The fear that theApex LegendsSun Squad Collection Event was going to be deliriously horny and present all of our favourite heroes in the skimpiest outfits appears to have been unfounded. However, a small minority of vocal fans are angry about the distinct lack of bulges and camel toes. Players can soon earn/purchase a selection of themed cosmetics for the Summer, despite it still being in the month of March and a smidge nippy outside.
The real world remains cold and unwelcoming, but Apex Legends is bigging up the party and giving players an opportunity to lose themselves for a little bit. For the next few weeks it’ll be possible to jump into the battle royale and become an honorary member of Mirage’s cringe-inducing Sun Squad. Most of the new outfits are premium offerings except for those coming as part of a standalone progression track, so chances are if you’ve got a favourite hero and like the look of their skin, you can throw down some pennies and grab it.
Related:Resident Evil 4’s Professional Difficulty Is Way Easier Than You Think
I grew up seeing swimsuit cosmetics in weeaboo RPGs and other such games that put the male gaze front and centre, often focusing on boobs and butts even if the actual outfits we saw being worn made no sense for the characters or world they claimed to exist in. You still get that nowadays in the likes of Fire Emblem Heroes. Apex Legends’ new event isn’t avoiding the potential sexualisation of its growing cast, it merely represents a wholesome ideology it has been pushing for years now. Respawn’s live-service shooter boasts a sprawling cast of characters of different backgrounds, gender identities, sexualities, and even planes of sentience given that a few of the cast are spooky ghost robot dudes.
While you’ll find a handful of cutesy bikinis and accessories across the new cosmetics, most of them are more akin to wetsuits or playful summer spins on existing visual motifs. None are deliberately sexualised because that was never the intention in the first place. It doesn’t serve the player or the gameplay experience, with some online sharing gratuitous Source Filmmaker mock-ups of characters like Loba (it’s always Loba) acting like they’ve been cheated out of cranking one out by a freemium title cosmetic event. There are ample amounts of art, fics, and interpretations of these characters strutting their stuff and doing the nasty, and there is no obligation for the game itself to bow into that pressure. It just ain’t that horny.
If anything, I appreciate how Apex Legends is able to give its cast a sense of attraction and empowerment without forcing them into provocation. It would have been so easy to go and bastardise their recognisable portraits and personalities in service of fan service, and it’s not exactly an unknown in the medium either. Respawn has clearly had fun with each costume, trying to piece together references that fit each legend instead of giving them a sexy bathing suit before calling it a day. Some are even a bit lazy in their execution - which isn’t anything new for Apex - and opt for garish colour schemes and accessories over something original. We should be complaining about that stuff, not the lack of cleavage.
