Apex Legends dev hits back at claims Winter Express LTM is “recycled”

Liam Mackay
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Apex Legends’ Holo-Day Bash event is underway, but some fans were critical of the return of the Winter Express LTM, calling it “recycled.”

Apex Legends has had its Holiday-themed overhaul with the start of the Holo-Day Bash. With it came challenges, new and returning cosmetics to purchase, and the return of a fan-favorite limited time mode (LTM).

The Winter Express LTM first appeared in Apex Legends with 2019’s Holo-Day Bash event. To put it simply, squads must fight for control of a train that revolves around the World’s Edge map. It’s different to the regular BR that Apex usually is, with players being allowed to respawn and using set loadouts rather than looting.

This mode was extremely popular last year, so Respawn brought it back with some much-needed updates and changes. New stations and loadouts have been added, as well as being allowed to respawn and get back to the fight quicker.

On the Holo-Day Bash announcement post on the Apex Legends subreddit, some were critical of the LTM returning, calling it a “recycled mode.”

Respawn’s response

Senior Game Designer Daniel Klein gave a lengthy response to the claims.

“I really wouldn’t call Winter Express a recycled mode,” he replied. “Mark worked his ass off to make it so much better. Between the supply ships and the new stations and a LOT of behind the scenes changes to reduce downtime it feels so much better to me.”

User avengingewok responded to Klein, saying although they appreciate the hard work and are glad to see it return, “it’s still recycled.”

“Real talk, this took more effort than making a mode like, I don’t know, Armed and Dangerous,” Klein fired back.

“We’re still figuring out what we want to do; Winter Express seemed like a no-brainer because it didn’t show quite as steep a dropoff (if I remember correctly) and it’s clearly a very different experience. We put a lot of effort into v2; I think a lot of that was also that we subjectively love the mode.”

Klein concluded by saying bringing LTMs are always a difficult choice because what players ask for on Reddit and what they actually play are quite different.

About The Author

Liam is CharlieIntel's Editor who focuses on Call of Duty but also plays lots of fantasy RPGs or anything else in his massive gaming backlog. After graduating in Journalism from Edinburgh Napier University, Liam freelanced in games journalism before joining CharlieIntel in November 2020. You can contact Liam at [email protected].