Fighting with two other players often leads to rushing enemy positions and engaging in loud gunfights. You might be able to play solo mode like that and win, but in the matches I played today, I found it better to wait for the right time to strike. Why go hog wild if you don’t have other wild hogs with you? Instead, I’d try to catch enemies while they were looting, then sneak behind them and take them out. In the time I’ve played the solo mode, I made much more deliberate decisions than usual, because getting too aggressive could be disastrous without the luxury of backup.

Of course, solo play is missing some of the things that make Apex Legends great, such as group tactics and the complex interplay between hero characters. But the mode shows how fundamentally enjoyable Apex Legends is to play even without those features—this is, after all, the battle royale featuring Titanfall 2’s silky smooth controls. Solo mode breaks up the pace of group matches and makes way for something with a bit more cerebral. Solos are a great fit for the game, one that I hope Respawn decides to keep for the long haul.