by Eli Ghahramani
It’s difficult to believe it’s been a solid four years since Infinity Ward disintegrated due to the unfortunate curse of success and even harder to believe that Call of Duty 4 changed console first-person shooters forever almost six and-a-half-years-ago. The first IP developer Respawn Entertainment, the ex-key members of the Infinity Ward team, has ever conceived finally arrived in the form of Titanfall. And while it certainly doesn't stack up to its unrealistic expectations and hardly reinvents the wheel, it’s nonetheless a truly-fun first foray into the Xbox One.
We are in an age where when you consider the possibilities of how a console first-person shooter should play and the standards they’re held to, it’s simply becoming a polite thing to do by not bringing up the Call of Duty name. While franchise fatigue has set in pretty hard on that series, the formula still gets the job done and pretty much hasn't been topped yet, so why change it now? Considering Respawn created the beast after all I guess it’s hard to make an argument why they should. Luckily, the same general control scheme works just fine for Titanfall along with all the interesting twists Respawn threw into the mix to try and keep shooters feeling fresh.
You play as a Pilot battling on torn-down planets fighting opposing factions for resources, but really, it’s an excuse to shoot people. As a pilot, you have a parkour-style ability to climb, run, jump-over and do whatever else you can imagine to traverse walls and buildings to make your way around the environment. In a similar vein to Mirror’s Edge except the shooting is actually satisfying. Player cap is six humans versus six humans with AI bots called “grunts” running around the map to fill in the battle artificially, but they’re not very smart or fun to kill. There’s a timer that counts down at the beginning of each match which starts at four minutes but can be reduced using a variety of tactics, such as killing people or NPCs and capturing points, to inevitably reach zero and prepare your Titan for deployment. Upon doing this by pressing down on the D-pad, your Titan crashes into the land in front of you to help you begin laying waste on opponents, hence “Titanfall.”
Titans have three total classes, two of which are unlocked by completing the single-player campaign twice, once for each faction. The multiplayer encompasses five game types: Attrition, Last Titan Standing, Hardpoint, Capture the Flag and Pilothunter, with Attrition and Hardpoint looking to be most popular (which is not terribly surprising since they’re essentially Team Deathmatch and Domination). There are 15 relatively-open maps and 23 weapons, including Titans’ weapons and Pilots’ anti-Titan weapons, with attachments you have to unlock by using them and completing challenges while trying to achieve the level 50 cap. Once you reach level 50, you can restart your level progression in Regenerating, much like the Prestige system in the Call of Duty series. While there is no real equivalent to perks in the game, Respawn did try to shake things up a bit with the introduction of “Burn Cards,” one-time-use power-ups you can use upon death to help give you a leg up when in a time of need. You earn Burn Cards by playing, but once you’ve used them, they’re gone. These additions help differentiate Titanfall from Call of Duty and games of the like, but it doesn't completely disguise the strikingly similar design philosophy behind its competitive multiplayer in the form of create a class and weapon/attachment unlock challenges. Gripes aside, Titanfall is really just a blast to play match-to-match.
What the “campaign” mostly boils down to is a series of Team Deathmatch and Domination-esque game types that play out with dialogue being shouted over the action while it’s playing out along with little, various scripted occurrences happening throughout the nine missions it presents you. For instance, you'll play Harpoint to capture the objective and more or less the explanation as to why you're doing that is, "Capture this point...to further to story." As a result, it’s pretty hard to grasp or even genuinely care about its plot. Frankly it’s a war for resources between two factions: the Militia and the IMC. It’s a shallow narrative that was obviously one of the lowest targets of Respawn’s focus; they either got lucky or knew exactly what they were getting into because if this game wasn’t as much fun as it is, there would be much more of a problem plaguing the entire experience in regards to the single-player component of Titanfall.
Titanfall is one of the first Xbox One-exclusive (sort of) titles that has had a big splash of a launch on the system, whether warranted or catalyzed by media-hype. It’s hard to not get the impression this game was heavily designed with the Xbox One’s original and retracted DRM and online-policy in the very front of their minds, or at least whenever they switched development over to the Xbox One, because it seems to be one of the few true “online-only” games to have been released lately. This is specifically as in you cannot even progress past the title screen unless you establish a solid internet connection to the Titanfall server. Even so, this game lacks a legitimate single-player campaign, so if that is what you seek in a game, Titanfall is not for you. It’s all about multiplayer.
Technically, Titanfall looks serviceable. Maybe it’s just yet another unrealistic expectation, but for a game that has been hyped so much and is launching at the beginning of a new console generation, it isn’t really a looker. Utilizing a heavily-modified Source engine, a 10 year-old engine that debuted in Half-Life 2, the game just doesn't look up to par with what you would expect from a video game released in 2014, mostly from the almost complete lack of post-processing effects. However, it still looks decently good and the art it a joy to gaze upon. The only complaint worth mentioning is that there are cases that, while not persistent, the frame rate dips well below what would be considered acceptable and screen-tearing usually accompanies it making for some real ugly looking moments. Although it’s also worth mentioning Respawn says they will address these issues with further patches down the road.
If you own an Xbox One and you’re looking for a new game to play, especially if you enjoy multiplayer shooters, it would be a real task in making a valid reason not to at least try out Titanfall. Now, if you’re someone who loves story-driven games and isn’t a big fan of learning the ropes to fight actual people online, then this really isn’t for you. The only real worthwhile complaint that holds weight is the lack of a proper single-player campaign which will hopefully be implemented in its inevitable sequel. With that, if you can look past a more or less shallow campaign experience in lieu of a fast-paced twist on the modern first-person shooter, then Titanfall is a pleasure not worth missing out on.