these characters, Apex Legends Mobile feels like a much different game compared to Fortnite, Battlegrounds Mobile India, and Free Fire Max.

Staying true to its roots

Apex Legends Mobile is much more than just a PC to mobile port of Apex Legends. The game has some mobile-only mechanics like the perks system along with a mobile-exclusive legend, Fade. However, the core gameplay experience of Apex Legends Mobile stays just like the PC and console versions. The crisp gunplay and fast-paced movement in Apex Legends Mobile feel unlike any other mobile shooter out there. While BGMI and Free Fire Max seem to have a serious approach for shooters, Apex Legends Mobile feels much more fun and rewarding, thanks to its great roster of characters and their unique abilities.

Controls need some improvement

Touch controls in mobile shooters have always felt a bit cluttered and they have some latency issues. With some additional buttons required for character abilities in Apex Legends Mobile, the controls feel even more congested. Using a controller in games like Apex Legends Mobile seems like a better option for a more intuitive gameplay experience. Although the game supports controller input, it isn’t properly optimized yet. Button prompts seem all over the place as the same button is used for multiple actions. For instance, the ‘X’ button on an Xbox controller is used for picking up/ dropping items, doing your finisher, and reloading your gun, based on the situation you are in. This gets confusing at times when you are trying to reload your weapon during a gunfight, but you accidentally do a finisher on a downed enemy. Although you can customize controls from the settings, there will still be some overlap between the buttons in certain situations.

Similar to other mobile shooters, Apex Legends Mobile lets you customize the touch controls layout according to your preference. However, playing on a controller seems a bit snappier than touch controls in Apex Legends Mobile. Hopefully, Respawn will improve touch controls as well as controller support in Apex Legends Mobile with future updates.

Perks system

Apex Legends Mobile has the new mobile-exclusive perks system, which was added at the full launch. The perks system lets you unlock skills for a Legend by just playing the game with that character. These skills improve the abilities of a Legend, making them even more deadly. For example, a perk for Bangalore lets her shoot 4 smoke canisters instead of 3. Each Legend has its own set of perks that improve its existing abilities.

Performance issues on Android

While playing Apex Legends Mobile on Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G and iPhone 11, I experienced that the game runs much smoother on the iPhone. In pretty much every battle royale match on Android, the game lags and slowly renders the map as you are about to drop on The World’s Edge. Besides this, the game would occasionally lag in battle royale as well as TDM modes. On iPhone 11, I didn’t experience any of these issues. It should be also noted that Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is a relatively high-end Android phone, yet the performance issues are quite noticeable. The situation on low-end Android devices could be much worse. Thankfully, Apex Legends Mobile does let you customize graphics settings, which will allow you to reduce the graphics quality for better performance until Respawn fixes these issues.

Apex Legends Mobile review verdict

Apex Legends Mobile perfectly captures the fun and engaging shooter experience of Apex Legends, with some additional mobile-specific features. Playing the game feels quite rewarding as it lets you unlock new Legends that could significantly change your gameplay experience. That being said, Apex Legends has a limited number of maps and game modes right now, which could get boring after playing the game for a few days. Along with these, all Legends from the PC and console version haven’t been added to Apex Legends Mobile yet.

Respawn has most likely planned a lot of new content for Apex Legends Mobile, which could be coming soon. Even with all its flaws, Apex Legends Mobile is a much better shooter than the likes of BGMI and Free Fire Max. Respawn is expected to work on the performance issues and improve the controls in the coming months, which could make Apex Legends Mobile one of the best mobile shooters out there.

Editor’s rating – 4/5

Pros:

• A great roster of characters
• Fun and fast-paced shooting experience
• New perks system for each character

Cons:

• Cluttered touch controls
• Performance issues on Android phones