REVIEW

Titanfall 2 Review

by Ford James, November 4th, 2016

In Titanfall 2, you play as a pilot. Not the type of pilot that flies a plane through the air, but a pilot in charge of an enormous, imposing, intimidating mech with an array of weapons and tools at your disposal. 2014 saw the release of the original which introduced the concept and this year’s instalment has built upon it. More Titan variants with unique abilities and weapons are now available, while Respawn have listened to the community and introduced a single player campaign; the main feature Titanfall was lacking.

For the first hour, the game is simply teaching you the basics. How to wall run and gain momentum, followed by the different types of weapons and eventually how to pilot a Titan are intertwined into the only sub-par 45 minutes of the story. As soon as you can utilise all your powers and weapons, the campaign goes from strength to strength. The gist of things is that the James MacAllan ship crashes on planet Typhon, and as young Rifleman Cooper you must take the reins of a Titan previously piloted by someone far more experienced. Your goal is to reunite with friendly forces, without being killed by the hostile IMC faction who occupy Typhon.

BT-7274, otherwise known as BT, is your Titan pal and the dynamic between Cooper and BT is akin to a comedy film where Cooper is the down to earth one who can be light hearted about a situation, whereas BT is always very matter of fact – even when it’s not appropriate, leading to a lot of unintentionally funny quips that Cooper comments on. By the end, the personification of BT led me to care a lot more for him and his selfless robot brain than I would’ve imagined six hours prior when he was first introduced.

That’s pretty much my only complaint; the campaign is over after six hours at best. I was left longing for more adventures in the impressively detailed universe Respawn have created, and while the ending is grand and satisfying, I wanted to continue with Cooper’s journey as he became a better and more renowned pilot.

One aspect that is often underappreciated whenever a game gets it right is pacing, and Titanfall 2 gets it spot on. Having such a free-flowing movement mechanic with the boosters and wall running means it’s as much as a first-person platformer as it is a shooter. Just as you’re starting to get tired of shooting robots, enemy soldiers and exploding spider bastards, you’ve got a break where you can leap from wall to wall, exploring every nook and cranny for one of the many pilot helmets that are hidden around the place as collectibles. Ingenious level design takes advantage of this too, with more than one section having moving platforms and multiple ways to ascend. You’re required to really think outside the box to explore everywhere.

Despite this freedom of exploration, the shooting parts of each level are relatively linear, like most shooters. Even with only one exit, there’s always multiple ways to get there. Whether you stroll in guns blazing with BT, take them by surprise on foot or go invisible and dash from cover to cover, not firing a shot. It’s not possible to go the entire campaign this way as there’s a few Titan vs Titan boss-style fights where fighting is the only option.

Story-wise, the campaign is more akin to Half Life 2 or Halo 3 than your standard Call of Duty single player experience. It’s a bold move by Respawn, like a lot of aspects of the game, but it’s one that pays off. It’s rare that a first-person shooter impresses with its single player aspect this much, but Titanfall 2 is up there with the greats. The best FPS campaign since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which is, in my eyes, the pinnacle of first person shooter campaigns.

Multiplayer is a whole different beast – in a good way. It follows the current trend of having different custom loadouts you can create to suit your playstyle, with separate categories for pilot and Titan. Six of the eight Titan classes introduced in the single player are available, with each having different strengths. For example, Scorch can’t dash and dodge, but has a lot of firepower with his thermite launcher that can be combined with a flammable gas grenade to set entire areas alight. Northstar, on the other hand, has a long ranged sniper that is effective at picking off grounded pilots and a VTOL hover ability that can enable you to reach vantage points.

There’s also a plethora of cosmetic unlocks such as pilot and weapon skins available through challenge completion and advocate gifts, which are unlocked by spending tokens earned simply by ranking up and playing the game more. Using a specific weapon more and more unlocks more attachments for it until it ‘regenerates’ and is renamed, unlocking a lifetime kill counter for the gun and more cosmetic options. This also applies to Titans, with some pretty awesome nose art (the front of the titan) eventually being unlocked, but it’s not quite as varied as the recent Call of Duty titles and the weapon variants you can unlock through supply drops. Respawn have stuck to the tried and tested formula and it works, although there’s not a whole lot to keep players from getting bored.

There’s a bunch of different gamemodes too, but none of them stray too far from the familiar. Perhaps the most interesting introduction is the Coliseum; a 1v1 playlist which costs one advocate token to enter, you’re matched up with a player in a floating arena with no cover. Your loadouts are identical (grenade launcher, no secondary, frag grenades and phase shift ability) and it’s simply a best of five where the winner receives some extra rewards on top of the usual XP. It’s something different and unusual, but it becomes mundane quickly. Amped Hardpoint makes a return, also known as Domination in other games, which requires your team to earn the most points from controlling areas across the map. Bounty Hunt is introduced rewards you with cash the more enemies you kill then after each wave of AI enemies, you can bank this cash at designated points and the team with the most cash at the end wins. Other common modes like Deathmatch and Capture the Flag make up the rest, but all the modes favour the fast paced constant action gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, that non-stop craziness is what makes Titanfall so great, however a Search and Destroy or King of the Hill style mode wouldn’t go amiss either.

Learning the optimal route across the various maps is like a puzzle by itself. Wallrunning and double jumping through the air, on nearly any surface you want, leads to some interesting and imaginative routes. Once you master how to slide then leap off the ground to keep your momentum, the maps that seem dauntingly large at first can be traversed in next to no time at all. My only complaint is there isn’t much variance with the maps; one is in a mountainous valley whereas another is in a city, but that’s as different as they get. They all play the same and once you’ve learnt the layouts, it becomes increasingly easy to chain kill after kill and be the first to call in your Titan. Playing for hours on end is like having a few drunken nights out in a row; each game, like each night, becomes a big blur and they all merge into one, due to how similar each match ends up feeling.

At the end of the day though, that’s being extremely pedantic because I haven’t had this much fun in a shooter in years. The release window is unfortunate, being sandwiched between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare but having played the former and the beta for the latter, Titanfall 2 is in a league of its own. Respawn Entertainment have built upon the foundations of the prequel and they’ve absolutely made their mark. A large player base is the only aspect holding it back from being the best first person shooter experience gaming has to offer, so let’s hope more players jump in at Christmas.

Buckle up, Pilot. Your titan is ready.