Following on from the thrilling finale of Apex Legends‘ series of Kill Code cinematics, Respawn Entertainment is detailing the upcoming Apex Legends Uprising Collection Event – an in-game event that unleashes an army of Revenant robots on players in a new LTM and finally makes Loba’s new Prestige Skin available. At a glance, it’s another decent event for Apex players to get stuck into ahead of the New Year; however, the Apex Legends Uprising event rewards are some of the most disappointing we’ve seen so far – half of them are temporary, too.

When you look at what Respawn Entertainment has done – and is still doing – with Apex Legends, it’s clear that this is mechanically one of the best FPS games available at the moment and easily one of the best battle royale games we’ve ever seen. It’s still a popular choice among players, despite all the new PS5 games and new Xbox games vying for their spare time, and it’s clear to see why. That, though, doesn’t mean developer Respawn Entertainment doesn’t make mistakes, and we can’t help but feel like the current selection of rewards for Apex Legends’ new Collection Event is one of those – a mistake.

As you can see for yourself below, the new Uprising Collection Event contains the usual selection of mostly lacklustre rewards – loading screens, weapon charms, a handful of Battle Pass stars, and a smattering of Crafting Metals – interposed with something rather unexpected. This selection of new “weekly abilities” – as explained by this Apex Legends blog post – aim to offer players unique benefits in-game and should shake-up the current meta – which you can check out in our Apex Legends tier list here.

These weekly abilities are as follows – and Respawn Entertainment hasn’t detailed any of them yet, so you’re going to have to use your imagination when it comes to what they mean.

• Grenadier Vision (possibly a visible arc while using throwables)
• Grenadier Sling (likely an additional throwable slot)
• Medic Vision (possibly an additional indicator showing allies’ and enemies’ current health)
• Medic Inventory (likely an additional support item slot)
• Speed On Knock (likely a limited-time speed boost when downing an enemy player)
• Ability Charge On Wipe (likely a reduction in ability cooldown when eliminating an enemy squad)
• Reduced Tactical Recharge (likely a universal reduction in tactical ability cooldown times)
• Reduced Ultimate Recharge (likely a universal reduction in ultimate ability cooldown times)

Thankfully only applying to Unranked Battle Royale modes, so don’t worry if you’re trying to climb the Apex Legends ranks in the next few weeks, these modifiers will be available throughout the Uprising Collection Event. Well, except for the fact that they’re only actually available during the week of the Uprising Collection Event that you unlock them in. In Respawn Entertainment’s own words, “they’ll reset at the end of every week when the rewards reset” – and then be gone when the event itself is over on January 2.

While these weekly abilities do sound like some interesting modifiers to introduce, especially the latter ones that boost your ability recharge rates, but it’s an insult to players putting in the time during the Uprising Collection Event to have them replace legitimate (albeit sometimes boring) rewards. Even another small bundle of Crafting Metals would be better value for player – not something temporary that doesn’t even apply to the entire game.

If you’re new to Apex Legends – or you haven’t played this battle royale for a little while, you’ll be pleased to know this is the first time Respawn Entertainment has done something like this. We, though, don’t think it’s unfair to suggest that this should be the last time Respawn Entertainment does something like this, either. Apex Legends’ event rewards are notoriously underwhelming at the best of times and the premium cosmetics these events are built around – Prestige Skins and Heirloom Items – are expensive. Like hundreds of dollars expensive. The fact that Respawn Entertainment is taking this one step further and introducing temporary rewards is a worrying sign that Apex Legends’ event rewards are going to deteriorate even further in the coming months.

With this news only just available and the event itself not kicking off until December 5, we don’t know how the wider playerbase will react just yet. While we can imagine people will be in favor of the gameplay modifiers – and the Revenant Uprising LTM does sound like a lot of fun – the way microtransactions are handled during events has been something of a sticking point for players for some time now and this certainly isn’t going to win back any favor.

If you’re just interested in the future of this battle royale, the major seasonal updates over these filler events, you can find out more about Apex Legends’ Season 20 release date right here. It’s also worth reading up on what happened during Apex Legends’ Kill Code finale here; it’s pretty much bad news for everyone except for Revenant, and that’s very exciting.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEpaaanJ%2BqwW%2BvzqZmmqiVrXqtscaepZ2rX6q9s7XSoqWgZZWrsq%2FAjKucsJmimcA%3D