Young players have to be strong these days: The USK has not given the battle royale shooter a youth approval. This means that Apex Legends is officially intended for players aged 18 and over. The shooter is basically not that brutal: neither blood is used excessively, nor do virtual body parts fly through the arenas. Nevertheless, the testing authority sees isolated scenes from Apex Legends critically.
A single feature is too brutal
Apex Legends is brightly colored, not as brightly colored as its competitor Fortnite, but brightly enough to be considered a not very serious shooter. The degree of violence is not exaggerated, but Apex Legends seems like the adult role model of the genre primus, whose brightly colored cartoon optics knows how to distract from the actually serious game content - namely the elimination of other players. While Fortnite Battle Royale was approved by the USK for ages 16 and up, the testing authority Apex Legends recently refused approval for young people. A single game feature is to blame for this: the “Finishing Moves”, also known as executions in German.
Who knocks out an opposing player, then stands in front of him and presses a button, can trigger an execution ability that lasts a few moments, but then sure kills the opponent. The USK considers this procedure to be brutal and realistic, also due to the graphic implementation. Through the “celebrated” staging of the executions, these are subsequently played down so that negative effects on older young people cannot be completely ruled out.
At least that's what our colleagues at Gamestar on request from the USK.
If the developers at Respwan Entertainment had decided not to implement the finishers, USK approval from the age of 16 would have been more than likely.
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