(5 hours to see through on Regular difficulty. Played in English on Steam Deck.)
The universe has a wicked sense of humor for people willing to, well, humor it. When Highguard shut down on March, 12th, 2026, Titanfall 2 was on a dirt-cheap Steam sale until the 20th. The ill-fated live service raid shooter “from the makers of Apex Legend, Titanfall” was put down after it shone very briefly but not so brightly, thus this spriing sale feels like EA joining to twist the knife. The decade old game is already not at full price and this sale is 90 % off, definitely the right price for me to revisit the campaign on the Deck.
In a distant future when humanity spread across the stars, an interstellar war between the haves and the have-nots rages on. Jack Cooper is a militia rifleman on the have-not side. As an offense on plant Typhon goes sideways, Cooper is field promoted to pilot a Titan mech called BT. The 2 are assigned to discover a powerful weapon of the enemies and stop it before the have side can use it on the have-not hub world called Harmony.
While drones and artificial intelligence had become part of current day warfare, Titanfall franchise still manages to feel romanticized on 2 fronts. One being the star-fairing far future setting, the other being the mech pilots as knights. The way capital p Pilots forging bonds with their Titan AI cores is still a fantasy rooted in how knights are supposed to take care of their horses. This game is the Medal of Honor Allied Assault and Call of Duty creators finally doing “the beginning of a beautiful friendship” story after all.
As the 20th anniversary of my first encounter with MGS series apporaches, I cannot help but compare Titanfall 2 with MGS2. The main player character both went through VR trainning, but only MGS2's Jack got roasted for it. AI is leading both missions, but BT does so with so much more warmth.
Asides from post-tutorial card title, bosses’ official introductions and end credits, Titanfall 2 campaign does not break from the first-person view. This Half-Life like commitment helps the story to flow well when compared to the cut scene approach, with the first act focusing on path find, act 2 peppered with gimmick and act 3 with relentless battles. The game does have loading screens between chapters, but those just show where player is going rather than COD style mission briefing.
The rogue galley displays their personality without intecepting with the interactive bits at all. Player is invading their domains while listening to them barking orders, uttering vocal abuses or reacting to player character's action. All leading to the mech on mech battles well.
The unique selling point of Titanfall would be its relatively seamless transition between 2 different kinds of combat in terms of pacing and scale. The infantry combat is fast for one can mold down an enemy squad of 3 or 4 within one single magazine of any machine gun. Titan combat is a very different. Enemy Titans all have armor cable of tanking a magazine worth of bullets and can dodge homing missile. So, one needs to dodge faster and kill with more patience. While health regenerates on foot, Titans needs to collect battery if they don’t want to be blow up.
The on-foot bits of this game should be no stranger to anyone played any Call of Duty game since 2007. The people behind 2009's Modern Warfare pretty much jumped right into making Titanfall, along with click left stick to run, click right sitck for one-hit melee kill and pull right bumper to throw genades.
Infantry battle is also enhanced by the movement. A Pilot can double jump and wall run. The freedom of wall run in Titanfall is incomparable to the more scripted feeling of Respawn’s Star War Jedi games. Some falling into the abyss is salvageable as long as one can find another vertical surface to wall run on. The campaign’s briefness does leave one thing to be desired: gadgets mapped to left bumper. The multiplayer matches have several to choose from while the campaign only has a short cloak and the famed time travel gimmick.
While infantry has a vertical focus, the Titan action is more horizontal, aside from a couple of models with limited flying mapped to up face button. Even the jump button becomes dash button when piloting. Titan segments have them good old boss fights, named pilots with regenerating energy shield. Fear not, those usually don’t take long and there are no cut scenes before reloading the checkpoints.
The sense of closure by the end of Titanfall 2 is a tricky thing to talk about. Of course there are sequel teases, like how enemy General Asshole and Colonel Homicidal Bastard were both at large after the credits roll. But player character Cooper did get a pat on back for accomplishing the mission of this game. The universe in Titanfall franchise is big enough for many potentials. But one has to wonder if the whole “evil corporation” angle had hurt its chance to have sequel bankrolled by EA.
Still, it is true that games shipping is miracle. Your truly still got to play this campaign for a third time almost a decade after this game’s unfortunate launch window with a digital purchase is a blessing. The whole campaign still holds up for people looking for shooter campaign not overstating its welcome.