So, Titanfall 2 came out about a week ago and I've played it a bit via rental! I was planning on reviewing it, but I can't force myself to play competitive team multiplayer stuff, and so I haven't played nearly enough of the multiplayer to feel good about calling my feelings a "review". In addition, the process of attempting to review this game made me realize that, since I spent so much time being an elitist dick who didn't like military shooters like Call of Duty and their ilk because they were popular, I don't have the experience or knowledge to tell how capital-g Good a modern multiplayer shooter is. Hopefully, I can try a few out this year and be better equipped for when the 2017 collection releases. Instead, I'm gonna write what is basically a kind-of bad review, and call it my impressions! Enjoy!
Titanfall 2 attempts to rectify the mistakes of its predecessor, both real and imagined. Despite critical and commercial success, along with interesting twists on standard modern shooter fare thanks to increased mobility and the ability to call in the titular Titans, gigantic rideable robot soldiers, the original Titanfall had difficulty retaining players. Between a lackluster progression system, a small variety of Titans and weapons to choose from, and being a console exclusive at launch to the much-maligned-at-the-time Xbox One, players unfortunately left the game quickly, leaving Titanfall's legacy as one of failure, despite its successes. With Titanfall 2, developers Respawn Entertainment aim to make something that is, without a doubt, a success. And while, again, I don't feel comfortable calling this a Definitive Verdict, I've certainly had a ton of fun with Titanfall thus far.
While the original Titanfall's "campaign" was only a series of audio logs over multiplayer matches, Titanfall 2 has opted to go a more traditional route, providing a proper and surprisingly compelling story. You play as Jack Cooper, rifleman in the Frontier Militia, fighting a war against the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation, or IMC. When sent on a mission to a frontier planet, Cooper and his squad are shot down and ambushed, resulting in the death of his mentor, Captain Lastimosa. Before dying, Lastimosa transfers control of his Titan, BT-7274, over to Cooper, and together the two must finish Lastimosa's mission.
The big plot beats were fairly standard but some smaller, more focused aspects of the story go places I certainly did not expect. Character development is also good, with small dialog choices doing a good job establishing what kind of person Jack Cooper, and BT's "I'm a robot that takes stuff literally" schtick is clichéd but effective for making you care about the big guy. Even side characters who are only around for less than 15 minutes manage to be characterized well enough to do their job for the story, without feeling like nothing.
One thing I didn’t expect was how much variety there would be in the gameplay. Much of the campaign feels like a tutorial for, and an introduction to the multiplayer, touching on how to use your basic combat options effectively, as well as letting you try out all 6 Titan varieties that can be found online. There are also level-long mechanics in the game, such as swapping between two points in time (yes, really) which allows the game to both force you to deal with two different combat encounters, and include Mighty Switch Force!-esque jumping puzzles. Another section of the game gives you the Smart Pistol weapon, which is capable of locking onto enemies and killing them in one shot, to run through an area with, decimating your foes. The breadth of additions to the standard shooting honestly reminded me a bit of Half-Life 2, and I had a ton of fun playing around with them all.
Multiplayer is, obviously, the meat and potatoes of a game like Titanfall, and what I've played of it has been, mostly, very fun. I've been able to try the Attrition, Bounty Hunt, Last Titan Standing, and Hardpoint Domination modes. Attrition is the main mode from the original game, and honestly I can see why. In a team deathmatch-like format, both teams of six players are assisted by a bevy of AI grunts. Amass points by killing opponents both AI and human controlled; first to 500 wins. Bounty hunt is similar, but the AI will attack both sides, and you can "cash in" your points for killing the bounties to double your points. Last Titan Standing is what it sounds like; team deathmatch where everyone starts with a Titan; once a team loses all of their Titans, they lose, even if the pilots remain alive. Hardpoint Domination tasks you with gaining control of, and holding, points on the map which will amass points over time. There's a wide variety of options for players, and I wish I had been able to try more out before the time of writing; besides Hardpoint Domination, which went absolutely horribly for my team due to disconnects, and enemy players taunted us over voice chat like assholes, I had a good time.
One of the things I really appreciated about trying out multiplayer was seeing how the different Titans and player abilities could be used, and how well they worked in various multiplayer contexts. The Scorch Titan, for example, uses its main weapon to create streaks of flame that maintain on the ground and cause damage. I was never able to use it well in the campaign, but in Bounty Hunt I was stopped in my tracks from attacking the bounties more than once by good, careful placement of flames. In a game of Last Titan Standing, the Legion Titan dominated thanks to protection from its gun-mounted shield ability. Various pilot abilities can also turn the tide; I had fun using the grappling hook to “rodeo” enemy Titans, and weaken them so my teammates could deliver the final blow, and I was taken out more than once by an opponent using the invisibility-providing Cloak ability.
As I close my thoughts, I think I would be remiss to not mention my favorite moment playing the game. Maybe this happens all the time, but I still feel it's noteworthy. It was towards the end of a match of Attrition, and my team was winning, but just barely. As the match wound down, I found myself in my Titan but very close to death, the game informing me that I could self-destruct with three quick presses of the square button, rather than going down with my ship. Normally, I'm more than willing to die in my robot, but an enemy player, perhaps wanting to take down an easy foe or just acting on opportunity, had hopped onto my robot and started the process of sabotaging me. "Well, that's no good," I thought, and quickly tapped in the self destruct sequence. My character launched high into the air, as expected, but the enemy who had lassoed me shot up, too. I'm still not sure if you get launched up if you're on an enemy Titan when it explodes, or if they had simply timed it just so to come up as well. In any case, my opponent (who in my mind had just destroyed my Titan, even if I was technically the one who pulled the trigger) and I found ourselves floating through the air on the force of the explosion. Thinking quickly, I pulled the left trigger to aim down the sights, lined up the reticle with my opponent, shot him out of the sky, landed safely on the ground, and continued on. Even with my lack of experience, my lack of skill, my lack of dedication to the genre, I know this: any game that can make me feel as cool as I did in that moment can't be all bad.
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