Titanfall: Review of a Console Seller

Before Titanfall ever came out, there was much hype surrounding its release. Respawn Entertainment promised that it would be the next big competitor to other online first person shooter juggernauts, Call of Duty and Battlefield. On March the 11th, Titanfall landed for PC and Xbox One in what would be the first mega title, and hopefully the first real console seller, for the One. The Xbox One was in dire need for a major title to fuel console sales as up to the point of Titanfall‘s release there really had been few games that grabbed attention and fueled gamers to go an buy the new console. Needless to say, I personally had been anxiously awaiting the release of this game and got a copy of the game the week of release.

Overview:

Titanfall is a completely online FPS game where the user or “pilot” picks up points and kills to cut the amount of time until they can call in their Titan, which is a giant mechanical robot either driven by the pilot or left in ‘follow mode’ or ‘standby mode’. There are two game modes that the gamer can pick from. The first being a Campaign mode and the other being a Classic Multiplayer mode.

Campaign and Classic Multiplayer:

The campaign in Titanfall leaves much to be desired. It is little more than the Classic Multiplayer with a few cut scenes about an ongoing war between the Militia and the IMC. Gamers can play through the campaign as each side; competing against other players in either Attrition (team death match in other games) or Hardpoint Domination (three-point domination) matches.

That being said, the campaign being like the Classic Multiplayer isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The multiplayer is very entertaining and seems to be very fair. The gameplay is fairly simple and the Titans are not extremely over powered. If fact, the Titans are relatively vulnerable especially when a pilot is able to rodeo an enemy and shoot directly into its vitals.

There are five types of gameplay in the Classic Multiplayer part of the game. Other than Attrition and Hardpoint Domination mentioned before, there are also Capture the Flag, Last Titan Standing (six on six, spawn in Titans, no respawn after death), and Pilot Hunter where only pilot kills count. All of these game types can be played on each of the 15 maps. In fact there is an achievement labeled ‘I’ve Seen It All’ for 25 Gamerscore for playing all of the game modes on all of the maps.

Pilots:

The pilots in Titanfall are very agile with the ability to jump, double jump, wall run and wallhang. This is a very interesting mechanic as it aids in the evasion of the enemies and allows for easier takedown of enemy Titans. The downside of the pilots would be the lack of weapon options and customizations. For example, there are only 11 different primary weapons with about seven mods each. This works out okay, but in comparison with other games such as Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ 26 primary weapons and Battlefield 4‘s astounding 64 primary weapons and numerous mods, it would help to add a few more options to the mix in Titanfall.

Titans:

There are three different types of Titans. The Atlas, which is the one the player starts with, has average speed and average armor. The Stryder is light weight and fast, but does not hold up very well in the heat of battle. And the Ogre, which is heavily armored and can withstand close hand battle fairly well, is much slower than the other two. As with the pilots, the selection of modifications and weapons is rather limited but due to its novelty, it is not really that big of a deal.

Regeneration:

Regeneration is when a player reaches max level and the game gives the player the option to regenerate. The means that the user loses their unlockables they have earned and is rewarded with a point boost in XP during their next time through the ranks.

It appears that Respawn has learned from their experience in making Modern Warfare 2, and made the 10 possible regenerations (or prestiging in Call of Duty) much easier on the player. Once the player gets to level 50 there is the option to regenerate. While the user does still lose all of their weapons and things they have unlocked, the leveling up process is much faster and the weapons your start out with are much easier to cope with than in Call of Duty or Battlefield.

With each new generation there are certain challenges you need to complete before you are allowed to generate again, but honestly it really is not that difficult. I consider myself an average player and it only takes about 12-15 hours to get through each generation.

Image Below shows emblems for each regeneration as well as the point bonus received after regenerating.

Conclusion:

Things I like:

• Fair gameplay, meaning Titans are not overpowered, gun strength appropriated properly, spawns seem to be decently fair
• Regeneration is a breeze compared to similar modes in other games
• Allows those are just starting into gaming or aren’t pro gamers to gain experience and contribute through killing AI characters
• Maneuverability of pilots makes getting around maps or running from Titans much faster
• Decent tutorial to get acclamated to using the Titans

Things I don’t like:

• Limited selection of weapons and accessories
• Campaign story is pretty much non-existent (Ive played through both sides twice but could not tell you what the story was without reading somewhere on the internet first)

Overall Titanfall is a solid title by Respawn Entertainment. It kind of feels like an old friend  who moved away a few years back and has returned with some new toys to play with. Despite the campaign (or lack of one) and limited weapon choices, it is really fun to play if you are into online FPS games and will be fairly competitive with already big names in the genre. I recommend picking up a copy of the game or downloading it. It is currently availble on Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. It doesn’t really matter which platform you choose as long as you get out there and bring down some Titans.

What are your thoughts on Titanfall? Did you love it? Did you hate it?