Apex Legends has been known as a chaotic and cool battle royale game, but all that will change with Apex Legends Legacy, the next update to the game, which is also the biggest change yet.

The most significant change is that an all-new permanent mode, Arenas, is being added to the game, which strips the battle royale and instead focuses on a 3 versus 3 mode. The round starts out in a familiar way, with character selection, but then that is where things change, because one of the biggest changes, apart from the player count, is that weapons are purchased before the round officially begins.

Similar to Counter Strike, players will be given time to buy weapons, upgrades, and power options, with a small number of materials being supplied each time and if you don’t spend all your materials in the buy round, they will carry over to the next buy period, but none of your weapons carry across between them. The options available to you are vast, you can select weapons that you like, giving you a chance to enjoy your favourite gun, from round to round, but with the chance to upgrade it between each as well. Upgrades can be as simple as adding in a larger mag, or choosing a new optic, the choice is up to you, and because you can change things up between combat rounds, if an option you selected didn’t work for you, then you can find something new.

Once you have entered into the battle portion of the round, things become much more familiar to all shooter players, you will just need to take out the opposing squad before they take you out. There are no respawns in these matches, so if your squad mates are taken out, you can’t call them back into the fight, using any of the main Battle Royale methods. That being said, if the squad is down, but not yet out, you can still give them a boost and get them back into the battle, but if you are out in the open, you leave yourself open to being taken out, so you need to decide if the risk is worth it.

When you win a round, you earn a point, with the first team to three points is declared the winner, but the catch is that you need to have a two-point lead, so if you have three and your enemies have two, you have to play again. The team decided on this approach, to allow players on teams that are not winning as much, to keep the game going, so matches last more than a few minutes. Once your round is done, you are back to buying and while each person is given a nice number of materials at the start, you can also collect material canisters in the maps, to bolster your resources for the next round. A nice touch is that your entire squad is gifted materials from pick-ups, no matter who picks them up, meaning that while you can buy weapons for the other members of your squad, there isn’t actually a need to do so.

Having played a few rounds on the new maps, I can say that the game feels like a more focused and faster Counter Strike, there are places where you can embrace the sniper, or open fields where you can enjoy the thrill of the fight, with low cover and plenty of chances to frag. When the mode is released, there will be two all new maps, the first is Party Crasher, which if the name didn’t give it away, it is based around Mirage and his ship the Mirage Voyage. Those who opt to jump in on this map will find that there are two main points of contention, the aforementioned ship, and the two-story building, complete with ease of access ramps. Each of the two locations offers something different, the building is tighter and more compact, allowing for more in your face action, whereas the Mirage Voyage is located up high and if you claim it, gives you the high ground, allowing you to take out enemies from afar.

While Party Crasher is all about fast and demanding combat, the second of the new maps, Phase Runner, takes more of a slow and cautious approach. Much like Party Crasher, the name here also provides a clue to the maps unique touch, an active phase runner portal, which allows for teams to quickly make their way towards one side of the map, the other side is where there is a partially built system, meaning you will have to run to get there. If both teams use the completed phase runner, they can quickly find themselves locked in a close quarters battle, where the quick become the deadly.

While the mode will only launch with two original maps, the team at Respawn have announced that more are on the way, but for now, there will be slices taken from the Battle Royale maps. Artillery from Kings Canyon, Thermal Station from Worlds Edge, and Golden Gardens from Olympus, these locations might sound familiar and there is a fair chance you have already encountered them. Artillery will launch alongside the two new maps and then stay in the rotation for two weeks, before being replaced by one of the others and then two weeks later the last map will show up, before the cycle begins again.

Arenas may not be a fully original game mode, but it is one heck of a good time, it is keeping the chaos of the Apex Characters, refining how you access their powers in a more balanced way, but letting you unleash them on new maps. The option to buy weapons before each round, is very Counter Strike, but it works just as well here and given that you can locate extra materials, whilst attempting to take out your enemies, means you can gain an advantage for the next round. The lack of maps might prove to be its undoing, but they could quickly add the rotational offerings into the mix to help pad the lineup for now, though time will tell on that. If you have fallen away from Apex Legends, because the Battle Royale system has lost its appeal, then Arenas might just be your way back in, thanks to the simple fact, that it is a heck of a lot of fun.