Shadow Royale is one of Apex Legends’ more unique game modes. Using the base battle royale as a framework, Respawn Entertainment added a scary twist by turning players that have died into powerful shadow legends. The mode first began in 2019 as Shadowfall - a game where solo players had to defeat each other until only 10 contestants were left to escape the nightmare. Since then, Shadow Royale has become a more team-focused game; one which might not work as well on Olympus as it did on Kings Canyon.
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What Are The Mechanics Behind Shadow Royale?
Shadow Royale plays very similarly to the normal Apex Legends battle royale experience. Squads of three players drop into a dark version of a regular map and must gear up and defeat other squads to become the Apex Champions. The big difference in Shadow Royale is that defeated legends who still have living teammates can respawn indefinitely as powerful shadows. These shadow legends can’t pick up gear or weapons, and they can’t use any of their abilities. They also don’t have that much health. But what they do have is extreme mobility by virtue of an improved sprint and the abilities to climb walls indefinitely and wall run like in Titanfall. Shadow legends also pack a very mean punch that can knock down shadow legends in a single blow and living opponents in a few hits.
The goals of the shadow legends are to eliminate opposing legends (particularly the living ones) and to support their living teammates. Once all living teammates on a squad have been eliminated, the shadow legends on that squad disappear for good. This simple premise creates some intense moments that are fitting for the Halloween theme. Shadow legends emanate a sense of dread due to how silent and powerful they are. When placed in the backdrop of a dark map, they become very hard to spot and can easily overwhelm unaware players.
Kings Canyon Was A Haven For Shadow Legends
Prior to this year’s Fight or Fright, Shadow Royale used to take place only on Kings Canyon. Being Apex Legends’ first map, Kings Canyon was quite small in size for the first few seasons as compared to how it is now and to the other maps that were added afterward. The map’s size combined with its geography and structures made it an ideal playground for Shadow Royale. Shadow legends could climb the tall buildings in Skull Town and catch those camping on the top by surprise. They could abuse the small spaces of Bunker to overwhelm those hiding within with sheer numbers. Since shadow legends have such small health pools to begin with, Kings Canyon provided them with ample cover to stalk their prey while avoiding gunfire.
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What’s Wrong With Olympus?
In contrast to Kings Canyon, Olympus is a much bigger map with wide open spaces and little cover between points of interest (POIs). Some of these POIs are great for shadow legends, with Estates and Gardens in particular providing tons of cover and verticality. But most of the POIs in Olympus are terrible for shadow legends due to the amount of ground players have to cover. One such example is Grow Towers. Shadow legends can climb the towers themselves to get to their targets but if the living legends are on a different tower, that leaves the shadows with little choice other than to wait for their enemies to get closer or risk running across open spaces.
Another thing shadow legends have going against them are the various modes of transportation found on Olympus. In addition to the jump towers, players can use the Phase Runner in the middle of the map to easily escape their pursuers. If they’re too far from the jump towers or the Phase Runner, the multiple Tridents provide a portable means of escape for living legends. And if trying to catch up to a moving Trident wasn’t hard enough for the shadows, players on the vehicle can shoot them while driving.
In making Olympus a bigger map and adding multiple ways to quickly traverse it, Respawn Entertainment has effectively diminished its use for Shadow Royale. Many players were hoping for World’s Edge to get the scary treatment first as it was the second map introduced in the game and provides a much better, on-foot experience for both shadow legends and living ones. Nevertheless, the inclusion of a new map for Shadow Royale is a welcome addition to Apex Legends and helps break the string of the monotonous limited-time modes, if only for a little while.
Apex Legends is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Android, and iOS.
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