Apex Legends players call for major overhaul to “broken” melees

Apex Legends players have called on developers Respawn to overhaul the game’s melee mechanics, with many lamenting them as inconsistent, overpowered, and even “broken.”

Apex Legends’ core gameplay mechanics are one of the reasons it has received so many plaudits since its release back in 2019. The absence of fall damage, paired with the ability to perform never-ending slides and scale vertical walls as standard have been acclaimed.

However, another of these core gameplay mechanics that has fallen short of the high praise is melees.

The melee mechanic has been ever-present since the game’s launch, seeing characters swing for one another, doing 30 damage per accurate attack.

Despite their relativity weak damage output, players have criticized them for their inconsistency, with seemingly arbitrary factors determining whether or not you land your melee efforts.

Some players also pointed out how difficult recovery is when melee, with your HUD distorted and character forced back.

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Redditor ‘alonfco‘ raised the point on September 25, with a chaotic video showing multiple players spamming melees at one another. It was captioned: “We can all agree that melee needs a change right?”

One player responded, joking that in Apex you”have 2 options: you can melee anyone from anywhere at anytime or you can never land a single hit”.

They join a number of other disgruntled players who have taken issue with the game’s melee in the past.

‘LWF1shburne‘ described melees as “absolutely broken”. Attached was a bizarre clip in which a player melees an opponent and, despite being some way away and their opponent literally retreating behind a rock, manages to pull off an unlikely kick.

Both posts received thousands of upvotes, suggesting that a significant number of players are taking issue with how melees currently operate.

Whether Respawn seeks to overhaul the mechanic is unclear, but it seems that some community members think it would benefit from some adjustments.