Apex Legends Season 21 is correct across the nook, kicking off subsequent week. The new season introduces the primary main map replace to Damaged Moon, reintroduces Solos mode, and likewise provides a brand-new playable legend, Alter. The mischievous, tiefling-looking character hails from a never-before-seen actuality within the Titanfall multiverse and has a capability package centered round strolling by way of virtually any wall within the game–not a simple feat to determine.
“Your instincts are good,” Alter designer Ian Holstead informed me after I requested how onerous it was to place a playable hero who might stroll by way of partitions right into a 20-team battle royale, all of whom might function an Alter. “It wasn’t the best downside to resolve and we did must develop fairly a little bit of tech to do it. And a few of it’s a little bit unconventional–it truthfully was fairly cool tech growth, nevertheless it was one thing that I used to be involved about from a technical standpoint.”
They continued: “We additionally developed numerous instruments to assist us check this–log points, automated testing, stuff like that–because I knew that we had been going to have issues all the best way up till [the Season 21] launch and even after the launch as a result of there’s simply so many gamers and our maps are enormous. If we had been creating [Alter] from the beginning of Apex, we most likely would change how we design our maps. However we do not have that choice when now we have all these maps which might be already out and so now we have to make [her] capacity [kit] match to what now we have. And so it was technically difficult, however I do assume the outcomes had been value it. I hope folks will likely be actually pleasantly shocked by how reliably it does work–people will discover you could undergo just about something and you will get actually artistic with the way you place your portals.”
Falling into the Skirmisher class, Alter is constructed round motion and hit-and-run ways. Her passive capacity, Present from the Rift, permits her to loot deathboxes from a distance, whereas her tactical capacity, Void Passage, opens two-way pathways in partitions, flooring, and ceilings. Her final trick, Void Nexus, locations a tool within the surroundings that she and her allies, even whereas downed, can teleport again to by way of one-way portals if wanted. Although that final capacity attracts parallels to Ash’s present final capacity and Revenant’s previous final capacity, there’s at present nobody in Apex Legends who can do something akin to what Alter can.
“We wish to discover legends that carry one thing new and attention-grabbing to the match,” Holstead mentioned. “I might say with [new] legends, particularly lately, we’re not a lot filling holes or fixing problems–I would say the legend reworks may match just a little bit extra into that class. If we’re not likely pleased with how a legend is delivering on fantasy or gameplay or no matter. However I feel that we have a look at new and attention-grabbing avenues we’ve not explored [with new legends]. And so breaching and creating portals and stuff like this was positively one thing we hadn’t explored but and it sounded tremendous cool. And so we tried it and it was tremendous cool.”
“I can communicate to that from a story standpoint as properly,” Alter narrative designer Jaclyn Seto added. “We’ve got type of the same strategy. When the design staff involves us with a prototype to work on, we’re at all times on the lookout for what’s the house that this legend can occupy with out treading on the others. We actually wished to make a villainous character as a result of we hadn’t had one for fairly some time. And so, we had been pondering, ‘What villains do now we have and what areas do they occupy?’ We’ve got Revenant, now we have Ash, now we have Mad Maggie and so they occupy very particular areas for the villains. Alter is extra of a fun-loving villain, which we did not actually have but. And in order that’s form of the place we went along with her and I feel we positively managed to discover a house for her.”
Although she’s prescribed as Apex Legends’ newest villain, Alter does not have as dastardly a playstyle because the baddies who’ve come earlier than her. All the villains–from Caustic and Revenant, to Ash and Mad Maggie–had talents once they launched that would severely mess up an opposing staff (and three of them nonetheless do–the one exception is Season 4’s Revenant, who obtained a brand new package in Season 18). That is not likely the case with Alter. Although trailers market her as this dastardly Nightcrawler-like character who can teleport enemies into harmful conditions, that is not how she performs in follow. Firstly, Alter is designed to assist her teammates’ capacity to get round every map. She’s not a trapper who can trick or pressure enemies by way of portals to drag them by way of the ground into an ambush. So she’s a foul man, however she’s a useful dangerous man.
“In the event you put [Alter’s portal] proper under an enemy, it will not shoot them by way of,” Holstead clarified. “You possibly can’t kidnap them. We had that within the sport for fairly some time and it was very humorous, however not essentially essentially the most truthful. In the event you put a portal beneath your teammate’s ft, nevertheless, then it would pull them by way of, so you possibly can nonetheless have just a little little bit of enjoyable there.”
Alter cannot immediately act as soon as she goes by way of a wall, both. For a quick second after going by way of her portal, you enter phase–a stage of invulnerability the place folks can see you and you may see them, giving each side an opportunity to react. In the event you’ve performed on the Olympus map and used the Part Runner, you are already acquainted with how this works.
“It provides the Alter participant an opportunity to know their environment as a result of teleporting into an area you can not see might be very disorientating,” Holstead mentioned. “So once you undergo Alter’s portal and also you’re in part, the enemies will really be highlighted when you’ve got line of sight. You will not see them by way of partitions or something, nevertheless it helps you go, ‘Oh, there they’re.’ As a result of the void may be very washed out, it could possibly be onerous to identify folks. Likewise, once you come by way of, there will likely be plenty of large sparkly results and [another team] ought to know precisely the place you might be. And so you are not going to have the ability to simply pop by way of and [party-kill] them.
They continued: “Early on, after we did not have that, we did really see folks taking part in it nearly like they’d play a [Gibraltar] dome the place they’d poke by way of the portal, do one shot and poke again. It was attention-grabbing, nevertheless it wasn’t essentially the gameplay we actually wished to go for. And it made the struggle just a little chaotic. So this [grace period] additionally simply slows down the tempo at which you’ll portal. You possibly can’t return by way of the portal once you’re nonetheless in part. And so by extension, you possibly can solely travel every manner, each two-ish seconds. So it slows down the tempo of that complete encounter and provides the enemies a chance to react to you and a second to type of determine the place you might be and the place the targets are.”
Even with these checks and balances in place to restrict her, Alter nonetheless has a probably very robust package, one constructed round an avenue of motion beforehand unexplored: strong partitions. Doorways and open home windows have at all times been potential sources of hazard or ingress for squads however the partitions, flooring, and ceilings of buildings and caves have remained stalwart shields to all method of invasion–Alter’s addition makes that not the case.
In that manner, Alter feels akin to Season 9’s Valkyrie, a playable legend constructed across the easy idea of creating a personality who can fly, creating pathways over pitfalls and thru the air that beforehand had been unattainable or extraordinarily troublesome to navigate and subsequently could possibly be ignored. I distinctly keep in mind how the Apex Legends staff described one of many most important catalysts for making Valkyrie was to create a legend who might fly as a result of flying is enjoyable. In order I spoke to Holstead and Seto and listened to them frequently reiterate how Alter’s capacity to stroll by way of partitions is simply actually enjoyable, I felt a way of déjà vu–I had nearly the very same conversations about Valkyrie forward of Season 9.
And in the identical manner Valkyrie lastly added an individual of Japanese descent to Apex Legends, Alter is the primary playable character of Chinese language descent to be added to the sport, talking to the opposite legends in each English and Cantonese. Although Alter’s backstory is purposely being stored ambiguous for now, her relationship to her tradition shines by way of in her characterization.
“I used to be really play-testing the opposite day and one of many issues that made me actually enthusiastic about it’s since you actually cannot keep away from the Cantonese voice traces,” Seto informed me. “You will positively hear her communicate Cantonese when you are taking part in her, so that basically comes by way of. With [her] skins–we positively drew on a few of her tradition for a few of that. You will see that with, I feel, at the least one in every of her legendary skins.”
She added: “We did contemplate numerous different issues, too, like animations. That was just a little bit harder simply because Alter isn’t essentially the most respectful individual and numerous issues that you just do in Chinese language tradition are to indicate indicators of respect. So it was onerous to try this with the animations, however we did discover extra alternatives to showcase her tradition with issues like her holo sprays and banners. So you may see that as properly. And, like I mentioned, her voice traces. We obtained a voice actor who additionally speaks Cantonese, so I used to be actually enthusiastic about that. That is Crystal Yu. I actually listened to so many auditions earlier than we discovered her, however I feel she makes the right Alter.”
After all, I could not depart my dialog with Holstead and Seto with out asking about Alter’s design. Alter has a mechanical tail, wears boots that resemble cloven hooves, has eyes with black sclera, wears gloves that appear to be claws, and has physique modifications on her brow that emulate horns. She appears like a sci-fi tackle a tiefling, which warms my D&D-loving coronary heart.
“We positively drew from these inspirations when designing her,” Seto mentioned. “Basically, earlier than the design, we had determined that we wished to create the villainous character and so we already had the character down pat earlier than we even went into the visuals on that. However as a result of the concept was that we had been going to make her a type of devious trickster and once you hear that, it form of comes with some visible concepts already–like what you had been saying, devils and tieflings and issues like that. I feel our idea artist, Xiao Younger, drew from these inspirations when developing with [Alter] as a result of we knew she was going to be this villainous character. Clearly, you possibly can’t have a villainous character if she does not look villainous.”
She continued: “One of many issues we additionally wished to ensure was simply seen was that she’s clearly from a distinct dimension. And I feel for those who have a look at her, she appears so totally different from the opposite characters you could inform that she’s not from this Apex world.”
We’ll have to attend for the beginning of Season 21 to be taught extra about Alter and her mysterious previous, in addition to how a lot she alters (heh) Apex Legends’ meta. Trailers have already teased she has an admiration for Horizon, and in my conversations with the Apex Legends staff, Seto informed me that places Alter “on rocky floor” with Ash given the simulacrum’s rivalry with Horizon. Alter additionally “actually likes” Mad Maggie and “actually does not like” Newcastle, that means we’re probably in for some spicy new narrative developments when Season 21 hits.