Farlight 84, heir apparent to APEX Legends, has multiple ways to play on Chromebook

The Apex Legends Mobile era was far too short. While the desktop version continues to see plenty of player support, for some reason or another, the mobile version could not maintain enough of a player base to stick around. It’s sad because it was an immensely fun game that seemed to have plenty of fans and players across the board. Why it ultimately shut down this month will remain a bit of a mystery, but the fact remains: Apex Legends Mobile is no more.

Fear not, however, if a hero-based battle royale was your thing: Farlight 84 is here to fill the void and as a game that’s only been released for a couple months at this point, I’m very impressed by what they’re doing so far. Announced back in 2020 and finally released in April of 2023, Farlight 84 has had its share of fans eagerly waiting for a full release. And the end result has been quite good.

If you’ve played Apex Legends, you know what to expect. Take that formula (multiple characters with different abilities) and mix the visuals with a bit of Fortnite energy, add sweet, game-changing vehicles and a bit of jetpack action and you are getting the gist of what Farlight 84 is about. While much of the game feels like a copy of Apex Legends, there’s enough difference here to keep things interesting.

Cross-play wins the day

The biggest win with this new game is the open availability of true cross-play. Not only do your stats carry from one platform to another (iOS, Android, Desktop via Steam, NVIDIA GeForce NOW), you can actually jump into matches with players on different devices. That means Android phones can play in a match with those on a desktop PC or playing via GeForce NOW, giving players the most open and approachable way to play that I’ve seen since Fortnite.

And that means Chromebooks have a few ways to get in on the action. I’ve installed Farlight 84 on a few different devices, and it runs quite well. If you go with the Android installation, you’ll want a convertible with a touchscreen for sure as keyboard and mouse input isn’t supported just yet on ChromeOS. However, if you want a high frame-rate, silky-smooth experience on a Chromebook, look no further than GeForce NOW as the game is free and available there and runs like butter with keyboard and mouse support intact.

There’s also the option of installing this via Steam if you choose, but as that option is definitely still in a beta status that I’ve not had any real luck with so far, I doubt this is your best option. You’ll want to be in the Developer Channel to give that option a go, I’d think. For me so far on a Chromebook, running Farlight 84 has been the absolute best via GeForce NOW. Though I must admit I’m better at the game on a phone with touch controls and gyroscope aiming.

More than anything, this is a shining example of how versatile Chromebooks are becoming. I could see a future not far out where you’ll be able to confidently play this new game and others like it via an Android install, Steam install, or simply streamed in something like GeForce NOW. That’s a pretty wide variety of gameplay options for devices that were only thought of as a web browser not long ago. And as we know, Chromebooks with dedicated GPUs are on the way, too, so all of this could get increasingly interesting as the final quirks with Steam on Chromebooks get worked out. For now, though, go try out Farlight 84 and enjoy how great a solid game on your Chromebook can be.