Shroud explains why new Apex Legends map has him worried for battle royale

Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek has been sinking his teeth into the new Apex Legends map, Storm Point, and has already found a major problem — one the star Twitch streamer thinks could hurt the long-term future of the battle royale.

Last week, Respawn added a fourth Apex Legends map ⁠— “Storm Point” ⁠— to their flagship battle royale, and the tropical paradise has already been a popular release.

Players and streamers alike have given it a big tick, especially its new NPC enemies scattered around the battleground and, as NICKERMCS said on November 2, the map’s move to stop so many ‘third parties.’ There are some, however, that aren’t as convinced Storm Point is a step in the right direction.

According to Shroud, the new map raises some big concerns.

In particular, Storm Point’s massive size increase over World’s Edge and Olympus has the Twitch star worried, as does how Respawn designed the map elements.

Shroud has been playing Apex Legends frequently since the Season 11 update, getting to know the CAR SMG (spoilers, he’s not a fan) and the Storm Point map.

Like his take on the season’s submachine gun, Twitch’s human aimbot is less than impressed with Respawn’s latest map release. That’s not to say it’s a personal dislike. Instead, Shroud said during a Nov. 8 stream, he’s worried about all the decisions that went into building Apex’s tropical battlefield.

His first concern is the map fails its main objective.

“This map was made to have less third parties?” Shroud said. “I mean it’s a pretty big map, but I think it depends where you land. Like, you still get constantly third partied if you jump [in certain spots on the map], every time.”

The other problem, he said,  is if you avoid third party spots you will never see anyone until late: “It’s f**king big. You go to the end, you’ll see nobody.”

Then there’s Shroud’s second worry. While playing Storm Point, he raised concerns about the way Respawn actually built smaller POIs on the Apex Legends map.

As he played through the Gaea map, he found several places where he simply couldn’t access. Shroud claims that is a “really bad” way to design the game. If Respawn continues on this path, he said, it could change the game entirely.

“There just aren’t that many movement spots,” Shroud said. “I feel like it’s [Apex] becoming character-advantage, right? Like that Pathfinder got up that building because he used his “Q”. I have no way to get up. There’s no way to get up, so it’s character-diff, so you’re just running around looking.

• Read More: What Shroud thinks of new CAR SMG in Apex Legends

“There’s lots of ways legends can get to certain spots,” he continued, “but you have to choose them, and [if they don’t] players will struggle with these layouts.”

Shroud may sound a little down on the new map, but the human aimbot’s concerns over Apex Legends come from a place of love ⁠— star Twitch streamer has been vocal about Respawn’s title being his “favorite battle royale.”

• Read More: EA wants more Apex Legends content updates

One star that doesn’t agree with Shroud is NICKMERCS; the Twitch star dubbed Storm Point “straight fire,” mainly due to the tropic island’s massive size.