Apex Legends Season 22 is just around the corner, and Respawn has just dropped some early details about what fans can expect. Of course, the headline act is its glorious-looking, neon-drenched new map called E-District, but the one new addition that has really caught my eye is the addition of Revival. This new mechanic aims to give eliminated players a second chance without the need for Respawn Beacons, and it essentially brings the vibes from Call of Duty Warzone’s most hectic (and in my opinion, best) game mode to Apex Legends.
So, how does Revival work in Respawn’s battle royale game? Well, after you’ve been eliminated by an enemy player, a timer will begin. Should you still have at least one teammate alive when the timer ends, then you will drop back into the action. Your surviving teammate(s) can also speed up your respawn timer by dealing damage and racking up kills.
If that all sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the core premise of Warzone’s Resurgence game mode. For the record, I’m not being accusatory here – all of the warring battle royales that vie for your attention have all pinched modes and features off each other at some point. If I’m being honest, I’m glad Revival is here, and I’m surprised it’s not something Apex Legends has done sooner. It’ll be tested in public trios matches at the start of Season 22 and in Straight Shot (the smaller-scale, streamlined limited-time mode that debuted earlier this year) when it returns later in the season.
However, Revival does have two caveats to note: if you’re dying multiple times during a match, the duration of your timer will start going up, so there’s still an incentive here to keep deaths to a minimum. It will also only be active up until the fourth ring, so there’ll still be those high-stakes moments in the final minutes of a match.
Elsewhere in Season 22, Respawn appears to be putting a lot of effort into making new players feel at home. A new Bot Royale mode is being added as a stress-free training arena, where you play against AI-controlled opponents rather than other players. Plus, a Welcome Pass is being added to Apex, which gives you a pathway of objectives to complete that helps you learn the ropes, all while dishing out cosmetic rewards and a legend unlock token so you’re not just stuck with the base roster.
There’s also the aforementioned new map, E-District, which looks like the game’s least Apex-y map yet (in a good way). Whether it plays well or not remains to be seen, but aesthetically, Respawn has certainly cooked.
And the final big change from today’s announcement is the ability to dual-wield two of the most memed weapons in the game: the P2020 pistol and the Mozambique shotgun. To make them akimbo, all you’ve got to do is find two of them while you’re looting. If you find one P2020, for example, it’ll work just as it always has done with the ability to ADS. Pick up another, though, and you’ll become prime Lara Croft.
All of these changes will arrive when Apex Legends Season 22 launches on Tuesday, August 6. After the recent fiasco it endured with its poorly-received battle pass changes (so poor, in fact, that players started review bombing it on Steam) here’s hoping that Season 22 can act as a fresh start.
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