TitanFall Review
Developer Respawn
Publisher EA
Platform Xbox One, PC & Xbox360
Release Date Out Now.
One of the most anticipated games of the year has landed on the Xbox One and PC (it is coming to 360 soon). After its first real showing last summer at E3 and Gamescom gamers and critics alike rushed to heap praise on Titanfall which took home countless awards from both shows.
Respawn are a new studio but they have some pedigree when it comes to shooters, after all they are the guys behind Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare which is still held in high regard even if the franchise dipped after that.
This history shines through in Titanfall, this is a fast twitch shooter that take a lot from the COD series in terms of gameplay but for those that categorize it as “COD with Robots” they would be mistaken.
Titanfall is purely a multiplayer experience, and while there is no traditional single player mode there is a campaign of sorts to play through. Loosely tying 9 multiplayer maps together into a story with short intro videos and additional in-game audio adds an element of storytelling to the game. As there is no real difference between the campaign modes and normal multiplayer it is something you will just do once to see what it is like rather than something you will get engaged with. This was a good idea that doesn’t really work, perhaps co-op would have suited it because this is an interesting world they have created and one that I would be interested in visiting.
Multiplayer is the meat of the game, it is made up of quick, intense 6 v 6 games. This number of players might initially looks small (and created a lot of churn online prior to launch) but it works. The small player numbers work best when the map fills with Titan’s and avoids getting too cluttered but at the same time there is room to increase the number of pilots.
You have two options when playing the first is as a Pilot, these are your ground troops. They are light, fast, and have jump packs that allow them to reach second floor windows with a single leap. Larger areas can be traversed by double jumping or wall running.
The second option is of course the Titan. After around two minutes your Titan is ready, pressing V calls in the Titan from the drop ship high in the atmosphere. Once inside the Titan you have some restrictions. Titans can’t jump and they are twenty foot tall so certain areas of the map are not accessible. The key is balancing the two modes so neither feel invincible or vulnerable.
The key to Titanfall is this balancing, everything is so finely tuned that no one single perk, Titan, weapon or ability is over powered. You would think a 20 foot mech suit would be unstoppable but surprisingly not. The pilots have Anti-Titan weapons and the ability to jump onto the back of the Titan to find exposed areas. As a pilot you might think a big lumbering Titan would be easy to lose but they are surprisingly nimble. Each option has its good and bad points but they complement each other rather than cancel each other.
Progress is earned by gaining XP in the normal way killing others. This unlocks more weapons, gears and perks until you reach level 50 when you can Regenerate (Prestige). A new feature called Burn Cards makes its appearance, these are one off use cards that are used when you die. Some grant you weapons, other allow you to spawn where you died and one even cuts an impressive 40 seconds off your Titan spawn time.
There are some negatives, Private matches are not available yet so you can’t set up a game with 12 of your buddies on maps you want to play on. This means you are dumped into any game mode, any map with any number of idiots. Not ideal but something that we have been promised is being worked on.
Overall: A lot is made of graphics on next gen and while Titanfall’s visuals won’t cause your jaw to drop everything else in game will. It is intense, fast and fun. Will it be a game that holds you attention for long play periods? Probably not, I burn out after about an hour but after a short break I’m eager for more.
As a multiplayer game for the twitch shooter market it delivers and then some, I do feel there is a huge missed opportunity to create a campaign worth playing, perhaps that is down the line but for now Respawn have taken the best parts of the genre and improved on them.
Score 4/5
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