Why Shooters Are About Movement
Apex Legends reminds us that shooters are fundamentally about... movement. Playing an FPS without sprint (first popularized in Call of Duty) is a stark reminder of how boring traversal becomes: walking simulators are no fun! In fact, movement aligns with what Christopher Anjos has called the Call of Duty fantasy: embodying an action hero.
Apex Legends uses a friction system to create "momentum." Mechanically:
- Sprint velocity converts into a low-friction movement state
- Friction coefficient drops sharply
- Downhill slopes amplify velocity
- Jumping preserves slide momentum
This creates the famous loop: Sprint -> Slide -> Jump -> Re-sprint -> Slide. It also means Map Size / Avg. Character Speed = Traversal Time (TT), where higher TT means more combat instances, as the "zones" on the squad collapse on high and non-empty loot locations.
The game has built on momentum over time, creating more "flow" states by allowing players to chain speed boosts after correctly timing a mini-time event after vaulting an object. The game still touches its core mechanic more than 5 years after launch! Even its newest character throws "slide boosts," making the action hero's flow slide even more central to the game.
Its recent feature allows respawns on death boxes rather than the banner-retrieve -> revive point loop that the game first made famous. It's another accessibility move at a time when the game is at its healthiest point since 2024.