We Finally Know How Horizon's Abilities Work In Apex Legends
With Season 7 of Apex Legends fast approaching, fans have been waiting patiently for the battle royale's next playable character to be announced. The wait is almost over, because fans have finally received confirmation that Horizon is officially joining Apex Legends.
Respawn Entertainment announced the newest Legend on Twitter, along with an exciting character trailer. The announcement reads, "Meet Horizon, a brilliant astrophysicist who escaped a black hole and aims to use her newfound mastery of gravity to keep a promise.
Horizon has a deployable Repulsion Star device, which is the source of her Gravity Lift ability. Gravity Lift can propel players straight up into the air. This little gadget isn't just used for Horizon's benefit, either. In the character trailer, Horizon can be seen activating Gravity Lift, after which her entire squad catches a ride and takes the high ground. Gravity Lift can also be used to toss enemies into the stratosphere. This strategy can also be seen in the trailer, as Horizon knocks an enemy into the sky with Gravity Lift and fires off a few shots into her disoriented opponent.
The trailer also gives players a brief glimpse at Spacewalk, Horizon's passive ability, which is made possible by the advanced spacesuit that she wears. With Spacewalk, Horizon is capable of maneuvering in mid-air, which will come in handy when opponents are trying to pick her off from on high. She also makes smoother landings than other Legends when jumping down from great heights, which makes sense when one considers how much air Horizon can gain from using Gravity Lift.
However, the real star of the show here is Horizon's robot companion, N.E.W.T. Although N.E.W.T. is initially seen in the trailer acting like a Roomba and sucking up dirt off the ground, this little guy is deceptively powerful. In fact, N.E.W.T. is intrinsically tied to Horizon's ultimate ability, Black Hole. N.E.W.T. creates a small vortex wherever it is deployed that sucks in enemies and holds them in place. Not only does the Black Hole itself seem to do damage to enemies, but it also leaves opponents open for Horizon and the members of her squad to pump the trapped enemies full of ammo. As the trailer notes, this ability is also perfect for yanking any hidden squads away from covered positions, making it nearly impossible to stay out of Horizon's path of destruction.
This trailer also gives fans a taste of Horizon's sense of humor. While firing upon the enemies stuck in the Black Hole, she quips, "What's a wee singularity between friends?"
The official announcement of Horizon as a playable Legend finally puts to rest months of speculation. Horizon has actually been teased by Apex Legends since Season 5 of the game. She made her first notable in-game appearance during the "Horizon's Wee Experiments" questline, which charged players with activating a series of Gravity Lifts.
Fan response to the Horizon reveal has been overwhelmingly positive, with some players tweeting that they couldn't wait to play as the character. Meanwhile, some players are cautiously optimistic, however. One player said that they were impressed with the character, but had a sinking suspicion that Horizon would be killed off by surprise. After all, Apex Legends pulled this kind of bait and switch before, killing off The Forge at the last minute and replacing him with Revenant.
Some fans still believe that Respawn Entertainment may have another surprise character reveal hidden up its sleeve. Back in July, it seemed like Apex Legends had already revealed a new map and character. The ending of the "Broken Ghost" questline had Apex Legends gamers preparing for the return of Ash, one of the villains of Titanfall 2. This questline tasked players with reassembling the smashed head of a dormant Simulacrum, or android. The reconstituted Simulacrum greatly resembled Ash, which led many gamers to believe that the resurrected enemy would soon become a playable character in Apex Legends. While that has yet to come to pass, another fan theory has posited that Horizon's treacherous assistant could be Ash in disguise.
If Ash is indeed making a return to this universe and has a connection to the latest Legend, then hopefully fans won't have to wait to wait too long to find out. In the meantime, it's looking like Apex Legends players are going to have plenty of fun with Horizon's insane gravity-defying abilities.
Apex Legends Season 7 launches on Nov. 4, 2020. Data miners Biast12 and Shrugtal have already gotten an early look at Season 7. They discovered that the upcoming season may include some wild new additions, such as a HoverBike and a crossbow weapon.