Strap yourself in because it just got all kinds of good. Titanfall has landed and from our sessions on the beta test version of the game, and now the full title following it’s release in the UK on the 14th March 2014, we know it’s a complete game changer. Graphically stunning and perfectly tuned in terms of gameplay action it’s an absolute must-play game for first person shooter fans, and with an online only concept behind it, it’s all about the multiplayer excitement, but don’t just take out word for it, check out the YouTube gameplay video trailer below to see for yourself.
Developed by the brilliant Respawn Entertainment, it’s the futuristic FPS that the Xbox ONE has needed to stand up against the PS4’s Killzone: Shadowfall, but it’s gone one step further in the introduction of giant mecha-warriors called titans to add to your foot soldier pilots. The bad news for PlayStation gamers is that just as Killzone: Shadowfall is an exclusive, so is Titanfall right now as it has only been confirmed for release on the Xbox ONE, Xbox 360 and PC.
The Titanfall beta release went off with relatively few issues, which Respawn Entertainment has worked hard in to iron out, but more importantly the full game release has been a massive success. It’s a big win for the little team that split out from the Call of Duty franchise arm at Infinity Ward, and an even bigger boost for publisher’s EA, considering the issues it had with the release of Battlefield 4.
It’s possible that the relative stability of Titanfall has benefited from the bugs and glitches that EA had to fix on Battlefield 4, but either way you look at it, the success of the gaming experience brings a lot more reassurance to gaming looking at EA games going forward.
Storyline
Without a traditional single player campaign mode it’s going to be difficult for Titanfall to build out a storyline as such. In general, the game is set on a distant planet way in the future as two opposing factions, the Militia and the International Manufacturing Corporation (IMC), go toe-to-toe in a protracted battle for control of the planet. However, Respawn has managed to interweave the storyline element of first person shooter campaign modes into the online multiplayer matches, so the characters, setting and truth behind the planet’s desolation and war will all become apparent as you play online.
Now that we’ve had a chance to play the online campaign made we can see how the developers have pulled this off and it makes for a whole lot of fun. Instead of it just being you in the storyline setting, it’s you and any number of people from around the world, so you genuinely feel like a part of a crack fighting team, that’s sent down to the planet to dish out some titan fuelled justice.
While the cut scenes before the campaign matches aren’t necessarily much to write home about, it the sense of unity that the concept creates that makes it work so well. Add to that the fact that you can talk and intereact with your teammates to coordinate efforts a little better and you’ve got a pretty impressive experience.
Stroryline review: 4/5
Gameplay
Gameplay brilliance is one of the stand-out take aways from the game. On the face of things it’s a simple first person shooter of epic proportions, but when you really get into the gameplay you can see all of the subtle differences that makes Titanfall such a game changer. However, there’s one big switch flick that makes it incredibly well tuned to online multiplayer action, which is that it has been designed and developed from the ground up with this in mind.
What this means is that everything about the game is poised to make the most out of your online multiplayer experience. It clearly benefits from the wealth of excellent FPS predecessors, so the maps that are available have been well constructed to give you lots of options for different gaming strategies. They’re large and free roaming, have a mix of tunnels, open areas, foliage, vantage points and built-up environments and have impressive mini maps to make it very easy to work out where you are and where you need to go to score points. The full number of maps in the game is 15, and each one is amazingly crafted, with more coming down the line as DLC later in the year.
Equally, your pilots and their Titans have excellent movement that really makes you feel like you’re involved in the action. However, it goes way beyond the simple movement you get in other first person shooters as you can also wall run, double jump and grab onto high ledges to move around the brilliantly constructed environments.
Obviously you’re not quite as mobile when you climb into the giant mecha suit of your titan, but even here the developers have clearly worked hard to make this feel fast and responsive, so while you can’t do all of the jumping and climbing that you can when in pilot mode, you can still move quite well and speed up to a sprint to get around more swiftly. This is increased by the titan’s boost capability, which you can use to give you a spurt of speed in any direction, which comes in handy when you want to get a nudge in the right direction fast, outmanoeuvre an enemy or dodge a few bullets.
Firepower is another area of the gameplay that takes the genre to the next level. As well as having a wide range of guns and grenades, each pilot also comes equipped with a titan attack weapon that allows you to take on a big mecha even when you’re on foot. In fact it’s one of the real joys of the game. You also have an auto aim pistol, which makes it easier to get into the game in the first place. Your titan’s got a few extra tricks up its sleeve too as it’s got standard gunfire, as well as big rocket blasters, a cool shield function and the ability to vortex enemy fire before hurling it all back at them.
The extra features don’t end there either as you’ve also got a cloaking facility and hand-to-hand close-quarters death moves as a pilot and a pretty brutal punch attach as a titan, which crushes pilots in one quick move and rips through the chest of an enemy titan to yank out it’s pilot and hurl them into the sky. It’s pretty epic when you pull it off.
Titanfall also benefits from a couple of other cool little features that help to make the online gameplay so much fun for all. The first is the presence of minions, computer controlled pilots that support both sides of the warring factions. These give you some light target practice when you’re a beginner and cannon fodder for destruction when you’re more advanced, but either way they add an extra element to the gaming experience that builds in a little more fun to the gameplay.
The second is that when the battle has been won the game doesn’t just end out of nowhere. Instead, the losing team have to beat a retreat to an escape ship, while the winners do everything they can to bring as many players down before they can make it to the ships. Whether you’re on the winning team or the losing, the escape concept is a whole lot of fun and helps you build up points if you’re successful.
It’s a real accomplishment when you make it to an escape ship, but equally devastating if you’re about to board, but you fall to a last ditch ambush. It’s a genius addition to FPS gaming and we can see this catching on in other big budget series in the future.
The game modes that have been included in Titanfall include Attrition, which is pretty much an equivalent to team deathmatch concepts, Hardpoint Domination, which is a capture the flag type game, and Last Titan Standing, which pretty much explains itself, but essentially everyone starts as a titan and it’s a round based fight to the finish. There’s also the online campaign mode to make it through too, as well as standard Capture The Flag and Pilot Hunter.
However, as the Titanfall playing community starts to grow we anticipate Respawn Entertainment adding eben more game modes later on down the line as a part of a significant series of DLC to continue to develop and evolve the game over the next year or so.
Gameplay review: 5/5
Graphics
Graphically it’s a jaw dropping experience, but make sure you don’t spend too much time looking around at how cool everything looks because you’ll get yourself shot down. It’s really hard to explain how sublime things look and perhaps you’ll never really understand why we’ve been bowled away so much until you get to play it yourself.
The landscapes look about as solid and real as we’ve ever seen in a first person shooter and there’s absolutely zero slowdown or glitches no matter how much action is taking place onscreen. The titans look epic and the animation when you board one is brain tinglingly exciting. Gunfire looks like the real deal and the future tech weaponry, cloaking and shields are pretty easy to buy into too with great styling.
However, perhaps the coolest piece of the visual puzzle is that because the game is getting updated, as will other titles on the new generation of games consoles, it will continue to get worked on to maximise the gaming experience, especially with the potential of the DLC sales being so important to the ongoing success of the game. You’ve only got to compare the cool, on-board ship ending to retreats in the full game to the slightly scrappy shots from above the planets that were in the beta test version to see how much of an impact this can have on the look and feel of Titanfall.
The long and short of things is that the graphics are amazing and it’s quite possible that they could get even better as the game builds out its inventory of downloadable extra content.
Graphics review: 4.9/5
Review summary
Overall, Titanfall is a resounding success and it’s given us a glimpse of the massive potential of the Respawn Entertainment and EA Games partnership. If this is what they can do with their first title together, the future is gaming to be very exciting. With a very slick gameplay engine and the kind of graphics that make grown men weep, it’s well on its way to being the game of 2014 and potentially the defining game in the next generation console battle.
Titanfall review: 4.5/5
