I’m somebody who missed the initial Titanfall hubbub. Back in 2014 I was deep in the trenches of the console warfare, with my lot thrown in with the Playstation side, and I was years out from ever getting my hands on a PC. It’s when I first played Titanfall 2 five or six years back that I realized the true tragedy of that. If Titanfall 1 plays anything like its sequel, then I was missing out big time. I’ll admit, the game seems deceptively unremarkable on the surface.
The Titan mechs are the obvious draw of course, the spin on the traditional run-and-gun gameplay beyond the high octane movement that it already has otherwise. The balance they’ve found between making the titans neither overpowered nor underpowered is something that would leave any dev team green with jealousy. They’re strong, epic battle equalizers with firm limits that keep them fun to fight even as an on-the-ground pilot, be it with anti-titan weapons or by stealing the batteries directly from the Titans in a sneak attack. Moreover, each Titan has impressively varying abilities that allow for hunker down tactics, area denial crowd-control, blitz-based swordplay and many more playstyles. Similar to the story, Titanfall 2 very much rewards you for practicing your Titan tactics. Knowing when to drop and where to drop can make the difference between you being a one-man killing machine or being made into scrap metal. And with an average of 2-4 Titan call-ins a match you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
Miraculously, the boots on the ground parts of the match give the mechs a run for their money in terms of fun. Though ground is a loose truth seeing how often you’ll be midair, spraying and praying the day away. Wall-running, boost jumps, grapple hooks, and sliding are all commonplace in future shooters these days, but Respawn’s use of momentum is what truly elevates an already very polished experience. Be it the streamlined map design for both Titans and Pilots to shine, creative ability gadgets, or overall movement, every facet of Titanfall feels so good to play. It feels so excellent in fact that I actually wish the grapple hook ability was a permanent ability itself. It’s not the best competitively speaking, yet it raises the fun factor from a high 9 to a neck-breaking 10. So naturally, I require it be permanently grafted to my arm.
The story was short, even as far as shooters go. It introduced a good number of multiplayer gadget abilities and their mechanics, but I wish it had gone further with the trippy combining of multiple gadgets. Some massive time-parkour set pieces could be a milestone of cinematic gameplay if performed to its potential. We saw hints of that when held captive at that training facility by Ash, I just wanted more like it. That and the arcade-like boss fights with their little sassy intros. I could watch those all day. I had the ending spoiled to me beforehand, so maybe my expectations were too high for emotional beats, but even if I didn’t I’d still be surprised that they went with Glenn Steinbaum for BT-7274. During the whole game they’re clearing setting up a slow-burn friendship between yourself, Pilot Jack Cooper, and your newly acquired Titan, BT. Matthew Mercer is just fine as Jack Cooper, however Glenn is decidedly more monotone. Not in a “oh he’s a robot so he just sounds a bit off”, but in a “this guy is devoid of any emotional capacity beyond naivete” kind of way.
Luckily, the mediocre story mode being the lowest point of the game works just fine for me. In terms of multiplayer focused shooters, it does what it should set out to do, which is to keep me coming back again and again. After playing off-and-on the last couple of years on PS4 and PC I can freely say Titanfall 2 comfortably resides in my top 3 multiplayer PvPs of all time, something that I say with a LOT of experience behind me. It’s one of those rare titles where every moment in a match feels like it could be taken from a movie with how intense and badass each second fighting feels.
Granted it takes a bit of time getting into the handling of it, particularly when just coming from a different shooter. The floaty, fast movement is very different than your typical fanfare, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t cement itself as a A+ entry in the FPS Hall of Fame. Let me put it to you this way, I enjoy the franchise and its aesthetic so much that I own the wearable replica Jack Cooper helmet from the collector’s edition. If you’re curious what it looks like there’s pictures on my Twitter as well.
The Titan mechs are the obvious draw of course, the spin on the traditional run-and-gun gameplay beyond the high octane movement that it already has otherwise. The balance they’ve found between making the titans neither overpowered nor underpowered is something that would leave any dev team green with jealousy. They’re strong, epic battle equalizers with firm limits that keep them fun to fight even as an on-the-ground pilot, be it with anti-titan weapons or by stealing the batteries directly from the Titans in a sneak attack. Moreover, each Titan has impressively varying abilities that allow for hunker down tactics, area denial crowd-control, blitz-based swordplay and many more playstyles. Similar to the story, Titanfall 2 very much rewards you for practicing your Titan tactics. Knowing when to drop and where to drop can make the difference between you being a one-man killing machine or being made into scrap metal. And with an average of 2-4 Titan call-ins a match you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
Miraculously, the boots on the ground parts of the match give the mechs a run for their money in terms of fun. Though ground is a loose truth seeing how often you’ll be midair, spraying and praying the day away. Wall-running, boost jumps, grapple hooks, and sliding are all commonplace in future shooters these days, but Respawn’s use of momentum is what truly elevates an already very polished experience. Be it the streamlined map design for both Titans and Pilots to shine, creative ability gadgets, or overall movement, every facet of Titanfall feels so good to play. It feels so excellent in fact that I actually wish the grapple hook ability was a permanent ability itself. It’s not the best competitively speaking, yet it raises the fun factor from a high 9 to a neck-breaking 10. So naturally, I require it be permanently grafted to my arm.
The story was short, even as far as shooters go. It introduced a good number of multiplayer gadget abilities and their mechanics, but I wish it had gone further with the trippy combining of multiple gadgets. Some massive time-parkour set pieces could be a milestone of cinematic gameplay if performed to its potential. We saw hints of that when held captive at that training facility by Ash, I just wanted more like it. That and the arcade-like boss fights with their little sassy intros. I could watch those all day. I had the ending spoiled to me beforehand, so maybe my expectations were too high for emotional beats, but even if I didn’t I’d still be surprised that they went with Glenn Steinbaum for BT-7274. During the whole game they’re clearing setting up a slow-burn friendship between yourself, Pilot Jack Cooper, and your newly acquired Titan, BT. Matthew Mercer is just fine as Jack Cooper, however Glenn is decidedly more monotone. Not in a “oh he’s a robot so he just sounds a bit off”, but in a “this guy is devoid of any emotional capacity beyond naivete” kind of way.
Luckily, the mediocre story mode being the lowest point of the game works just fine for me. In terms of multiplayer focused shooters, it does what it should set out to do, which is to keep me coming back again and again. After playing off-and-on the last couple of years on PS4 and PC I can freely say Titanfall 2 comfortably resides in my top 3 multiplayer PvPs of all time, something that I say with a LOT of experience behind me. It’s one of those rare titles where every moment in a match feels like it could be taken from a movie with how intense and badass each second fighting feels.
Granted it takes a bit of time getting into the handling of it, particularly when just coming from a different shooter. The floaty, fast movement is very different than your typical fanfare, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t cement itself as a A+ entry in the FPS Hall of Fame. Let me put it to you this way, I enjoy the franchise and its aesthetic so much that I own the wearable replica Jack Cooper helmet from the collector’s edition. If you’re curious what it looks like there’s pictures on my Twitter as well.