Titanfall: Two Campaigns, A Thousand Stories

Many games have tried to shake up the multiplayer shooter formula in recent years. With online play becoming more and more commonplace, games have had to evolve away from the Call of Duty template to create new and innovative experiences.

Uncharted 3’s dynamic maps and cutscenes and Brink’s merging of single player and multiplayer have proven that this usually doesn’t add much to the game, and can even take away from it. Just look at Killzone Shadow Fall for example, where they decided to forgo traditional XP systems in favour of an odd Challenges system, which removed some of the excitement of levelling up even if it did feature the collection aspect.

But Titanfall blends things in such a brilliant way that it feels like a genuine change for the genre. Particularly when you look at the campaign, which wraps cutscenes and set-pieces around an online shooter.

And what a superb online shooter it is. Before we discuss the merits of the campaign, just know that everything you might have heard about Titanfall’s gameplay is entirely true. It’s a solid and extremely well balanced affair, with fun being the clear focus in its sights. Whether you’re a Pilot or a Titan, you never feel at a disadvantage, and speedily running up a wall with the help of a jetpack is just as fun as lumbering around in a mech with a much stronger weapon.

You’ll play these matches on their own in Classic mode, but by selecting Campaign mode you’ll open up something entirely new, which hasn’t really worked in multiplayer before. Your objectives are standard for a multiplayer game – hold back the enemies or capture points on the map – but there’s reason for these now, and you’ll often find your superiors explaining what you need to do, giving you further reason to actually play the game properly.

Those people can be seen as the protagonists of the story. Not your story, but the game’s story, in an alternate world where Titanfall was single player only. That doesn’t mean you’re a random AI, though, as they’re in the game too – you’re a specialist, one of the named NPCs who acts as a silent secondary character. That’s who you are in Titanfall, and it’s a completely different perspective which is played out brilliantly.

It’s not a one-sided story, either. You’ll play as the Militia in some matches, and as the IMC in another. You’ll see each group’s motivation and often experience the flip-side of the same story you just played. It’s ultimately still about winning or losing for your team, but the cutscenes spliced into matches adds new meaning, at least for one play through in each campaign.

Aside from those cutscenes, you’ll get mission briefings in the lobbies while you wait for the match to start, some incredible set-pieces as you enter the match which can rival even some of the best single player games, and various other things throughout, which can vary from radio chatter to glimpses larger events happening outside the map, such as a railgun attempting to destroy a large ship. It’s truly impressive stuff, and really doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a superb online shooter.

Of course, the real draw of a multiplayer game could be said to be those moments where you make your own stories – that time you killed four guys in a couple of seconds, that time you and a friend fended off the entire other team, or any other hilarious or awesome things that you talk about among friends after they’ve happened.

Titanfall is full of those little moments, at least so far. For me, the most memorable of those so far was when I engaged in a lengthy battle with a Pilot from the comfort of my Titan, as they stood atop a building. I felt invincible, after killing another Titan and a Pilot or two on the ground, but the enemy had the height advantage along with some excellent anti-Titan weaponry.

Soon my mech was in meltdown, which meant I had to eject. With as precise aim as I could muster, I left the vessel, flying upwards to my foe’s location atop the stage to meet them for a close quarter battle. Guns should have been the easy option, but all of my bullets missed as I leapt through the air towards them. After landing however, a quick press of the melee button meant a swift kick into the enemy’s face, avenging my Titan’s fall, and throwing the now lifeless body off the building.

Moments such as that, to me, might just be the best thing about multiplayer games. It’s not something that’s exclusive to Titanfall, but something which the game manages to achieve very well, enhanced through the use of AI Grunts to increase the scale and mechs to change up the gameplay mid-match. Titanfall crafts these moments through its extremely well put together systems, in a way no other game really can.

Ultimately, I’ve just had a taste of what’s to offer in Titanfall, but it’s quickly becoming one of my favourite online experiences yet. There’s just been so much time put into creating an exciting and fresh experience which doesn’t unnecessarily deviate from the formula, only adding to it with mechs and an interesting campaign mode. We’ll have a full verdict in a review once we’ve played in public lobbies enough, but initially, Titanfall seems like a resounding success for multiplayer warfare.