Titanfall

Our Titanfall review features different perspectives from three members of our editorial staff, each with different levels of experience with multiplayer shooters. While each of them has their own rating, the overall rating has been arrived at through mutual understanding.

Abhisheik Dahiya

When you set out to make a multiplayer game, it helps if you have a core concept in mind around which you will build it; a concept that not many other games do. Titanfall has got that nailed down perfectly. The concept is player movement and there isn’t a game out there right now that does it as smoothly as Titanfall does. A mixture of parkour and rocket jumps that feels so intuitive that you could swear you’ve been doing it for years even as you’re finishing your first game. And everything in the game is designed around that. From maps to combat, it’s all an extension of that free-flowing movement.

It’s one of those rare games where you could have a game where you die over and over and still come out grinning when it ends.

The second thing that Titanfall does amazingly well (and this should come as no surprise since it’s from the creators of Call of Duty) is player feedback. There are very few (if any) games that will make you feel like a god when you play them, even if you are a below-average player. You jump out of a ship to start the game. Wall-run and rocket jump your way around the map. Tear through a squad of AI grunts and other players until you hear the words “Your Titan is ready”. And then you air drop in a giant Mech suit that can squish people by just walking over them. It’s one of those rare games where you could have a game where you die over and over and still come out grinning when it ends.

There are caveats though. For a start, there’s no single-player. There is a campaign mode, but it’s just the usual multiplayer matches played out with a cut-scene at the beginning and at the end with some scripted events thrown in at the periphery of the gameplay. I don’t really mind that though. If you are going to make a multiplayer-focussed game, then it’s fine by me if you go all in on multiplayer.

The problem is that, for a game that sells itself so hard on multiplayer, it’s also pretty sparse in its offerings of the same. All game types are limited to 12 players; no more, no less. It also doesn’t help that there are only five game types on offer; four if you consider that one of them is just team deathmatch with a modified scoring system. And since there is no way to play without bots (or Titans), the core combat doesn’t really change from one game mode to another. This will almost certainly hamper the long-term prospects of the game.

People who play online to be challenged against other people will find the player-versus-player encounters consistently on the low side.

A lot of games also end with the top player in each team having 8-10 kills, which is frankly way too low for a multiplayer FPS. Newer or lower-skilled players might not care since bots will be filling up the numbers substantially, but people who play online to be challenged against other people will find the player-versus-player encounters consistently on the low side.

It’s also missing some other by-now-standard features that most online shooters ship with. There is no way to create or play custom games. Also missing is any sort of pre-game lobby system. There is no map voting system either, so you will just play whatever is in rotation. There is no server browser either, so the game automatically puts you in a match in the region you select. On the bright side, that actually works out pretty good if you are in a place like India. You can select any region server and play in it without fear of getting kicked because your ping is too high.

Also on the plus side, the fit and finish on the game is absolutely fantastic. It is polished to a sheen. In all the time I spent with the game, I didn’t run into a single crash, disconnect, or any other issues that plague most multiplayer games today. While it might not be stunning to look at, it runs smoothly even on mid-range rigs, and the net code seems to be pretty solid, as is the hit detection.

It’s a one-trick pony that does a hell of a trick, but it’s a trick that isn’t going to keep you entertained for long.

The game also ships with a respectable number of maps. A few of them might feel too big for 12-player matches, but by and large, it’s a nice selection with some excellent design and thought process going into it. The maps complement the base movement wonderfully and there are plenty of opportunities to chain together movement combinations to make you feel like a parkour god.

And that’s the thing with Titanfall. When you are in-game, you can feel like a million bucks, but once you are out of it, it hits you that you have a full-priced game with four game modes and not much in the way of variety in combat. It’s a one-trick pony that does a hell of a trick, but it’s a trick that isn’t going to keep you entertained for long.

7/10

What the pace and verticality also does is make movement just as vital to success as your accuracy with weapons.

Sameer Desai

When it comes to multiplayer shooters, I’m what you would call a casual player. I’ve played most of them, but never long enough to gain prestige levels, or unlock all weapons, perks and upgrades. Titanfall has all of these, and yet, it’s managed to hold my interest longer than most of its peers, and I can see myself continuing to play it for at least the near future.

Part of it is because, in terms of upgrades and equipment, Titanfall doesn’t create a huge rift between a level 10 newcomer and a Gen-4 (Titanfall’s version of prestige levels) veteran. Despite the game’s terrible team balancing, a new player can manage to hold his own. The likely flip-side is that the really good, high-level players may not feel motivated to continue playing if they keep finding themselves on a level playing field as those with less experience.

I love the Titans and the chaos they bring to Titanfall. They’re the star of the game – the first bullet point on any marketing plug. But what really sold me on Titanfall is the way it mixes accessible shooting mechanics with free-running movement that is reminiscent Mirror’s Edge. It adds a sense of speed and verticality that sets it apart from everything else out there right now. What this pace and verticality also does is make movement just as vital to success as your accuracy with weapons, and for less skilled players like me, it also makes escaping and manoeuvring around a tricky situation a viable option. In fact, I prefer playing the game on my feet and keeping my Titan on auto-pilot.

The maps are well designed and there’s a good number of them too, but many of them are simply too big to host an interesting 6v6 match.

The euphoria of effortless parkouring and rocket-jumping around maps is one of Titanfall’s biggest achievements, but it won’t be long before the game’s shortcomings show themselves, and the longer you play, the harder they are to ignore. The biggest of these is the maps; they’re well designed and there’s a good number of them too, but many of them are simply too big to host an interesting 6v6 match. In Lagoon and Smuggler’s Cove, finding a human opponent in itself feels like an achievement. Most of the time, you’re battling AI-controlled spectres and grunts, and killing them doesn’t feel like much of an achievement at all.

For a game that has so many great gameplay ideas, there’s a distinct lack of imagination in the game modes. It’s all standard stuff, with team deathmatch, capture the flag, and base capture being the most popular. The fact that Respawn is a fairly small team with limited resources is also evident in the barebones options it offers. You can’t create custom playlists or choose to play a specific map. You’re forced to either pick one game mode, or select the variety pack, which randomly cycles through all modes. That brings me to the “campaign”, which is essentially the variety pack layered with some narrative that you really won’t care about or pay any attention to. And you’ll have to play through it twice (once from each side) to unlock the two better Titan classes.

Titanfall is a great idea that Respawn hasn’t fully realised, and no number of DLC map packs or new Titan classes is going to change that. It will need more innovative game modes, deeper customisation options, and most of all, and a higher player count that isn’t padded with brain-dead AI, and I’d be very surprised if we get either of that via patches and DLC. It’s still a blast to play, and while I fear there isn’t much longevity here, everything is in place for Respawn to knock it out of the park with the inevitable Titanfall 2.

8/10

Matches end in no time, making it the perfect post-work release, and despite the six-player-per-side cap, you’re never standing around with nothing to do.

Murali Venukumar

Don’t believe the back of the box: Titanfall’s campaign mode is as barebones as it can get. Think random multiplayer matches strung together playlist-style, interspersed throughout with even more random story dialogue. You get short cutscenes before and after about energy wars and rebels and such, but never dwelled on long enough for you to remember or care. Given the premium EA charges for its PC catalogue, I’d advise caution to anyone without a stable, fast internet connection. Heck, you can’t even dig into the menus without hitting a server. Unfortunately, completing the campaign is somewhat of a necessity thanks to the extra Titans – large semi-autonomous mechs you call in from the sky – classes it unlocks.

So why am I still playing?

Titanfall can be a bit of good fun, despite its issues. It’s also very fast; and blazingly so thanks to some of the best first-person parkour controls in a videogame yet. Matches end in no time, making it the perfect post-work release, and despite the six-player-per-side cap, you’re never standing around with nothing to do. On-foot finesse aside, your Titan controls just as well, allowing you to weave past incoming fire with ease. Interestingly, the game also fills out its cache of 15 maps with AI soldiers that run about doing absolutely nothing more than acting as cannon fodder.

Every match feels the same despite varying objectives, and it never feels like you’re in need of any advanced tactics or strategising to win matches.

Fragging AI doesn’t earn you as many points, but they’re just perfect for players not born with the superhuman skills necessary to compete in most of today’s competitive online games. Racking up AI kills (and, if you’re lucky, some real world opponents) helps fill your Titan gauge that eventually lets you call down your Titan. You’re free to hop in and use its set of weapons or let it run around in AI mode while you do your own thing on foot. Also interesting is the losers rushing to a drop ship at the end of a match, while the winning team tries to stop them. You’re allowed to customise your soldier and Titan, and perk-like ‘burn cards’ add another wrinkle to Titanfall’s jumpsuit.

As much of a good time as it is though, what ultimately saps some of the fun is the lack of game modes. Every match feels the same despite varying objectives, and it never feels like you’re in need of any advanced tactics or strategising to win matches. One could argue that mastering the parkour controls can be a meta-game in itself and that the season pass is sure to add at least a couple of extra game modes, but you can just tell that there’s only so much a casual player can do with what the game currently comes with. The game also has issues with balancing teams, as I consistently found myself on the losing side, and there was no organised map rotation system in place either. While none of these issues are enough to kill the core gameplay, this is clearly the v1.0 of a well thought out franchise.

Expand the maps a bit to accommodate more interesting game types, increase player count, and use the interesting character and world design to craft a better story. Nailing these would jetpack Titanfall to the head of the multiplayer pack.

8/10