Official TitanFall Beta Thread...User Impressions

*Purpose of this thread is to keep the discussion and impressions of the beta here. So feel free to post your impressions and or impressions from other gaming sites too*

If you have not been following the TitanFall beta, than you have probably missed all the clamor of gamer's trying to secure an access code to join the beta. Twitter has been buzzing with gamer's seeking codes especially after MS and Respawn started tweeting out beta codes on Friday.

Well last night Vince Zampella tweeted that Respawn was going to make the beta fully open to max stress Microsofts servers. Today you can go to the dashboard and download the beta. Enjoy!

@dvader654: Game looks like a total sniper/quick scoping fest if what I've seen in the various YouTube video beta play is any indication - I'll pass. Game is still going to make a billion dollars thanks to all the hype the game has (that I still can't figure out where it came from.....).

@tattoogunman: hahaha.no it doesn't. there's very little auto aim in this game

Well I've played over 2 hours of the beta and liked it quite a bit.

First off it looks just fine despite not being 1080p. The framerate seemed solid to me, everything was nice and fast and fluid. There is a lot going on in this game with just the 6 vs. 6 matches with the pilots, mechs, and AI grunts who don't have their own mechs. I honestly can't imagine having higher player counts in this game without it just turning into one big clusterfuck. You can leave your mech and command it to either follow you or gaurd a location and it does an ok job on it's own but it's definitely more fun to pilot it yourself. There is a two slot dash bar that recharges which allows to dash in any direction to either get away from enemy fire or just cover distance a bit quicker. You have a rechargeable shield for your mech and a health bar which doesn't regenerate. When your health is depleted you need to eject. When you're in this "Doomed' state another mech can do a finishing manoever and rip you from your mech.

Playing as a pilot outside the mech is quite fun as well. Sprinting along walls and double jumpimg allows one to traverse the environment and scale structures fairly effortlessly. Running at an opponant and jump-kicking them is pretty fun as is hopping on a mech to either take it down or if it's a teammate then just going along for the ride and shooting enemies from on top. The pace of the game is pretty quick and there seems to be no benefit to camping in this game.

The beta has just 3 gametypes. Attrition is like team deathmatch, the first to 400 points wins. Hardpoint has 3 locations to take and control for the longest during the match while Last Titan standing has multiple rounds where which ever team destroy the other's titan's first wins the round and the first to win 4 rounds wins the match.

There's just a few weapons selectable in the beta. Assualt rifle, shotgun, pistol, sniper, grenades, rocket launchers, etc. They all seem to have a variety of attachments as well that you unlock by doing various things such as get x number of kills etc. There's these things you get called 'Burn cards' which you can put into one of three slots for your loadout. You can choose to use one when you die and once chosen it will then be gone for good. They have a variety of different effects such as decrease the time for your titan to become available for use. I haven't played around with them too much so I'm not sure how you aquire different cards and such.

@Archangel3371: You earn burn cards by finishing challenges. Once you hit level 10 or so you start finishing challenges almost every game so you should have an arsenal of them to choose from.

They aren't overpowered like the killstreaks in CoD and can only be used once.

Ah ok, thanks. I was tempted at first to compare them to killstreaks but they aren't really that similar. I just tried one so far which was the reduced time for my titan. I have several cards now like more powerful anti-titan weapons.

IMO TitanFall has revolutionized the shooter genre.

Let’s face it. First Person Shooters have largely remained the same for well over a decade now. I am not a big fan of Halo, but I understand the effect it had on the console shooter space. Same with Modern Warfare. Since then most other shooters have either tried to emulate Halo and MW or have stuck to the traditional FPS mechanics. No one here’s going to argue the point the shooter genre has become stale.

Enter TitanFall. Labelled CoD with Mechs, its platforming actually completely changes the way you play first person shooters. CoD has always been about whoever shoots first wins. But the platforming in TitanFall brings skill into the equation. Someone gets the drop on you? No problem, jump to the nearest wall… you will automatically start running on the wall making it harder for your enemy to aim. Then jump to the other wall across the street and continue running, then double jump on to the roof and just like that you have avoided something that would’ve been a half a second certain death in a CoD game.

Platforming makes for some thrilling escapes from Mechs too. And the best thing about the mechs is that EVERYONE gets a mech. Remember how shitty it is to sit and wait for the Jets and Helicopters to respawn in Battlefield? Only to crash five seconds later because you have no clue how to fly the fucking thing. TitanFall takes you on a rather long 15 minute tutorial and teaches you every single function of the mech. These things are big and powerful yet if you dont know what you are doing, you will get shred to pieces in a few seconds. Again, it’s skill based. If someone’s shooting at you, simply stop shooting back and absorb all their bullets and throw it back to them. Ran out of ammo and dont have time to reload? Use your secondary fire to unleash a barrage of rockets at them. Found yourself surrounded by enemies? Use your dash ability to get the **** out of there. If your titan is compromised, you are not doomed either. Simply eject. Just make sure you enemy doesn’t eject with you and takes you out with the automatic laser gun.

The game brings these two mechanics together in such a way that it keeps the battlefield alive and the gameplay exhilarating. I loved MAG, KZ, BF1943 and Uncharted MP, but TitanFall completely changes the way I play shooters. And that is the best compliment I can give a next gen game.

I heard it had some server issues, did that last long or was it resolved quickly?

I am not going to go dive into many details here, as Solid and Arch-Angel did a great job describing the game. What I will say is that TitanFall is a very addicting game. The games frantic pace and combat will keep you glued to the TV. TitanFalls action is non-stop, the game seems very balanced for a FPS and the aerial wall running etc, adds a nice refreshing action element to the FPS genre. Whether you are a Pilot or in the Titan, you will experience the kind of thrill that has been lacking from recent FPS.

Speaking of thrills, one of my memorable moments is when I called for my Titan, and dropped it on an enemy Titan completely taking it out! This is one of the many ways to take an opponent out by bating them in and have your Titan drop on them. Respawn has really delivered the good here and TitanFall lives up to the hype.

I uploaded the clip of my Titan dropping on the enemy Titan. Feel free to check it out. Gamer-tag Areez7, clip entitled "Titan Bomb".

After playing for 2 days, all I can say is, I cant wait to play the game. its so well made (even for the beta). It was probably where CoD series as ex-infinity ward founders where aiming, but Activision f***ed it up, and you got ghosts lol.

My biggest gripe with most online MP games are the balance issues. There was that E3 video where the Respawn devs claimed that whether you are on foot or in a mech you are always in the game and had a chance to defeat the person you were fighting. That is really what got me interested in the game. I thought if they manage to achieve that balance the game could be truly great.

you guys got that weird screen tearing on xbox one ? or is it just my console? hmmm

Of all the FPS games I've played that weren't Call of Duty, this is the one I liked the most. The controls are accessible and it has nice, rapid action. But I do see quick-scoping (or at least attempts at it) quite a bit. *sigh*

The only odd thing is there's a good bit of time spent on wall-walking and jumping between walls, but in actual gameplay I don't think I've used it once Since there aren't really corridors and pits in the open world of fighting titans.

No one should be fooling themselves into thinking that any FPS won't have quick-scoping. People will somehow find a way to manipulate that tactic into their own advantage. It's one of the worst tactics seen in videogames, IMO.

That being said, it sucks that Titanfall isn't having a beta for the Xbox 360, which then makes me question if it will play just as well as it will on Xbox One or even PC for that matter. I doubt it for some reason, due to the system specs...while quite still good, maybe not up to par is what Xbox One and PCs can do.

Yes, whether you are on foot or in a mech, you are always in the game. Take for example, as a Pilot you can wall run and jump onto a building to jump on an unsuspecting Titan. The Titan cannot defend itself (unless you equip the electronic cloud device) from a Pilot executing what is called the "Rodeo" attack. Either way, you are really always involved in form in the action. The game overall is very balanced.

I think it will end up being better than Killzone Shadowfall.

I have been really enjoying the game, it does feel a lot like Call of Duty but I only mean that in a good way. It has the same fast paced action Call of Duty has had, with fast spawns and overall great feeling guns, I also like the layout and spawning for the maps. Having gotten more used to playing it really feels like the parkour system alongside the titans really mixes up the gameplay, I even think the bots do help it because while they aren't very effective at times they do server their purpose at times.

Downloaded it last night and couldn't put the controller down for 4 hours. Even though there were only two maps and limited weapons, the game was different. It's refreshing to play a game that has different dynamics than the same ole same ole. Will be buying the game March 11th and will spend plenty of time on this game.

The graphics were sufficient, I know it's not PS4 1080p blah blah blah, but it was impressive, I was NOT disappointed.

By the way guys, good read below from Kotaku on TitanFall....

http://kotaku.com/the-titanfall-hype-explained-1524388082

I saw more than one video where a guy with a sniper rifle didn't even bring the scope up to eye level before firing and taking the other person out, that's what I call "quick scoping". Now I'll also admit to not having played it yet, but I'm not hearing anything from anyone on any of the boards that I am on that is really convincing me to try it either. Part of the reason why is that I'm sick to death of playing FPS games and that's coming from someone who started playing them back when Wolfenstein (original) came out. It's still just about kill the other player and the fact that there are things that can be exploited (based off of some of the comments on here) by other players (i.e. absorbing incoming fire, unleashing a last minute rocket attack because you are about to die, simply running around on walls to avoid getting hit which basically sounds like Halo jumping or hopping around in Battlefield avoiding point blank tank fire or not being able to get run over) just strengthens my resolve in giving this a pass. Are there no destructible environments? So if I'm unleashing a rocket attack on someone who decides to jump on a wall, do the rockets magically just bounce off the wall allowing for the person's escape?

I really think they were on the verge of having something here, but it still just sounds like another Call of Duty with a few robots thrown in for good measure instead of a killstreak, drone strike, whatever. I would really like to see an immersive mech game produced with real world physics. If you're popping rounds at me from a rooftop and I'm in some uber tank of a battlemech thingy, I should be able to level the building you are standing on or at least knock out the floor beneath you. If you run away from me by wall running, I should be able to crumble that wall by gunfire or by rockets rather than see them mysteriously bouncing off. If I'm in a mech, I shouldn't be able to get killed by the guy carrying an infantry rifle, they should have to work for that kill that much harder (like taking out attacking helicopters in Call of Duty - someone has to have a rocket launcher to even the playing field). How about selective targeting on the mechs like the old Mechwarrior games? I may not have a rocket launcher, but enough armor piercing rounds in your knee joint (or whatever) would at least be enough to force you to leave the mech, etc. That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Maybe some day.......