'Apex Legends' Season 1 Battle Pass Review: More of the Same but Not More

There’s virtually no chance that the Season 1 battle pass for Apex Legends, released Tuesday, will be enough to entice new players to try Respawn Entertainment’s battle royale game. But for any of the 50 million players already obsessed with the new video game, dropping $10 for the chance to earn a ton of new cosmetic items is worth it.

“Season 1 is about keeping it focused and allowing players to earn a lot of rewards at a great value,” Lead Product Manager Lee Horn writes in a blog post about the Season 1 battle pass philosophy.

Most of the cosmetic items available in the Season 1 battle pass feel very similar to the somewhat generic cosmetic items we’ve already seen from Apex Packs. All of the new items riff on Season 1’s “Wild Frontier” theme, which itself just feels redundant when the whole premise of Apex Legends is about Legends competing in the Apex Games, a Hunger Games-ish competition that takes place in some kind of … wild frontier.

In short, the Season 1 battle pass just offers more of the same, but that’ll be enough for plenty of players.

Anyone can view all of the battle pass items online in an official blog post or more clearly in the new “Battle Pass” section of the in-game menu. There isn’t much to get excited about beyond the monetary value you get from purchasing the battle pass as opposed to Apex Packs.

Far too many of the 100 Levels only reward a badge commemorating the level. Things get a little better after Level 50, when rarer weapon skins begin appearing.

By Level 97, players will earn back more than enough Apex Coins to pay for their Season 2 battle pass, along with a motley assortment of quips, trackers, other cosmetics, and Epic and Legendary Apex Packs.

Tier 100 offers interesting progressive weapon skins for the new Havoc energy rifle that smoke and light up the more kills the player has.

That’s it. That’s Season 1.

These rewards will seem underwhelming to most players who hoped for something a bit more out of the Season 1 experience. However, an essential aspect of any battle royale games’ culture involves gamers’ penchant for obsessively collecting rewards, all so one day they’ll have bragging rights. (Think about Fortnite players that run around in the John Wick skin. Do you even know how long ago that was?)

Compared to Fortnite’s legacy of hyping up new seasons and then delivering on huge map changes with new and interesting features and skins, Apex Legends Season 1 feels underwhelming by comparison — but that’s totally okay and shouldn’t surprise anybody.

Apex Legends is still a brand new game, and Respawn Entertainment is probably still trying to figure out why people love it so much and how they can make fans happy. They’re taking it slow with Season 1 by playing it very safe. Maybe that’s better than taking a big risk and messing it up completely?

Despite what might feel like a flawed launch, the Apex Legends Season 1 battle pass is for anyone that already loves the game — especially those that already spend money on Apex Packs and enjoyed the cosmetic items they’ve gotten. Season 1 offers excellent value for a base game that’s free-to-play, and for a game this young, maybe that’s all it really needs to thrive for now.

Apex Legends Season 1 has begun and will last until sometime in May.