Data-miners have turned up evidence that Respawn are planning to add hoverbikes into Apex Legends. While I’ve been enjoying the hell out of the game since its release, vehicles are one of the few things I’ve been craving, so this is definitely nice to hear.
Sure, using ziplines and launch balloons is satisfying and all, but the idea of rocketing around the map in formation with your team does sound pretty awesome. Plus, the movement options in the game are so satisfying as it is (especially sliding) that I can’t imagine that the hoverbikes would be anything but awesome.
This specific section of code was turned up by @ApexGameInfo and as you can see below, it governs the behavior of the bikes, making sure you can’t spawn an unlimited number and that the bike will fit into the location. This suggests that they’ve at least been play-tested at some point during development. But seasoned players will know that just because something’s mentioned in the code is no guarantee that it’ll make it to the full game. There’s a decent chance that they put the feature in, tested it and realized it either wasn’t fun or unbalanced things.
That said, it does appear that a substantial amount of work has gone into these vehicles, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them introduced in a future update. Right now, we don’t know whether Apex Legends is going to follow the Fortnite model and iterate and evolve a single map or release a series of arenas to play in. If they choose the latter option though, then we might see maps specifically designed around players using vehicles like hoverbikes.
In any case, now that the game’s hit big, we should get a steady stream of new content and we’ll report on it as soon as it’s been announced. In the meantime, I think there’s just about time for one more round before I head out for the day.