The Apex Legends Source Engine Isn’t Alien Tech

So, what’s poppin’ under the hood of this global phenomenon of a battle royale game? Are the developers using alien technology? Does that explain why Apex Legends is out of this world?

Ah, the enigma of the Apex Legends Source Engine. Indeed, considering the meteoric success of Apex Legends in such a short space of time, much speculation has arisen throughout the video games industry over the Apex Legends engine. With that in mind, many questions have surfaced in recent months, the most widespread being, “Just what is the driving force behind this hugely heralded first-person, battle royale game?”

Whichever term you coin, the facts remain the same: Apex Legends uses the Source Engine. Undoubtedly, fined tuned to stabilize framerates and encourage high levels of performance.

Apex Legends Source Engine: Visual Fidelity

But before we address technical aspects, let’s study the game from an aesthetic viewpoint. Regarding visuals, Apex Legends adopts a unique style, and thus, borrows concepts from both Borderlands and Titanfall. These are two thriving IP’s that stand out thanks to originality with regards to artistic design.

On the one hand, you have Borderlands. A game that boasts of a cartoonish, yet colourful art style, and vibrant palette. While on the other, is Titanfall. A frantic shooter which relies heavily on life-like textures to provide the ultimate sense of realism. Apex Legends straddles the fence somewhere down the middle, merging the two without compensating on performance.

The robust efficiency of the Source Engine allows Apex Legends to glisten with impressive polish in presentation, all while hitting 60 fps across multiple platforms. Or at least, that’s the baseline minimum. Those platforms include Xbox One, PS4, and PC. And, considering Apex Legends came out towards the tail end of this gen’s life cycle, its streamlined engine is no mean feat.

Although, from another perspective, that’s hardly surprising, mainly, for technical reasons. Besides, most modern FPS games require higher frame rates to accommodate for player response and reflex times. Especially true, during this age. Nonetheless, the Apex Legends Engine is still highly impressive.

Why Stick with the Source Engine?

To some, the Apex Legends Source Engine may have passed its sell-by date. A pre-war model, inferior in all but a few aspects. But sometimes, it’s more natural for developers to stick with a pre-existing template and fine-tune it from a more confident basis, as opposed to reinventing a brand-new model from scratch.

Overall, despite its apparent age, performance rates are rock steady. That is, aside from the odd stutter here and there. On that front, you won’t find many other games performing at such a flatline rate of consistency across consoles and PC.

And although the Apex Legends Source Engine holds up adequately, for now, at least, the future may not be so bright. High player counts and large maps further complicate matters. Meaning, it appears as though the Apex Source Engine is performing above its weight, and as a result, could be nearing the end of what has been an enduring tenure.

That said, developers seem to be reluctant when it comes to engine evolution. For instance, the Unreal Engine has been a big-time player in the industry for some time now. The Source Engine powers Titanfall 2. Perhaps, the sole reason why Respawn opted to back a tried-and-tested formula. And, who can blame them? Whether it can hold up to the test of time, though, remains to be seen. But we’ll soon see.

We want to hear from you, the gamer. What do you make of the Source Engine, overall? Also, does it give Apex Legends a slight edge over the competition? As always, we welcome any contributions. So please, get in touch via the chat below.