Preview: Titanfall

I’ll be honest: I missed out on Titanfall because of a two-hour wait at E3, and I wasn’t that fussed.

I thought of the game as a merely a bro-shooter Call of Duty clone, made by most of the team that made Activision’s shooter the beast it is today. Oh, with mechs.

I was so wrong.

After spending countless hours – okay, more like 16 hours over two days – with the game, I’m in love. Hell, I’m in lust, too.

For those who didn’t foolishly grab the beta after it was opened up on Xbox One, Titanfall is an amazing mix of ground, aerial and mech warfare. Fast-paced, high in energy and teamwork, it’s as far from the Call of Duty multiplayer experience as you can get.

In COD, you basically run around in circles, trying to get the twitch-shot advantage against enemies who’re basically doing the same thing. The tactic works in lone wolf modes just as well as it does when you’re supposed to play with a team.

Try that in Titanfall, and you’ll just get crushed by a mech.

You hardly ever want to be on the ground in the game, and Respawn has designed amazingly intricate vertical levels that your in-game Pilot (and his rocket pack) can take advantage of. Scratch that; NEEDS to take advantage of. You can double-jump and wall run with little difficulty; still, it’s those that can chain actions together that will become the most devastating of players.

Those in the beta got to play in three game modes across two different maps. Attrition is a team deathmatch mode where you simply try to kill more of the other team than they do of yours. Hardpoint is a classic Domination-type mode where you’re trying to make position of three designated points on the map. In either mode, you’re always start of as a Pilot, with an initial three minute wait until you can call upon a Titan. If you play well, killing enemy Pilots or NPC grunts that are littered around the map, that wait time decreases.

In Last Titan Standing, you start in a Titan and you get one life. Well, two if you can eject from your wrecked Titan fast enough and try to take others down on foot as a Pilot. The team that manages to destroy the other’s Titans first wins.

My favourite game type is easily Last Titan Standing, just because mech-on-mech combat is so much fun. Sure, Pilots are agile, but Titans ooze power. Armed with different bits and bobs, like a bullet-absorbing (and later, reflecting) shield or damaging electric smoke, a battle with Titans… well, feels like battle OF the Titans. The mode really encourages you to work with your team, shielding others from bullets and allowing friends to recharge their own shields as you trade fire, and then swapping so you can protect yourself. Adventurous types can also eject themselves from their Titans, leaving them in auto-run mode, while they try to sneak up on enemy Titans from behind to rodeo ride and basically sabotage.

As you progress through the game and complete challenges, more weapons and tactics are put as your feet. Burn Cards are also usable by player; placing one of three in your playable hand will let you have an advantage for one life in-game, be it a more powerful weapon or shorter wait times for a Titan.

The fact that the game is so vertical means that anyone can easily get on rooftops, meaning sniping isn’t something that’s as prevalent in normal Call of Duty matches. Also, Titans usually take care of those types pretty quickly. Conversely, if you’re on-foot, your best be to take down a Titan is to get on a roof and jump on its head; once there, you can pull off a cover, exposing vital circuitry, and blast away.

In short, you’re never outmatched because you’re in a Titan, or because you’re not. Respawn has done an incredible job balancing out the individual elements of this multiplayer shooter.

It’s not all perfect, though; a smartgun allows auto-lock on enemies, which powered with a corner and a Pilot in cloak means you’re going to get shot in the back far too often for my liking. The initial shotgun is easily the best weapon in the game – and one I’m sure will be powered-down, in time – as it’s got a super-impressive range and is absolutely devastating up close.

The Epilogue that follows Attrition and Hardpoint games is a little taste of the campaign-like nature that we’ve been promised from the title. Win or lose, at the end of a match, one team needs to escape the battlefield, and the other needs to hunt them down before they can be extracted. Even if you lose a game, the Epilogue softens the blow a bit and gives you the chance for literal redemption. With a science-fiction setting that seems VERY fleshed out, I just hope that Respawn allows for a campaign that really explains the world you find yourself fighting in.

When all is said and done, Titanfall is a system seller. At the very least, it’s a great reason to dust off your Xbox One; we’ve not had that many games that you can say that about post-launch,eh? After as many hours as I could possibly pour into the beta, I’m absolutely foaming at the mouth for more Titanfall come March.

You could say I’m prepared for it, even.

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