I was going to check out the Olympus map changes back in February 2022, I really was. Then Control happened. Fast forward to 2026, and I’m still doing the exact same thing: telling myself one warm-up match, then emerging four hours later with sore thumbs and zero regrets.

Control launched with Apex Legends Season 12 as a limited-time mode, and I remember thinking it was just another Arenas. I was wrong. Arenas could feel like a slow-burn tactical mess when solo queuing, but Control grabbed me by the collar from the first drop onto Barometer.

What keeps me coming back? Immediate respawning. If your W-key teammates run straight into a meat grinder, you aren’t punished for it—you simply respawn at base and push again. With eight teammates, at least a few people will actually play the objectives. In battle royale, “survive” can mean loot slowly, rotate early, or ape every gunshot you hear. In Control, the plan is obvious.

Three objectives—home base, enemy base, and a central contested base—give every squad a clear goal. Few people defend the base, but neither does anyone on the opposing team, so pushes are quick and fun. The variety of tactics is ridiculous.

Objective	Why it matters
🏠 Home Base	Safe spawn and fallback
🚩 Central Base	Constant fight magnet
💥 Enemy Base	Aggressive flank potential

One game I sat at the top of the central base in Barometer as Caustic, high ground locked down with a Sentinel. I had trapped every entrance, getting early damage on anyone dumb enough to push. The base itself could be captured on the ground floor, so I wasn’t completely unfair—but I held that spot for a huge chunk of the match until four enemies rushed me at once, ate the gas, and shotgunned me in the face, back, balls, and butt. It may have been a little toxic, but it was fun as hell. 😤

My favorite games were using Fuse, even though his kit isn’t exactly meta for the mode. Loot is scarce, so extra grenades feel pointless half the time, but his Knuckle Cluster absolutely slaps in the tight spaces around objectives. Honestly, it doesn’t matter who you pick. A Wraith can phase to survive longer, movement characters are handy, but Control lets you choose your favorites without worrying about letting your team down.

One of your eight teammates will likely pick Octane so you can pad onto objectives from afar. There will be three Mad Maggies on each team for the foreseeable future, speed boosting everyone behind their wrecking balls. I even teamed with a Pathfinder once who zipped us straight to prime locations. The maps are much bigger than Arenas, so movement matters more than ever when getting to an objective first.

It’s not all perfect. I could never gel with Hammond Labs as a map, but I would drop into Barometer until the end of my days. Some loadouts are less than ideal. I enjoyed being forced to use off-meta guns—looking at you, un-Turbocharged Havoc—but sometimes I just want to spray a Flatline in someone’s face. Late-game Care Packages are great centrepieces, and the improved Volt might still be my favorite weapon in this mode.

Teammates quitting when you’re losing is still a problem, but it’s not something the devs can fully arm against. A penalty for quitters would be handy, though even with a player disadvantage, Control matches are less of a mismatch than Arenas. Being 33 percent of a team down is much worse than being 11 percent down. Heck, we once had two people quit and only narrowly lost. But comebacks are always on the cards, and very few deficits are insurmountable. Stay in the game, and Control might be your Istanbul—that’s one for the Liverpool fans. 🔴

Back then I wondered if Respawn was using the two-week window to create forced scarcity and build hype for a permanent release. Now, in 2026, Control has found its place in the Mixtape rotation alongside modes like Gun Run and Team Deathmatch. The scarcity worked, and the mode still hits.

I’ve had fun explaining why Control rules, but the best way to experience it is to drop in yourself. Barometer is back in rotation, so I’ve got to wrap this up sharpish. Play Control. It’s the most fun I’ve had in Apex in years—and I’m still chasing that 1am high.