Apex Legends is celebrating two main milestones this month: It is twentieth season, and its fifth birthday. After shadow-dropping in 2019, the free-to-play FPS grew to become an instantaneous basic, receiving praise for its lovable characters and its expansive storyline, which has been ongoing because the sport launched. However the final 5 years have been a very wild journey for developer Ashley Reed, who began out writing content material for Apex’s official web site however now serves as the sport’s lead author. In honor of Apex’s five-year anniversary, GameSpot sat down with Reed to get the inside track on Season 20: Breakout’s narrative arc, speak about a number of the sport’s greatest plot twists, and discover out what it is like to write down a narrative with 25 major characters and no ending in sight.
Reed–whose identify served because the inspiration for Ash’s human name–has labored for Respawn since 2016, beginning out as a content material author for a few of EA’s web sites earlier than being tapped to work as a author for the sport itself, and finally changing into Apex’s lead author in 2021. Regardless of sharing a reputation with one of many sport’s most vicious, unempathetic characters, chatting with the actual Ashley Reed revealed that she’s personable, humorous, and above all, extremely keen about her work. However with no new Legend scheduled to affix the roster this season, I used to be curious to study precisely why that was the case, what position Reed performs throughout “Legend-less” seasons, and how much plot twists gamers can count on in Season 20 and past.
“Sometimes, with the the anniversary seasons–the first season of the year–we attempt to let the celebration take heart stage, so we strive to not introduce numerous plot-heavy stuff throughout the anniversary season,” she defined. “Particularly this one, it is a massive anniversary! We do not need to distract from that [by adding a new Legend with a new backstory].”
Reed informed me that another excuse Season 20 has no debut Legend is just to assist gamers preserve the story straight, as Season 18 and 19 had been extraordinarily lore-heavy. However no new Legend does not imply no plot improvement. When requested who Season 20’s story is concentrated on, Reed revealed that Horizon (and probably, Ash) are on the heart of the sport’s narrative arc this season.
Within the Season 20 launch trailer, Horizon might be seen wanting wistfully at what I instantly acknowledged as a part of Jack Cooper’s infamous time-altering wristband from Titanfall 2–or one thing very just like it. Given the truth that Horizon’s major purpose is discovering a method to time-travel again to her son, Newton, having access to a time-altering piece of know-how might have far-reaching (and probably disastrous) penalties.
“You are heading in the right direction; I believe you noticed it,” she informed me after I inquired concerning the time-traveling tech from the Titanfall sequence. “You get a bit trace that one thing’s occurring with Horizon [in the launch trailer]. It could be price taking a look at that shot once more from the top of the trailer.”
Though a brand new season of the sport drops like clockwork each three months, Apex’s storyline hasn’t at all times adopted a predictable sample. It launched with minimal lore, slowly including extra little story tidbits that hinted at future plot points–a course of Reed refers to as “breadcrumbing”–until the narrative floodgates actually opened with the introduction of Season 5’s Damaged Ghost questline, which concluded with the revelation that Titanfall 2 antagonist Ash was alive (properly, kind of). Extra lately, the narrative started tangibly bleeding into gameplay itself, with Season 18 that includes a brand-new set of talents for Revenant–and a storyline that defined the place these talents got here from. However telling such an advanced story cannot be straightforward, particularly given the frequent addition of latest characters, so I wished to know what the final 5 years have taught Reed about writing an ongoing story for a live-service sport that does not plan on concluding anytime quickly.
“One of many greatest questions we have requested through the years is, ‘How will you inform a narrative with out elaborate cutscenes or massive story beats that cease all the pieces and take heart stage?’ Whereas we have had our share of these moments by way of our superior trailers, we have additionally discovered that persons are drawn to smaller, subtler tales too,” Reed defined. “We bought nice reactions from the voicemail we hid below the Mirage Voyage the place we hear Mirage speaking to his mother, and folks had been actually enthusiastic about the mysterious blue door that appeared within the sport a few seasons ago–and they had been proper to concentrate to it! Selection is the spice of life, so we’ll at all times preserve making an attempt new issues and experimenting with alternative ways to inform a narrative, however we have found a bit can go loads farther than we ever thought attainable.”
Regardless of no new Legend becoming a member of the Apex Video games this season, there’s nonetheless loads of narrative enjoyable for gamers to sit up for. In reality, Season 20 will see the introduction of a brand new sequence of in-game lore drops that Reed known as “vignettes.”
“We have posted radio performs on our social media channels prior to now,” Reed mentioned, referring to the totally voiced (however not totally animated) shorts which are typically posted to Apex’s Twitter account. “They’re often a bit longer [than vignettes].”
“[The vignettes are] gonna be the evolution of Apex episodes, we’re transferring away from the text-based stuff,” Reed mentioned, referring to the in-game story chapters that at present function sound results and dialogue, however no animation or voice appearing. “[Vignettes are] gonna be in-game, totally voiced with animated bits to them.”
When requested concerning the change to the brand new vignette format, Reed mentioned Respawn’s purpose is to make Apex’s lore out there for gamers to interact with in-game. Regardless of an official lore hub being launched throughout final 12 months’s anniversary celebration, it appears Reed and the remainder of the narrative staff need to make the story considerably simpler to comply with, particularly for brand new gamers.
“Certainly one of our initiatives this 12 months is to make issues extra central, as a result of that is among the issues that is been introduced up: It’s hard to keep track of [the game’s narrative],” Reed mentioned of Respawn’s efforts to forestall gamers from getting twisted up within the sport’s many plot threads.
Apex’s ongoing storyline final left off with the ultimate episode of the Kill Code animated net sequence, which noticed the Legends face the fallout from Torres “Duardo” Silva’s homicide. On condition that arc’s explosive ending, I used to be fairly curious to search out out if one other Kill Code-esque animated sequence may be on the horizon.
“You may count on one thing that is very like Kill Code over this subsequent 12 months, like an evolution of that,” Reed confirmed. “Kill Code was our first, ‘Let’s inform an enormous story throughout the total 12 months and have that be a basis for what’s coming within the sport!’ form of factor. We’re pushing that even additional this 12 months.”
“We’re tying extra of our [gameplay] options coming this 12 months much more carefully to the story, and it’s meant to be like a full, year-long expertise, and Horizon perhaps, presumably, is the cornerstone of it,” Reed elaborated with a mischievous wink.
“Duardo is massive lifeless,” Reed confirmed with a chuckle. “I suppose that is you already know if somebody is [permanently] lifeless: Did Revenant do it?”
Reed informed me that Kill Code episodes carried out greatest once they had been immediately tied to in-game content material, and that though telling a narrative that was considerably divorced from Season 19’s new Legend was creatively liberating, the expertise had its downsides. The plan for 2024’s upcoming animated net sequence is to attach it to Apex’s precise gameplay and seasonal story (together with the launch trailer and vignettes) as a lot as attainable.
However with Apex’s major antagonist now completely in a deathbox, I started to marvel who would possibly substitute him. Silva’s dying resulted in an enormous energy vacuum–who’s going to fill his sneakers and change into Apex’s subsequent massive unhealthy?
“I believe it might not be who you count on,” Reed informed me, clearly holding her playing cards near her chest. “That’s what I will say about that.”
As for the sport’s different murderous robotic, Ash, Reed wished to set the document straight concerning the sword-wielding simulacrum’s identify: It wasn’t her thought. The choice to call the character Ashleigh Reid was made lengthy earlier than the actual Ashley Reed was in command of Apex’s plot.
“Our director mentioned, ‘Oh, let’s identify her Ashleigh Reid!’ and I laughed, and he mentioned, ‘No, I am severe,'” Reed informed me, recalling the reminiscence with a smile. “I used to be like, ‘Do I actually need to be related to somebody so imply?’ After which I am like, ‘Nicely, that is the enjoyable…'”
“So I mentioned, ‘Yeah, you already know what? Positive. Let’s do it!’ I had not envisioned a future the place I used to be the lead author,” Reed defined. “However after [becoming lead writer], it appeared like I named her after myself!”
Unsurprisingly, Ash took the highest spot once I requested Reed which Legend she most enjoys writing (although Octane and Loba additionally made the record).
“I really like writing Ash–she’s so imply, even when she’s saying one thing good!” Reed mentioned of her in-game namesake.
However character design is not all sunshine and roses. After I requested which of the sport’s 25 Legends was essentially the most tough to write down, Reed’s reply shocked me.
“Probably the most difficult characters to write down are essentially the most well-adjusted ones,” she informed me, laughing. “It’s important to invent issues for them to have!”
However with no new character debuting this season, I used to be curious to study what the longer term holds for Respawn’s hit hero shooter and its neverending story.
“Writing for a live-service sport is a problem, and I count on it at all times will probably be, however fixing that puzzle is an enormous a part of what makes the job attention-grabbing,” Reed mentioned of her objectives for the way forward for Apex’s story. “When Apex first began, one in every of our greatest pillars was the characters and what their tales delivered to the world. That was one thing unparalleled within the battle royale area on the time. We need to preserve iterating and studying and experimenting, so the story could make Apex really feel like a singular, wealthy, dwelling place that you just need to preserve coming again to.”
With that in thoughts, I used to be curious what factor of the brand new season’s story Reed was most happy with.
“I believe what I am most pleased with is the tighter connection we’ve to the design. [Plot points] are coming extra into the sport,” Reed answered. “We’re developing with artistic options for ‘How can we put this in [the game] the place it is instantly accessible and attention-grabbing and interesting, whereas feeling prefer it’s a part of the entire and never, like, a distraction from it?'”
“There are challenges to it,” she admitted. “However we’re fixing the puzzle.”
Apex Legends Season 20: Breakout launches on Tuesday, February 14.