Apex Legends is Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment’s overnight success. Today, the popular battle royale shooter is dippping a toe in the tabletop hobby. A Kickstarter campaign by Glass Cannon Unplugged has been confirmed for May 17, 2023.
Yet, the tabletop game is not going to have quite the same 60-player teams-of-three quality to it, but it will attempt to give you a similarly-epic feeling of the video gaming counterpart nevertheless. Apex Legends: The Board Game will attempt to follow the same narrative, with players taking the role of characters equipped with abilities and their own gameplay style.
Successful Adaptation of the Video Game on the Horizon
The choice of a publisher is not random either. Glass Cannon Unplugged have already successfully brought video gaming adaptations to the tabletop realm, with projects such as Frostpunk: The Board Game and Dying Light absolutely hitting a bull’s eye, not to forget This War of Mine: The Board Game.
The company is all-hands-on-deck about their latest video game adaptation, too, with the necessary track record to try and recreate an ambitious mechanic from video gaming into tabletop – shooting.
While the shooting mechanic is not entirely new, giving players a feeling that they are experiencing a game inspired by Apex Legends, but one that still to the tabletop community is an Augean task. Not too many details are yet known about the actual gameplay.
If anything, the studio promises an innovative combat system that will provide players with endless replayability, which is what the battle royale genre is all about in the first place. The game will also play in teams and players will need to adapt their strategies and put thought into how they approach each battle, exploiting environmental advantage and leaning on their character’s strengths.
The game will be underpinned by its own combat system – a new addition to the tabletop hobby, the publisher says. The new system is not clear as well, but it promises to be an easy to pick and accessible to people who are new to the hobby – no doubt a passing reference to the fact that the company expects to attract some Apex Legends players, too. Yet, for players who are seeking a little more depth at the core, Glass Cannon Unplugged is confident that it will deliver.
Apex Legends to Offer Endless Replayability and Tournaments
As to the actual fields of battle, they will be inspired by the maps found in the original video game, or five maps total it seems. The core set of characters will include Bloodhound, Gibraltar, Wraith and Bangalore as the main playable characters, which is a far cry from the 23 characters presently available in the video game at the time of writing.
Glass Cannon Unplugged though is upping the ante even from the early stages and promises that there is a long roadmap ahead, and even organized tournament play in mind. This seems to suggest that the competitive nature of Apex Legends will be introduced into The Board Game as well.
This is not the first board game based on a video game that is expecting delivery this year or has started raising funds. Earlier today, Kolossal Games started funding for Street Fighter V: Champion Edition – Legends and we are expecting to see Rome: Total War: The Board Game, and Company of Heroes: The Board Game arrive later in 2023.