Respawn dev explains why Forge’s abilities wouldn’t work in Apex Legends

Respawn developer Daniel Klein has explained why Forge’s planned abilities – before Revenant murdered him in cold blood – would not work in Apex Legends, if he was ever to be added as a playable character.

Following the addition of Rampart in Season 6, there are now 14 unique Legends in Respawn’s battle royale, and with even more on the way, fans are always speculating about who could be next to join the cast in the Apex Games.

While Respawn has already been hinting towards the Season 7 Legend, after players discovered a teaser for a new character called Horizon in the firing range, there are plenty of characters in the Apex universe who could be also introduced.

One character who has been heavily featured in the Apex lore but was not added as a playable Legend is Forge. The People’s Champ was known for his melee combat skills but was killed off by Revenant before his scheduled arrival in Season 4. Respawn confirmed it was all a ploy to misdirect data miners.

Since then, Apex players have been eager to see the return of Forge, in some manner, but game designer Daniel Klein, who focuses on Legend design in particular, explained why his abilities couldn’t have worked in Apex Legends. Fake concept art and abilities were leaked in the game files, to put off the leakers.

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Forge’s abilities were heavily melee-based and the Respawn dev claimed it would be difficult to make use of them with the standard Apex Legends playstyle.

After one Apex Legends player claimed that Forge’s abilities were “wasted potential,” Klein responded revealing that the leaked set of abilities were only made to trick the community and that they would not have been used.

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“With respect, his abilities were s***posts that we would never even put into prototyping,” he explained. “You can’t have a melee character in a gun game and have them be both impactful and healthy for the core combat loop of the game.”

Forge’s “leaked” abilities were:

• Pull Shot (Hook): Short-range grapple that pulls enemies into you or can be used to launch yourself into the air.
• Ground Slam: Press crouch while airborne to slam into the ground below.
• K.O. Punch (High Jump): Jump forward in a direction. Press crouch while airborne to slam into the ground below.
• One-Two (One-Two Punch): Bullrush in a straight line. If you hit an enemy along the way, press again to do an upper-cut launching you into the air.
• On The Ropes: Enhances your melee to do more damage the lower your health is. Dealing melee damage gives you temporary overshield.
• Victory Rush: Killing a player with a melee attack restores your health and gives you a 30% speed boost for 10 seconds.

While his abilities did not synergize well with the current Apex Legends playstyle, players are still holding out hope for the character to return, in some fashion, for a later season.

However, it does not look like Respawn has any intention of bringing the character back anytime soon, but we’ll just have to wait and see.