I'm not a designer on this video game so it's not like I can "prove it" lol. I just think that 3 is the best team number, and the characters are supposed to synergize best as a three person team, even if there's somewhat of a specific meta team comp at the highest levels of play. I thought 3 man squads worked best in the original Destiny, and works best in Rocket League too.
For Apex, I think 4 would be too chaotic in general for both inter-squad coordination as well as interpreting other team action/third partying. Personally, I haven't really cared that much for either duos or solos, but it's not like I played (or wanted to play) a ton of them when these modes have been choices to play.
Solos is fun. You don't have to worry about being a burden, or being burdened by randoms. Your friends aren't always gonna be online. I've honestly never felt that whole squad meta feel I get from Siege/OW in Apex. I think they just randomly chose a 3 man squad because...why not I guess? The only thing I can think of that would be an issue are characters like Lifeline's shield rez being useless, and taking away an influential mechanic like reviving from death. I'm assume Respawn is savvy enough to figure out a workaround to make solos a thing.
They could make solos all Pathfinders with golden knockdowns and I'd still have more fun than the experiences I've had playing with strangers.
I didn't really care for it that much whenever I played. I'd always tend to make it to the end and then get jumped by something really dumb and lose because of someone hiding in a ridiculous spot.
I did think that a all Pathfinders mode could work too. Or better yet, make it something like a TF Pilots mode where everyone has jumpkits that work in some fashion + having a grapple, and having a hitbox frame something most like Banglaore or Mirage
solos are a blast and play fine this is a not a good argument. I use to play for hours daily but having terrible random teammates every lobby killed every bit of fun I had in this game.
the core identity has nothing to do with solos it plays perfectly fine. I went from playing 5-6 hours a day for 2.5 seasons to not playing at all due to how frustrating randoms are.
I tend to play all three in 3 man (solo queuing, playing with a friend (most commonly), or playing as a full pre-made) and I've had a pretty good time as all. And I've just not had as much fun playing either solos or duos. I think this game and its characters/abilities is definitely a game about playing with two other people on your team. I think if they want to do a solo style of mode, they should do something different than just the characters solo personally. But then if they did that, that
would dilute the identity of the game some, despite what people might think.
Personally, I think that's been one of Halo's big problems for a little while, but it's kind of a bind that they are in. Where Halo has an almost specific identity where it works best (doubles, 4v4, and a tight 8v8 Big Team), yet they also have to cater to a whole bunch of other people's tastes/desires too, since Halo can mean so many things to so many people. And this I think actually kind of hurts Halo a bit. I think games like these should try to stick as close to what makes their core design work as much as possible, while also giving occasional optional ways to play like they've been doing actually.
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