Apex Legends' new character is a time-traveling mom with a grudge

YouTube

Ahead of the launch of Apex Legends season 7 next week, Electronic Arts has rolled out a new trailer that introduces Dr. Mary Somers, also known as Horizon, who finds herself flung nearly 100 years into the future after her partner betrays her and leaves her to die at the edge of the known universe.

Slow, lonely death in the cold blackness of space is bad enough on its own, but what really sucks is that Horizon left behind a young son, despite a heartfelt promise to return after fulfilling her mission to find and bring back a new energy source that could save her home planet of Olympus. Her Scottish genius eventually enables her to escape this ugly doom, but while she gets back to the right place, it's the wrong time: 87 years have passed, and the child she left behind is gone.

She's not giving up, though! After all, if she can time-travel once then she can do it again, and apparently the best way to do that is to put everything she's learned as an academic and mother to work in the winner-take-all gladiatorial deathmatch of the Apex Games. I don't really get that particular approach to harnessing the power of quantum mechanics vis-à-vis the temporal substructure of the cosmos, but I'm sure EA will put it all together in some narratively cohesive fashion at some point before Apex Legends season 7 begins.

Fortunately, that's not all there is to see: Today's update also reveals the results of season 6 ranked play, which apparently went quite well overall, and provides insights into what's coming in season 7. The new season will start on a new map called Olympus (no info on that beyond the fact of its existence, however), before moving to World's Edge following the seasonal split planned for December 15. Kings Canyon will not be in play this season, but will return down the road.

The update also clarifies how ranked points will work now that crossplay is enabled. "Console players that are opted in to crossplay will matchmake against all other console players. Everyone in the pool is still sorted by total RP count as usual. This increased player population should help keep matchmaking times short," it says.

"For Master and Apex Predator players, playing Ranked matches will earn you RP for your current platform, e.g. if you are a PS4 Apex Predator playing with PC friends, the RP you score count toward your rank only on PS4, even though there are PC players in the matches with you."

Apex Legends season 7 will get underway on November 4, which is also when the game finally launches on Steam.

TOPICS

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.