No doubt that most of you have already seen some footage of Titanfall until now, and perhaps wondered why does it look a bit like Call of Duty? Well that’s mostly in part because it was made by the same guys that used to work at Infinity Ward (the creators of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare) and also the fact that it’s using the same modified Quake engine like COD. The reason I say ,,used to work” is because after some unpleasant events the COD developers split from the mothership and decided to make Respawn Entertainment, swearing that they will do everything in their power to create a COD killer game. Of course I over dramatized a bit but the question is out there: Is Titanfall better then the Call of Duty francize?
Before we start throwing accusations all over the place let’s start by defining what Titanfall is: COD + parkour + jetpacks + mechs, and honestly it’s totally awesome. This game is a chaotic first person shooter in which wall running has never been so satisfying. Now, although every single element has been done in one game or another, there has never been a game until now that combines all of these in such a coherent and well balanced frenetic action package. Each match starts with you as a pilot running on walls and jumping all around killing grunts and other players. After a few minutes you get to call in your first Titan and once it drops from the sky the combat mechanics start changing: the battle becomes much more tactical and you will always have to mind your surroundings (fighting against 3 Titans is pure suicide). You might think that having mechs and ground players all in the same match is seriously unbalanced but it isn’t the case, for you see: you are not a small helpless soldier. Quite on the contrary (except for the small part), you can rodeo titans and shoot them in the head until the enemy pilot decides to get out of his Titan and deal with you personally, you also get your own anti Titan weapon, created specifically to make life harder for them and lastly because of your parkour abilities you are more difficult to hit then you would normally expect. Of course facing a Titan in an open field is pure suicide but you always have buildings on which to wall run and be quite a nuisance; the maps are always in everybody’s favor, bee it a titan or a pilot.
Here is one thing at which Titanfall truly shines: the maps. You get 15 different maps, varying from jungles and deserts to urban industrial cities. Each environment sparks your curiosity about its lore: you see giant beasts walking in the background, fallen space ships, a great space battle happens right above you and all of these help you immerse in the game. You never feel disconnect from the world and you never feel like you are playing on a small map, which to me suggests great map design. However all these beautiful landscape makes you hunger for some story behind all the shooting. You are going to want to know more about the world of Titanfall and in this regard you will be extremely disappointed because there isn’t any. The game boasts to have a campaign, but it’s barely any good and only serves as a small introduction the maps itself rather then the story. The campaign has you simply playing 9 maps, from the perspective of IMC and Militia (generic blue and read team). You will get a scripted animation here and there and a lot of voice chat talking, which honestly will be very difficult to pay attention to because of the frenetic battles. And that, ladies and gentlemen is all the story there is. The campaign is only there to tick a checkbox from someone’s list rather then have an important role. Unfortunately you will need to complete the campaign twice (once as IMC and once as Militia) in order to unlock 2 chassis for you Titan (yes they matter, you will see why in a bit).
Of course in a multiplayer games the story isn’t really that important and everything rests on the actual gameplay. On this side the game balances wall running, jet packs and titans phenomenally creating quite an addictive game. Each match has 6 vs 6 players, which may lead you to believe that you will spend a lot of time hunting for players. Let me state this loud and clear: this game has more action the previous COD’s combined. You may be part of an only 6 player team, but you also get grunts (which are creeps to be harvested in order to reduce your wait time until Titan fall) whom provide excellent cannon fodder. Once the Titans start falling in, the maps become quite crowded (you also can leave your Titan and have it in auto pilot mode) ensuring that you never run out of things to shoot at.
While the core of the gameplay is solid and really fun not everything is quite perfect. For starters there is no private match option (although the guys at Respawn said they will add one in later). You also have a limited set of weapons: only 10 for you as a pilot. The Titans are a bit more complete: you get 3 chassis to choose from (assuming you finished that uninspired campaign) which provide bonuses (basically you get speed, damage and shields) and a few good varied weapons which feel powerful and satisfying to shoot with. There are also secondary abilities like invisibility, for your pilot or a magnetic field which can repel all the enemy bullets, for your Titan. There are quite a few more perks and abilities, all true to the COD style. Speaking of things similar to Call of Duty, the leveling system is quite the same: you kill everything you see, you level up and unlock weapons and perks.
All of the previous discussed issues leads us to the question: is the game worth its initial price point considering it has no single player component/story campaign and its quite bare bones? The answer in short is: YES. While this game may not be excellent, do not be deceived: Titanfall is a fun chaotic, fast paced action game that can become very addictive. It is a breath of fresh air in the modern military shooter dominant arena. You need to try it yourself and see how it feels for no amount of reviews will give you a complete picture (it’s a shame this game doesn’t have a demo, but it did provide a free beta a month ago). So is this game the COD killer? Well, compared to GHOSTS I would say it definitely is. Compared to the other COD games in the francize? I really can’t say. After 17 hours of this game I reached the conclusion that because of the mechs this game provides a different experience then what you would expect from a COD/Battlefield game and that is a good thing. Titanfall is all in all a solid game that is worthy of your time and money.