Truly new first-person shooters don’t come around too often, especially from well-known and esteemed development teams, so expectations for Titanfall were sky-high. What they’ve produced is one of the best new IP to come out for years, but one that doesn’t quite shake the Earth completely either.
The premise of Titanfall is rather simple, but the game does a good job of giving things a bit of depth. In a world far away, two factions: the IMC and the Militia are squaring off against each other in Earth-like battlefields. The futuristic setting is varied with some traditional desert and urban environments, which are visually stunning and fun to play on. The matches themselves take place between two teams of six pilots, which are human controlled players. They’re joined by sporadically spawning AI minions, Grunts and Spectres. The key to the game though are Titans, which are mechs that can be called in to battle from orbit when enough time goes by. Players can choose to pilot (see where it comes from now?) these mechs, or go ahead on foot whilst their Titan roams the battlefield. Despite the huge mismatch in pilots’ and titans’ firepower, games are usually rather balanced even when a team has the upper hand in terms of mechs. Yes, sometimes when your team is down by a few titans it can get overwhelming, but that’s a punishment that really should be in the game. It does take strategy to avoid Titans if you are on foot, and you have no chance of dispatching with one alone, but it can definitely be done and being a pilot without a steed isn’t a death sentence by any means. I was worried about how the game would handle this sense of balance when I started playing, but my fears were unfounded. The game is one of the most fun multiplayer shooters that I’ve played.
The game is multiplayer only, with a flimsy “campaign” offering merely a few cutscenes and some lobby dialogue to frame the multiplayer matches with some sort of context. Game modes are traditional fare, more or less, with Hardpoint Domination, Capture the Flag, Attrition & Pilot Hunter (Team Deathmatch variants) and Last Titan Standing being relatively self-explanatory. These modes are fun, but I rarely go past Attrition or Hardpoint, as they are easily the best, most fast-paced and most worth playing. I love the traditional capture and defend dynamics of Hardpoint, and feel right at home capturing flags and then sprinting away for the next one. The other modes don’t really have that thrill. Last Titan Standing is a much less intense than it should be, as living after your titan is doomed to death really takes the edge off being functionally eliminated from the game. For a multiplayer only full-priced game, the range of game modes is rather lacklustre, and it could be a bit of an issue a few days down the line in terms of gameplay. Hopefully it’s something that DLC will be able to fix.
We all know that Titanfall’s roots come from the Call of Duty series. With a development team that is Infinity Ward, circa Modern Warfare 2, respawned, the game has a lot of similarities with the almighty franchise. I mean that in a good way – as the game’s shooting mechanics are as fluid as could be, which is a trademark of CoD. What really surprised me about the game is how it appears to be an uncanny crossover of Call of Duty, Battlefield and Halo – taking the gameplay elements of each and fusing them together really well. In that sense (and also with the style of the factions and the maps) the game bears a strong resemblance to Killzone on the PlayStation. Players and weapons have a weight that Battlefield games normally offer, and I think Titanfall does a better job of getting that feeling across but not overegging the pudding. Titanfall expands upon Halo’s manoeuvrability in a big way – with the pilot being perhaps the most agile character ever seen in a multiplayer shooter. Each pilot is equipped with a jetpack, and that means that they can jump for a considerable distance and then do so again if they want to. Pilots can run on vertical walls to get around, which is much faster than hoofing it on the ground. I’m still floored by how fun it is to get around the maps in Titanfall, as basically any jump or run you would ever want to do can be made – it’s just a case of mashing the jump button enough. The incredible movement in this game is its biggest triumph.
You will have a completely different play style in the game depending on whether you are controlling a pilot or a titan. The pilot can zip anywhere quickly, which is perfect for anyone that likes their games to have a break-neck pace and with action constantly around the corner. Getting into your titan forces you to change your mind-set, with your movement speed crippled and view of the world being slightly more open. Deciding where to go might actually be harder in the titan, as getting cornered by enemy titans is a much more likely possibility and one that could be devastating to your hopes of a killing spree. Playing as either the pilot or the titan has its advantages and disadvantages, which is great. I probably prefer playing as the pilot, as it’s a little more satisfying getting the jump on people and taking them out as a person rather than using a railgun or a hail of rockets to stop an opponent in their tracks (although when you are on a roll in your titan you do feel invincible, which is fantastic). Titan v Titan fights are a feature of the game that I’m sure many will enjoy, but I’m not too struck on it. Dancing around slowly while firing at each other for the best part of a minute before someone inevitably gets doomed isn’t really my idea of dynamic gameplay. It’s also rather frustrating when more often than not another enemy titan shows up midway and leaves me hastily getting my affairs in order. With Titanfall you get a variety that makes every game different and exciting – and I’m having a lot of fun and success with it.
The game is filled with nice little touches that are perhaps easy to overlook but refreshing to see in modern shooters and make it far more accessible. Earning your titan is never a chore, or difficult to do – as it’s simply based on time rather than your ability to rack up kills. This helps those that aren’t as good at the game experience the fun of titans as well. The better players are given a leg-up though, with their endeavours being rewarded with reduced build times (countdowns to your titan falling). It’s perhaps the best solution out there to the idea of rewarding players, and beats the killstreak idea that the Respawn team helped pioneer during their time at Infinity Ward. The way in which Titanfall lets you play on after hitting the max level is pretty neat as well, with Generations allowing you to do everything again for that little bit of prestige but with XP being gained faster each time. Instead of just grinding through levels, as well, regenerating requires you to complete certain challenges for weapons – which means you have to play the game in different ways to progress. At the end of each game, the losing side will have to scramble to an evacuation point to extract from battle, which not only adds a bit more of a natural context to the game you have just played but also allows for a bit of inconsequential running around – as anything you do after the final whistle, as it were, doesn’t count towards the scoreboard.
It’s the little things that really set Titanfall apart, though. Being able to change class when you are still alive, rather than waiting ‘til the respawn screen is really handy when you want to change things up. There’s never an issue with having to find new guns or more ammo when you’ve burned through your supply, as you’re given more than ample reserves when you spawn. Joining a game whilst it is in progress is never ideal, with most matches taking a while to find a natural ebb and flow, but the game will more often than not give you a dramatically reduced build time for your titan so that you can more or less hop into one straight away. A lot of the little frustrations I usually find in shooters aren’t there in Titanfall.
Maps are a big deal in games, and Titanfall does well to get a balance right. With 15 different arenas to go through that have contrasting styles and settings there’s always a fresh fight to be had in each game, which is great. It’s incredible that the maps are so easy to traverse as both a pilot and a titan. There are few places that a titan can’t get to that a pilot can, which helps balance things a little when it comes to fleeing the hulking death machines on your tail. The maps are pretty big, but never feel too sparse because of how easy it is to get around and the population of AI players. It’s something that Battlefield should take some notes from. The settings for the maps are magnificent, with the general futuristic buildings and towns being coupled with some more surreal environments, such as a canyon filled with dinosaurs and dragons that actually move around the edges of the map. These dynamic events are a feature that a few Call of Dutys have tried to implement with very little success, but Titanfall does them right. The graphics are really good, but they aren’t quite hitting the levels that Battlefield 4 and Crysis 3 have set the bar to – but they don’t need to. I’ve got a few favourite maps already: Rise is a relatively close-quarter to medium-range sort of battle, and things are relatively flat compared to most Titanfall maps – but it normally plays really well; Corporate really reminds me of Halo: Reach and it’s got a nice open feel to it with plenty of routes to run and Colony, a map that I really love because it showcases the fluid movement of the game as you can basically play the entire match by hopping from building to building and wall running everywhere. It’s so much fun to go around killing people without setting foot on the ground.
For all the game’s glories, it does fall victim to some of the pitfalls that are actually rather rare in shooters. Matchmaking between players is rarely very fair, with the game taking the unusual choice of not balancing teams between matches – so a string of wins or losses on the spin is not uncommon. It’s not as though the system doesn’t have enough time to reassign players between games either, as the 80-second wait between matches is far too long in my opinion to wait to jump back into the action. Being able to choose servers on console is a pretty nice touch, with the connection/hit detection feeling great in the game (if only subconsciously) because of it. However, I’ve ran into a few problems with the game connecting to far away servers and giving me connections that are from ideal. Having to go all the way to the main menu and wait for the game to search for my ideal server is a nuisance I’d rather do without. Private lobby functionality was just added via update on Monday, but you still can’t go into a match on your own to figure out the best wall running routes etc., which is something I normally do when I get a new multiplayer game to give me an edge in combat. I’ve also ran into the odd glitch during games which are annoying – such as spawning without a HUD or any running/jumping ability. It only ever lasts for one life, but it really shows how disadvantaged you are if you don’t capitalise on the game’s fast-paced movement to the full. These gripes are all minor, and none really spoil the experience in the way that some game-breaking elements of other games do.
Although the gameplay is fantastic, the selections of weapons and abilities are rather weak compared to the other top shooters out there. There are only 10 primary weapons and 3 sidearms for the pilot to choose from – which makes matches slightly more one-dimensional and repetitive. I have almost exclusively used the R101C-Carbine whilst I’ve played, and I’ve been very successful with it. I see no reason to switch to another weapon, other than on the odd occasion for a Hardpoint game where lots of close-quarters fighting is happening when you would switch to the CAR SMG or the EVA-8 shotgun. Similarly, the choice of kits (perks) for your character are rather dull and uninspiring, with effects that are barely noticeable in play. Each pilot can choose one of several abilities, and these are also rather redundant. The Cloak ability is far-and-away the most used, and renders the user almost invisible apart from when moving – which has certainly accounted for some of the more annoying deaths I’ve had in Titanfall. Burn cards, single use power-ups that last for one life, are the closest thing the game has to a new and game-changing ability – but I never remember to use them when I die and respawn. I’m too busy with the game at hand to remember that they’re at my disposal. I can understand that the development team probably played it rather safe with these elements of the game to stop the playing community moaning about things being overpowered constantly, but they have missed an opportunity to create a more addictive and interesting playing experience by doing so.
These little flaws stop Titanfall from being a killer app as of yet. I really enjoy playing it, but it’s not quite got that special something that makes it hopelessly addicting. It’s a game I can enjoy for a little while, a couple of games or more, and then go offline contented. I’ll play a lot of Titanfall, for sure, but without many different set-ups or game modes to try, it could get stale quicker than it should. Being a game that straddles two console generations, the aim of course was really to get something out there that showcases what could be done. For the first game from Respawn Entertainment, though, it’s a wonderful achievement – especially given the stresses and strains that the team went through to bring us the game (which are outlined brilliantly in Geoff Keighley’s interactive book Final Hours of Titanfall). The game has been a success on every front, and that will set them up brilliantly for the inevitable sequel – which I think will be a game that truly shows of the creative and technical genius of the people at Respawn.
I’m now on the cusp of being a second generation pilot, with around 13 hours of Titanfall under my belt – and I’m nowhere near done with it. It’s a tremendous game that is a lot of fun to play. Although it’s not quite toppled the tree it fell from yet, the seeds of a new gaming giant are here and I’m already eagerly awaiting the next iteration of what could be the next Titan of the industry.