Currently In Beta: TITANFALL

xXBChaceXx

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Currently In Beta: TITANFALL

My Initial Impressions Pre-Release

 

            I’m so glad I finally get to share my impressions of Titanfall with all of you! Respawn Entertainment’s NDA has officially been lifted. Yes! I can now LEGALLY talk about my impressions of Respawn’s new, innovative shooter- Titanfall, a true next gen FPS.

            The end of 2013 marked my shooter fatigue, with the yearly released of Battlefield and Call of Duty, both of which are mediocre shooters at best. Battlefield’s connection issues, game crashing bugs, and rage-inducing lag turned me off for the fourth iteration of the franchise. Call of Duty: Ghosts, developed by Infinity Ward, was the worst Call of Duty experience I have ever played. Seriously. Hit detection was my enemy this time around, and, after less than 3 hours of multiplayer game play, I had enough. Neither of these games held my interest, and I had no uncontrollable, addicted urges to play either of them. Both DICE and the Call of Duty devs are playing it far too safe, and, they’re losing their audience, one by one, despite the sales. Competitive FPS shooters are now becoming generic re-skins of their predecessors, with new guns, new maps, and updated graphics. Graphics don’t necessarily reinvent the modern FPS; it just makes it prettier to look at. Fine. That’s understandable. But, that’s not what gamers are looking for. That ‘Been there, done that’ feeling was prominent throughout my multiplayer experiences, which isn’t a good thing. Giving both CoD: Ghosts and BF4 a second chance was another mistake, and I threw my controller down in defeat. I was completely fatigued, and gave up on my once beloved franchises. I had almost lost hope that developers had lost their passion for shooters, games, and gamers. This made me so very disappointed.

 I almost lost hope in the FPS genre. Then, there was Titanfall. Luckily, I was able to get into both the Closed Alpha, and the Closed Beta. My impressions of both tests were more than satisfactory, my mouth is still agape (Not even joking) after my experiences. Titanfall is a game changer; an innovative experience that I can almost guarantee will fly right off the shelves, and into the hands of gamers. I have never felt so reinvigorated when it comes to shooters, and I have Respawn to thank for that. These guys KNOW how to make multiplayer games.

‘Stand by for Titanfall!’

            At first, you will initially play Titanfall like your standard, generic FPS. That’s to be expected, as we’re all used to the Battlefield and Call of Duty style gameplay. It can’t be helped. Modern FPS games have always stuck with what worked for them. From Doom, to the most recent release of Call of Duty. Those were the trendsetters, with Titanfall leading the charge into next-gen. Titanfall is just fast enough to appease the typical CoD and Battlefield esque gamers, you know, the millions of FPS fanatics who buy the same games every year (I used to be one of them.) That’s their target audience, and Respawn found the perfect middle-ground for their most anticipated shooter.

            In Titanfall, it’s the IMC versus the Militia, in an all-out battle of Atrition (Team Deathmatch.) Other modes are typical of modern FPS, which are Domination (Control the points), and a unique game-mode, called Last Titan Standing.

            The controller layout and controls are very similar to other first person shooters, i.e. CoD and BF. What’s interesting, however, is that it takes the dynamics of wall running, and doesn’t over-complicate any of them. Parkour, wall running, and using your jetpack, are simplified to just the push of a button, and flow with ease. Speed is one thing, however, the sheer mobility that you have in Titanfall, as a Pilot, is almost baffling.  Jumping between two adjacent buildings, from wall to wall, using your jet pack for a small boost, and then automatically grabbing the nearest edge and reaching the rooftops has never felt more satisfying, better yet, freeing. All of the controls are fluid, and feel quite natural during the thick of battle. You won’t be stumbling to learn the controls, either. Easy to pick up, like shooter controls should be.

            Titanfall feels like a mix of Capcom’s Lost Planet and, more specifically, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. This is coming from a gamer who has delved into almost every shooter available on the market. I also have a lot of experience testing shooters, I might add. Titanfall does in fact feels a lot like Call of Duty, however, the older, more fluid Call of Duty games, not what has been released as of late. It feels, fundamentally, like a CoD4, the best of the series, however, more loose.  Don’t worry about all of that. The netcode of Call of Duty dampers the overall experience, however, that isn’t the case with Titanfall.

            Respawn Entertainment alleviates all of the worry of in-game lag, two words that are like butter to gamer’s ears: Dedicated. Servers. No, I’m not lying. Titanfall is entirely based on dedicated servers, running full time. Choose from NA-East, NA-West, and EU-East and EU-West for the best experience(s) depending upon your location of residence. The game will directly port you the closest server nearest to your area. The times that I played the game, on NA-East, there was no lag. None. There was no dying around corners, emptying a clip into a player, and then being killed by the very same player who didn’t die from any of my bullets. None of that. I had a flawless online experience playing Titanfall, with no rage inducing moments. When I did die (Which wasn’t very often, might I add) I deserved that death, and I didn’t feel at all cheated by the game or net code, which is refresing. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to throw my controller at my 32 inch TV screen while playing BF or CoD. I felt no urge to do so during my hours of playing Titanfall.

            Titans are the core aspect of the game, and are by far, the most appealing aspect of Titanfall’s gaming experience. Piloting them feels like an extension of you, like a second player controlled character. As a match of Titanfall begins, the counter in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen at 4:00 begins to count down to 0. The more points you accumulate, the faster your timer will reach 0, granting you access to your own, personal Titan mech. Calling in a Titan, and hearing, ‘Stand by for Titanfall’ drastically excites you, and as the Titan crashes down onto the battlefield, it brings such an intense rush. Either directly piloting your Titan, or engaging in it follow mode, they grant a significant advantage to any Pilot. Titans are not overpowered, and can be taken down by pilots with auto-rockets and grenade launchers, which are, however, less effective than a Titan itself.  Now, let’s get into the Titan’s load out.

 Titans have a lot of mobility, quite the contrary to their massive size, and are able to use boosts to dodge enemy rockets and gunfire. Titans are equipped with standard issue Machine Guns, and Rocket Launchers, just what you would expect. The Machine gun has an extended magazine, however, when you empty your drum, reloading can take up to five seconds, leaving you vulnerable. The better you perform within your Titan, you will be receive a temporary damage boost, granting you a slight advantage over other Titans (No, this is not a killstreak.) A unique vortex shield, used in defense to absorb enemy bullets and rockets, is the main defense of a Titan. This however, comes with a long cool down for balance. Titans come equipped with an energy shield, which is lowered upon taken damage. Once your Titan’s shield is gone, your Titan will take direct damage to its health. You need to head into cover, and wait several seconds to recharge, and get back into the fight. Upon catastrophic damage, your Pilot must either manually eject from the hull, or, using the auto-eject perk, you will be launched into the air and cloaked. Meeting another pilot head on after an auto- eject, and kicking him in his face, is as intense as it is satisfying.     

            Whatever your feelings were initially about Titanfall being a 6 versus 6 game, well, put those biases and judgments aside. There is always something to shoot at during a match of Titanfall, whether that would be an enemy Pilot, Titan, or the A.I. Grunts and Specters. The bots aren’t the brightest of adversaries; however, they will take you out if you’re not careful. The A.I. is, more or less, cannon fodder to reduce your Titan timer to 0. Battles can even become claustrophobic, especially when there are multiple Titans engaging each other in combat.

            I am very happy with what I’ve experienced as of yet, however, this game is just getting started. 2 maps, and 3 game modes are only a small portion of the multiplayer experience. I will have a full review when Titanfall launches in early March.

            The 11^th can’t come fast enough…

Want your chance to get into the closed beta? Sign up here! http://www.titanfall.com/beta for your chance to get a key!

            -Brian

Update! 2-14-14. Phil Spencer on Twitter approved this review!

Phil Spencer‏@XboxP315 hrs

@xXBChaceXx @BetaTitanfall Nice write-up on Titanfall.

Image owned by Respawn Entertainment