Titanfall
Review
Jump, Forest, Jump!
by Quinn Levandoski
reviewed on PC
I Get Along With a Little Help From My Friends
Titanfall, being a game completely devoted to its online multiplayer, needed to hit it out of the park and give fans a reason to stick with it over the multitude of other multiplayer shooters out there. As we’ve already discussed, Titanfall does a lot with its base gameplay, movement, and premise to be varying degrees of unique, but the core multiplayer experience- the game modes and mechanics- are a bit hit and miss.
The game throws in a bunch of AI enemies to make the battlefield seem more alive. The thing is, they’re dumb. Really dumb. I wouldn’t want them to be the same difficulty as a human player- I mean at that point just up the player count- but it would be nice to have them somewhat like creeps in MOBAs: they probably won’t come up and kill you by themselves, but with a little support they’ll do some damage if you don’t pay attention. That doesn’t happen here. You can literally walk up to them most of the time, kick them in the face (did I mention the melee is a jump kick? It’s totally a jump kick, and it’s totally cooler than a knife jab), and walk away. I also have some issue with how many points they’re worth. In the game modes that give you points for their death they won’t net you as much as killing a human, but it’s a lot closer than it should be. But, again, it’s not all bad. They succeed in making the battlefield feel more alive, and some of their animations, including fist brawls with enemy AI units and dragging their wounded into a building, are fun to see.
Ways to Play
Another thing that doesn’t impress are the variety of game modes. There are a handful that boil down to versions of deathmatch and capture the flag, but nothing revolutionary. The only one that sticks out pits everyone in a Titan with only one life, and the last man standing wins. Titanfall does deliver crisp, clean, exciting matches within them, but with no true campaign, co-op, or even private matches, the offering seems a little stale.
That being said, every single match in the game feels absolutely epic in the truest sense of the word. Instead of just teleporting into the starting position of the map, players jump down from a drop-ship. Titans don’t appear, they fall from the sky. Matches don’t just end, the losers must try to evacuate to an escape ship with one life while the winners stop them. One of my absolute favorite things to do is either eject from my Titan or jump of its back, which doesn’t just drop you off, but launches you extremely high into the air.
If played correctly you can maneuver your yourself to an advantageous landing spot, lay a few shots with you anti-Titan weapon, or look for another player who may have ejected at the same time. It’s awesome fun, and a great example of the game taking something that would often be ordinary and making it anything but.
Adrenaline
Titanfall isn’t a revolution. It will not change the very foundation of first person shooters. It is, however, an excellently balanced and polished FPS that does a great job of flooding your body with adrenaline. In the few days that I’ve had the game I’ve poured as much time in it as I was able to, and I’m absolutely going to pour in dozens and dozens more. It feels good, it plays well, it’s just plain fun.
A few things hold it back from being a complete success, but these can largely be overlooked in favor of all the things the game does right. Never before has a game made four words fill me with such excitement and anticipation.
"Pilot, prepare for Titanfall."
8.9
fun score
Pros
Great sense of scale and action, tight controls, awesome parkour movement, and fantastic balance.
Cons
Disappointingly limited game modes, a very weak campaign, and no aesthetic customization.
