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Apex Legends dropped its twentieth(!) season this week, with Apex Legends Breakout bringing a whole bunch of new content for the battle royale favourite. Celebrating the game’s fifth anniversary, the latest season has shook things up, by introducing a new Legend Upgrade system and an overhaul to Ranked mode as well as a new map.
However, it’s this map – which goes by the name Thunderdome – that’s attracted some attention from community of another popular shooter game The Finals. Over on the The Finals subreddit, a thread by a community member going by the name xenn64 has started a discussion on whether the new map was “heavily inspired by the Finals”.
“Can’t wait for their new mode get that cash and put that money into the bank,” jokes GalaxyDog2289 in the most popular reply. “You do have to admit that the giant floating statue is very similar to the one in The Finals.” adds Hitroll2121. Similarly, AyS_tM says “At first I thought I was looking at a new map for The Finals until I saw the caption”.
However many – us included – aren’t entirely convinced by the argument put forward by the op, with many pointing out how both games have a similar “lethal gameshow” premise. “The finals didn’t invent stadiums bro, siege did that even b4 the finals and probably many more games did that too,” points out Useful-Connection205.
There’s also a number of players pointing out Apex’s already established lore too, which this map leans into. “The Thunderdome (which this map is based on) is a fighting arena which has existed in Apex lore for years. This is just the first time they’ve made a map out of it,” says ItsHen.
It’s of course entirely understandable why such comparisons are being made – both games feature squads of three locked in combat. And while Apex Legends takes more of a Battle Royale route in its standard mode, it also features a number of other modes – or Mixtape modes as it calls them – that have a similar playstyle.
All this being said, it’s perhaps Hitroll that puts it best – “It ultimately doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s coincidence. Maybe they took inspiration. It doesn’t matter that much.” – and they’re absolutely right. Games have been riffing off each other for years, and are bound to have some similarities – and these ones are pretty loose.
While it’s nowhere near the level of the Palworld/Pokémon similarities and the discourse there, as long as games have similarities between them – there’s likely to be some fans who want to point them out for better and worse. Whether it actually effects how much fun the game is is, quite often, moot.
There’s certainly room for both shooters in the gaming sphere, and there’s plenty of players who no doubt can and will play both, and perhaps they’ll make some new fans from one or the other camp.
In the meantime, for more on the new season, check out our Apex Legends Breakout rewards guide – how to unlock free Legendary Wraith skin or our breakdown of the Apex Legends Season 20 Breakout Battle Pass.