Gameplay and Unique Selling Point (USP) 

PUBG is bland. It’s McDonald’s coffee. It’s unsalted butter. It’s Star Trek Discovery Season 2.

As much as it paved the way in making battle royale mainstream, it is boring. Relying purely on player skill and positioning, the purist – we guess CS:GO hardcores – may like it but it makes a terrible game for those who want more variety in their game.

Their ultra-realistic approach may have won them a chunk of the player-base in the beginning but being a bug-riddled game kind of nullifies that edge allowing the likes of Fortnite and Blackout to gain significant ground. Being first out of the gate doesn’t guarantee you’re the best out there and that’s exactly where PUBG is right now.

PUBG‘s gun game is dwarfed by Blackout and Apex Legends and PUBG’s only consolation is that they are much more balanced than the shotty-meta of Fortnite. Speaking of Fortnite, the build mechanics is a one-of-a-kind that sets them so far apart from the others. Leaning heavily for the generation which grew up on Minecraft and related ‘flossing’ to their hips rather than their teeth, Fortnite jive well with the younger crowd thanks to its overall presentation.

Fortnite is way ahead of everyone else in the cosmetics department as well. As much as I’m not a fan of the game, I would admit that they’ve done so many good moves in ensuring their game’s longevity and relevance. Blackout is essentially your Call of Duty jacked up with gadgets to fit in a battle royale setting and ran with it. Everything just works better here compared to PUBG and Fortnite – sans the build mechanics, of course.

What of Apex Legends then? As mentioned in our review of it here, Apex Legends felt like a byproduct of a threesome between Overwatch, Titanfall 2 and Call of Duty Black Ops IIII’s Blackout. It is fun, fast-paced and a bit nonsensical (which may put off some quarters) yet manages to capture everything that’s good with battle royale and accentuate them to fit into their game. The omission of fall damage adds levels of verticality unseen before in battle royale titles and their direction of going with ‘Legends’ with abilities alongside a squad-emphasized gameplay sets them further apart from those who came before them.

The Winner That Eats Chicken for Dinner: Apex Legends. It’s gotta be fun and fresh and no other title comes even close to Apex Legends in this category.

Settles for the salad: Black Ops IIII‘s Blackout.

Next Page: Newbie and Console-friendliness + Overall winner