What is the appeal of Apex compared to other Battle Royales?
Only speaking from my personal perspective, but to briefly describe why I prefer Apex;
Fortnite gunplay never felt as satisfying to me, and I never warmed to either the building system or the art style. It just seemed like it was too much fanfare and not enough focus on the raw tactility and the visceral nature of weaponry.
PUBG and
H1Z1 are just too unpolished and janky for my liking. The visuals are poor, the animations a bit weak. They simply lack quality of life options, polish and fluidity.
Blackout is a bit too much like more COD (which I've kind of exhausted), and didn't do enough to truly seperate it, make it unique or stand out. The visuals and art direction are a bit meh, I'm not keen on perks being part of loot, nor do I like the use of vehicles etc either.
Then comes
Apex Legends. To me the actual gunplay feels more slick, visceral and punchy than some or all of the others. The characters, the map, visuals/art, quality of life features, unique elements, unique weapons etc just make it stand out more and feel cooler.
I absolutely love the ping system. It is one of the coolest features ever in a BR game, and totally changes the dynamics and level of strategy and indirect communications, even with people who don't have a mic. Then there's the cool legends and all their unique abilities that you get from the get go, which adds gameplay diversity, depth, more team play reward, and further strategy. Plus little things like the zip wire boosters, zip line drop ships, general fluidity of movement, controls, climbing, sliding, the overall designs and look of things, the weapon balance etc. It's altogether just really fluid, polished and satisfying, and there's enough unique elements to seperate it whilst still remaining pretty grounded.
Mind you, I don't know how much staying power it'll have for me. Only time will tell, but so far I've been hooked.