Apex Legends Mobile has been widely available on Android since May, and it faces some intense competition with PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, and Fortnite, as they have been playable on our phones for years. Amazingly, it manages to compete thanks to a high level of polish. As a matter of fact, Apex Legends Mobile is shaping up to be one of the best Android games on the Play Store. So let's see how it compares to the competition.

What is Apex Legends?

Apex Legends is a battle royale developed by Respawn Entertainment and set within the Titanfall universe, approximately eighteen years after the Titanfall 2 story mode. The connection between Apex and Titanfall is strong, and Apex builds heavily upon the lore from its predecessors. Some characters like Blisk (creator of the Apex Games) and Ash (a playable character coming soon to mobile) were in Titainfall 2, while the other legends are somehow related to it. The sheer amount of lore connected to this game may seem daunting, but it's easy to follow thanks to the animations Respawn releases on a semi-regular basis. If you want to check them out, you can do so in this playlist.

Apex's biggest strength is its uniqueness, and the mobile interpretation discussed in today's article nails this too. Call of Duty Mobile, Fortnite, and PUBG Mobile see you play as a nameless grunt with customizable skins and loadouts. Whereas Apex Legends Mobile feels more like a hero shooter in this regard. The mobile port offers ten playable legends, each with their own backstory, dialogue, and gameplay abilities. Combine this with the tight movement system inherited from Titanfall, and you have a battle royale that plays like no other.

Apex Legends Mobile is a port of the game developed by Tencent, which is also the studio responsible for PUBG Mobile.

Apex Legends Mobile Vs. Fortnite

Like all battle royals, Fortnite drops you from an aircraft onto an ever-shrinking map with no weapons or resources, leaving you to find what you need to survive. Fortnite does something that none of the other games do — base building. You can destroy environmental objects and gather their resources to craft buildings and platforms. This mechanic isn't as popular as it used to be, with the game now having a no-build mode, but we still enjoyed it. Besides that, loot is found on the floor, chests, and airdrops.

Apex Legends Mobile operates on a similar formula but without construction. There is crafting involved, but it works differently. Each time you open a supply bin, you're awarded some crafting materials. If you take these to a crafting station, you can exchange them for various items. In the crafter, you can upgrade your shield, obtain ammo and health items, or one of two weapons that are cycled in and out every three months. You'll also be able to craft four pieces of loot, with two of them changing each day and the others each week. These items can be anything from weapon sights, better backpacks, or weapon mods called hop-ups.

There is a caveat, Apex Legends Mobile is a little clunky, especially compared to the PC/console version. Frames sometimes drop, and the touch controls can be awkward. Despite this, it still feels more polished than Fortnite. Fortnite feels clunky in its movement system, especially when trying to climb onto objects. Fortnite's crouch slide system is nice to see, but it pales compared to what you'll find in Apex Legends Mobile, which will see you zipping around the map in no time. Fortnite slightly makes up for this with its vehicles, including tanks that can deal massive damage. Apex Mobile has the Trident, a fast vehicle designed to get your squad to safety, but there are no onboard weapons like Fortnite's tank.

Gunplay is very different between the two titles, with the mobile version of Apex leaning more towards realism. Apex lets you feel the weight of each weapon as it is fired, and each gun feels different from the rest. Overall, Apex Legends Mobile feels more fun to play. It might lack the cartoon-inspired aesthetic and fancy dancing of Fortnite, but the core gameplay is lightyears ahead.

One of the biggest issues with Fortnite is that it's not available on the Google Play Store, though you can download it from Epic Games or the Galaxy Store to sideload the title.

Apex Legends Mobile Vs. PUBG Mobile

PUBG helped put battle royales on the map, selling twenty million copies in its first year despite being in early access. All these years later, it still feels like an early access game, even the mobile version. Player animations are simplistic and prone to bugs, and the game feels like it could stop working at any moment. PUBG Mobile is still a fun game to play, but it feels like something that isn't finished, even though it's four years old. The sound doesn't help the game either, with the audio mix that's muddy and uninspiring. Thanks to its incredible graphics on PC, you can forgive a lot of this, but with the mobile version, graphics aren't going to save the day.

The loot system in Apex Legends Mobile is far easier to use than the one found in PUBG Mobile. In Apex, everything is color-coordinated — white, blue, purple, and gold. Ammo types are sorted this way too. These bright colors mean you can spot important loot from a distance, allowing players to decide if they need to move to a particular area or not.

In PUBG Mobile, everything looks generic. Ammo types look different from each other, but because the items themselves are so small on the ground, you won't know if it's something you need until you're standing on top of it. Recognizing the subtle differences in shape and color will get easier over time, but new players can pick up Apex's system as soon as they start playing.

Apex Legends Mobile Vs. Call of Duty Mobile

Call of Duty Mobile is the game we expected to give Apex Mobile a run for its money. The other modes within CoD are slick, polished, and fun to play, and I expected the royale mode to feel the same. But it doesn't. CoD's royale mode sits somewhere in between PUBG Mobile and Fortnite. It feels better than PUBG mobile, but it's not as fun to play as Fortnite, let alone Apex Legends Mobile. The basics are all here — movement feels natural, gunplay is solid, and the loot system is pretty good. The problem is, "pretty good" is all we can say about any of it. It feels like this mode was just tacked onto the existing CoD Mobile experience to tick a box and cash in on the hype surrounding the genre. Everything feels bland.

The dialogue, in particular, stands out and with good reason. In CoD Mobile, you get generic voice lines that repeat every time you ping an enemy or piece of loot. Apex Legends Mobile stands in stark contrast to this. Each legend has quips that can be equipped to the emote wheel, and the dialogue is better even beyond that. Standardized voice lines like pinging loot or an enemy are different for each legend. Not only is the voice actor different, but the lines themselves are also changed to match your character's personality. This is one of many things that makes CoD feel bland and uninspired compared to Apex Legends Mobile's vibrant and full-of-life voicework.

Conclusion

You'll have fun playing any of the games on today's list, but in our opinion, you'll have the best time in Apex Legends Mobile, especially if you follow our starter guide to hit the ground running. Despite the teething issues that come with a newly released title, Apex Legends Mobile is more polished and better put together than any of the other battle royale games on mobile. The unique characters and addictive movement mechanics create a fun and memorable experience that will ensure you'll want to keep playing.​​​​​​​