Since launch day, I’ve been pumping a good few hours here and there into Respawn’s celebrated shooter. In short, I mostly agree with Stefan’s review, as well as his comments on how the developer failed to capitalise on Titanfall’s narrative potential.
Still, the lack of an engaging plot is easy to overlook once you actually start playing.
At every opportunity EA and Microsoft have touted Titanfall as the must-have shooter of 2014; a truly ground-breaking multiplayer experience. Now, ground-breaking might be pushing it a bit but there are whole shopping list of things Respawn’s debut shooter gets spot-on. For a start, look at the Titans themselves.
If there’s one feature I’m not too keen on when it comes to competitive online play, it has to be vehicles or, to be more specific, tanks. That may sound odd coming from someone who rates Battlefield: Bad Company as one of their all-time favourite video games, but it’s true.
Bombard me with APCs, fine. Buggies, yep. Quads, for sure. Have an enemy roll up in a tank however, and my cowardly reflexes start to kick in.
You can imagine, then, that I wasn’t all too enthused about Titanfall when I first heard about it. For a start it was being advertised as Xbox One flagship and, secondly, the whole ruddy game was based around hulking exoskeletons, which could thrash rockets and lead into every moving target. But I simply had to buy Titanfall and see what all the fuss was about.
In all honesty, coming out of the intensive tutorial, I had my reservations. It wasn’t until I actually went face-to-face with other players that I started to really enjoy myself and appreciate just how balanced Titanfall really is.
In games like Battlefield, Homefront, and PlanetSide, tanks always meant bad news and Titans are no different. Get caught in the crosshairs and you won’t last a few seconds, either being on the receiving end of on-board artillery or, even worse, under a huge mechanical foot.
The way Respawn has created balance between Titans and regular on-foot Pilots is pretty smart, however. No matter how you tweak your load-out, you will always have an Anti-Titan weapon that can deal some serious damage to the metallic brutes.
What’s even smarter is the game’s fluid parkour mechanics. Each map has a network of platforms, ledges, and windows which can be traversed at high speed, giving Pilots oodles of freedom when it comes to out-manoeuvring the slightly-slower Titans. Bar one or two, the selection of maps are also densely populated with terrain, creating a jungle or pillars and other constructs players can use to beguile Titans.
It wouldn’t be right calling Titanfall balanced if its metal suits turned out to be inferior to the regular gun-toting grunts poncing around the battlefield. Thankfully Respawn gets this right, too. When bolted into your Titan you will feel an almighty sense of power. Though huge in size, even the heaviest model can zip around the battlefield in no time, mowing down entire lines of enemies in one swoop.
Though Pilots can use their cloak ability to get an easy one-up on Titans, as they can’t be seen at all when using it, this can easily be countered using their own electric smoke, creating a lethal barrier that kills anyone attempting to scale your machine.
As mentioned before, the game’s parkour system will mean that Pilots can scurry away with haste but that doesn’t make them hard to swat down. With skill, tenacity, and of course, the right loadout, you can fire away at buildings and outposts, pursuing your prey like an anteater poking away at the remnants of crumbling colony.
When looking back at other online shooters after playing Titanfall, there is a diminished sense of balance between tanks and on-foot soldiers. Using Battlefield as a prime case study, armoured vehicles are often treated as secondary part of the game. Given that only a few classes can effectively engage a tank, most players will simply go around or hide until the danger passes.
Giving every load-out its own anti-tank arsenal seems like an ideal takeaway from Titanfall, though I doubt DICE will take notice. After all, it may not be my cup of tea but Battlefield 4 has a solid following, plenty of whom celebrate the game for its realism.
Put simply, Titanfall has allowed me to claw away at an itch I’ve had for a long time now. I’m not about to fire up Battlefield again or jump straight back into PlanetSide 2 but it has shown me that vehicles can and do work within online arenas, especially when they become a central part of the overall experience.
Starman
Nice article. I too have found the balance to be impressive. At first I found the titans making areas a no-go on foot, but after learning the abilities & weapons you realise there’s always a counter option. Reminds me of the mix that Warhawk had.
Old School
I apologise for this being off topic but when will the Infamous review be up?
Stefan L
The embargo lifts at 2PM.
Scythegpd
Thank you, I’ve been wondering the same thing.
I dunno, it just worries me when an embargo runs so close to release. Even more worrying when it runs to after release.
Old School
Thanks buddy :)
I’ve got the game already but I still like to read reviews lol.
Stefan L
I think it’s a very pleasing part of the game design, that everyone has the capabilities to defeat a Titan, but I’m not sure it really diminishes what’s there in Battlefield.
The thing is that Titanfall’s scale is much more compact, but there’s also a literal 1:1 ratio of Titans to Pilots. In Battlefield, there’s rarely more than 4 tanks on a map which can have 64 players on it. The balance in BF comes from the class system, teamwork and grand variety.
You might not have a tank of your own, or you might be a medic class, so you have to rely on your engineer teammate to pull out the RPG and get it done. More than that, there’s other squads with tons of other engineers too. One of those might be driving a tank or piloting a jet or a helicopter. As a medic, your job is to keep them alive and fight enemy troops, first and foremost.
You can be the all-rounder in Titanfall, but Battlefield needs you to play more as part of a team.
BullyBurton
Tanks are great fun to go up against, keep it close with C4 or at a distance with AT weapons and a lot of movement. The challenge is that much more rewarding when an underdog.
Titanfall’s balancing is welcome and makes me feel badass in Mech or on foot, but for the same reason not badass enough through victory despite the odds.
BullyBurton
Having said that, playing around a mates house – he panics like buggery when a Titan is in the area. Maybe there’s such a thing as tankophobia?
Me personally, I only really suffer from “bigfeckingspiderbutnoarrowsthusgottausemydamnswordupclosephobia”