Titanfall is a bit of an overshadowed game due to 2 just being considered better in every way, even though I do think Titanfall 1 stands on its own in a lot of ways. Titanfall came out at a very poor time. It was a online only* (It still had offline modes but there was no solo campaign the same as other fps games or titanfall 2) it received pretty lukewarm reception due to the lack of a traditional campaign and lots of server issues. It also was a "launch title" (it came out a few months after but was advertised for it a lot) for the Xbox One which at the time was also very negatively received due to many reasons. Titanfall 1 though also released on the 360 in a very impressive port that largely is just the same game with the obvious frame rate and resolution downgrade.

Now let's get into the actual game. Titanfall 1 immediately strikes me as an extremely aesthetically pleasing game. Unlike its later sequel which chose a more bright colourful pallet, titanfall chooses a much more muted colour pallet with lots of hazy maps filled with industrial and utilitarian architecture. You could easily just say it's a boring brown grey 7th gen shooter but now it's all fancy on a new console generation, but I believe it's artstyle in a lot of ways is BETTER than 2. First off the design of pilots and titans and mechs is much more grounded and makes much more sense to the world that titanfall establishes. The militia and IMC have their own sets of armour for both male and female genders and change based on the type of weapons you're using (assault rifles/lmg, shotgun/smg, snipers/dmrs) which are much more visually interesting and varied compared to 2 which just uses a simple pilot look based on which pilot ability you pick. Titans are customisable rather than being classes and take on a more imposing look rather than the more humanoid look 2 chooses. Titan cockpits have more of a claustrophobic feeling to them and the screens within them look more like screens and less just a big clear planes of glass. Movement is less fluid than 2 which is to be expected but was still very interesting and fun to use.

The campaign of titanfall 1 if you can call it that is more like a series of multiplayer maps just in a chronological order. Which can make actually playing matches a little odd at times since you can be playing at different points in the story timeline. But the multiplayer campaign was a pretty novel concept and was decently interesting. Certain missions were quite cool but I don't wish to spoil them.

I've written quite a lot for a game that I do hold decently close but I don't really feel extremely strongly for it so I'll have to stop myself before I just start saying random stuff. Thanks for reading if you even did. Titanfall even today is still fun to play (if respawn ever fixed it)

Reviewed on Feb 20, 2024


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