Apex Legends is something of a zeitgeist stew, checking all of the boxes of recent trends all the way down to its grandiose but nondescript title. It’s one part by-the-numbers battle royale, complete with the descent from the sky, emphasis on scavenging for loot, and shrinking playable area. It’s another part hero shooter, featuring eight characters called Legends with unique ability sets built for steadfast teamwork. It comes decked out with all the modern free-to-play, games-as-service fixings, including weapon skins, emotes, seasons stretching throughout the rest of the year and (hopefully) years to come, and even the much-maligned loot boxes. None of those borrowed ideas scream originality on their own, but here they come together as something totally new thanks to a roster of personable Legends, a single lavishly designed map, and a smart approach to its mandatory three-person squads. Add great gunplay, a groundbreaking communication system, and a degree of polish that’s all but unheard of in this genre, and Apex Legends has burst onto the scene as one of the most refined and entertaining battle royale games I’ve played.

Set in the Titanfall universe (but conspicuously lacking the signature Titans, falling or otherwise), a match of Apex Legends is relatively small scale: 20 teams of three compete in a last-team-standing competition on a gradually shrinking, sci-fi-infused map. At first, I was worried about the mandatory squad-based setup, given my less-than-great experiences playing with randoms in other battle royale games. So far, however, I’ve been pleasantly surprised, in large part because of excellent non-verbal communication.

While it certainly helps to talk to your teammates with a mic, Apex Legends has an intuitive contextual ping system that’s better than every other battle royales. With the tap of a button you can call out points of interest, whether that be supplies, enemy locations, or just a spot you think the team should go towards, and your character will verbally acknowledge the pings by intelligently translating what you wanted to say to your team. It’ll even offer up other bits of dialogue automatically, such as when shots are fired. I’m genuinely amazed at how advanced this incredibly simple-to-use system feels. I’ve marked unassuming enemies closing in on our location and watched as my teammates converged on their location from different angles, flanking them without so much as a single word spoken. Likewise, while your search for loot may be turning up nothing but measly pistols and loads of attachments you can’t use, one of your teammates might find and mark a useful SMG for you to grab.

It’s great that the ping system exists because cohesive teamwork really is the only way to make it to the end of a match. That’s in part due to the fact that Apex Legends is unique among battle royale games thus far in that it’s possible to revive a teammate even after they’ve bled out and completely died. (It turns out they’re only mostly dead.) A teammate can grab your banner within 90 seconds of your death and make the trek to the nearest beacon, which brings you back from the dead via a spectacular dropship landing that is sure to draw the attention of every squad in the area. The multi-step process – during all of which you’re leaving yourself vulnerable – means you have to deal with nearby threats quickly if you want to resurrect someone because it’s effectively impossible to do while being shot at. That only further places the focus on solid teamwork.

A handful of my deaths have come from making ill-advised attempts at securing a banner before the timer runs out. But the risk that comes with the reward of keeping your squad full, in my experience, has always been worth it. Near the end of the match at least a few teams are typically fully intact and strapped with all of the best loot grabbed from fallen players; in these confined, high-stakes moments, being short even one teammate is hard to overcome. Each of my several victories has been won with all three of us still alive. Surprisingly, this respawn system is implemented in such a way that it doesn’t really drag out the match length, so even matches where I made it to the end have taken around 20 to 25 minutes.

The varied Legends you choose from add new wrinkles to the battle royale format and further place the focus on playing as a team. The eight options (two of whom are initially locked behind a grind-or-pay wall) each have their own neat tactical, passive, and chargeable ultimate abilities that can come in handy at times. That said, because firepower is determined by the guns you find rather than the class you pick, they don’t feel as absolutely necessary as the class interplay of something like Overwatch, where a support character will get smoked by a DPS; in Apex Legends, the abilities feel more like perks than full-blown, restrictive identities, so you can play as anybody you like and your team will likely be viable. This has encouraged me to try different characters without worrying much about team balance. Mostly, I’m finding the Legends to be a fun addition because of their voice acting, all of which is upbeat.

My favorite Legend is Lifeline, a combat medic. She has many abilities that make her one of the best. Her passive ability is that she can use healables 15% faster than any other Legend. She can also revive fallen teammates 15% faster. Her D.O.C. healing drone takes 60 seconds to charge and can heal your whole team at once. It can also create a gun shield for teammates when you revive them. Her ultimate ability is a Lifeline package that can bring your squad good items but reveals your position.