A Return To Form

It's been roughly two years since I last made a blog post. I slacked off on this way more than I should have and I kinda didn't feel the same drive to update that I had at the beginning. Chalk it up to the lengthy console cycle I suppose. Though it's quite a shame that I wasn't actively posting to do reviews of some of the hits from 2013. I'll summarize that whole year with one single game; The Last of Us. If you haven't played that on the PS3 then you're really missing out on quite possibly the best game of the PS3/360/Wii generation. However that brings us to the whole new generation before us with the Wii-U, PlayStation 4, and X-Box One. Personally I opted for the PlayStation 4 based on Sony's strong first party line up (I'm looking at you Naughty Dog), but I've also found myself leaning more towards just playing on the PC side. This of course leads me to today's post. One of the most hyped games of the last year would be Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall.

Created by the former heads of Infinity Ward, Titanfall is basically a full fledged return to a breakneck paced, multiplayer first person shooter. That's not to say that it's standard fare though because that would be doing the game design a great injustice. The basis of the game is an online only shooter. There is no single player campaign planned for this game. While I originally didn't like this idea I can see that this has left the team ample time to tinker with the actual multiplayer gameplay to make it was tight and responsive as possible. This was very necessary considering the nature of the game.

Titanfall is broken down into two teams of six pilots. While a 6 versus 6 game might seem a little low by today's standards, Respawn makes up for it by including a massive amount of non-playable characters into each round. This causes the action to get a little chaotic at times and gives you the feel of a massive player count despite only having six players on a team. The other reason for this would be the namesake of the game, the Titans. Each player controls a pilot at the outset of the game, whether it be Hardpoint (their form of Domination) or Attrition (their form of Team Deathmatch). After dealing out a few kills or assisting in objectives, your player will earn their Titan. The Titan itself is a massive, gun (or cannon) toting mech that can be piloted by the player or allowed to roam the map being controlled by the AI.

When a Titan enters the fray it can definitely change the pace of a round. But it's not just about running around the map inside a giant robot. The Titan can allow for certain strategies to be employed by the player. The option to have the AI control your Titan while you roam on foot is a concept that pays dividends in a mode like Hardpoint. Having your Titan hunker down outside a capture point and defend it from other Titans as well as pilots can work wonders. There is a drawback to this though as the AI Titan is never as good as the actual pilot. Not to mention that pilots themselves are very capable of taking down a Titan without having a Titan of their own.

Titanfall provides players with not only a primary weapon; be it an assault rifle, sniper rifle, sub machine gun, shotgun, or my personal favorite the smart pistol. It also gives each player an anti-Titan weapon. These include a rapid fire rocket launcher and a more powerful single shot RPG style launcher. With multiple, well placed shots from these two weapons a pilot can turn the tide against a Titan in battle. This is helped by the maneuverability the pilots are capable of. The maps have a certain amount of verticality to them and in order to traverse these buildings in a manner befitting the pace of the game, pilots are equipped with a jetpack. When combined with the inherent parkour style wall running and mantling, you can basically get around the entire map without ever setting foot on the ground. This of course is key in getting to areas high above the action so you can plan to take down an enemy Titan.

The truly brave will forget trying to battle a Titan from a vantage point or inside their own Titan and very simply climb onto the back of an enemy Titan and go to down on the core. So while the Titans are very intimidating structures and can help wipe out the other team, they're not invincible. This helps build a balanced shooter that is fun and action packed. With a set of balanced controls and a good set of servers (despite Friday's server meltdown during the first day of the beta) I can see this game having a lot of mileage. After being ousted from Infinity Ward and having a very public spat with Activision, the folks are Respawn are finally back in the game and what they've brought to the table is amazingly good. If the rest of the game is as good as this brief taste we've gotten in the beta then we're all in for a good time.