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Titanfall 2 is sandwiched between the launch of Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, and comes from Respawn Entertainment, a new software house founded by Jason West and Vince Zampella after their exit from Infinity Ward and Activision back in 2010. So far they have two released games under their belt – the original Titanfall which is a multiplayer only game, this sequel, and they are working on a Star Wars game for the future, according to their official website.
I passed up on the original Titanfall, a game I am still yet to play it even though I have it on Origin now through EA Access for the PC. Multiplayer-only games generally are something that I just don’t care too much for as I feel they can be a bit to competitive at times (bar a bit of Star Wars Battlefront, occasionally, on PS4).
The last time I really enjoyed a single-player campaign was Borderlands 2 – such a great game with superb atmosphere. New Doom is also a worthy title, but I did feel that towards the end of the campaign, it was getting a bit long-in-the-tooth with room after room that was setup to be an arena. Thankfully, Respawn know how to craft a compelling story driven single-player experience, and from the off, you are up to your knees in combat, right through to the finale with the game keeping you hooked.
The story, itself, is a decent bit of Sci-Fi. You will have seen it all before in gaming and other forms of media, but it is well written. You are a soldier that is training to be a Titan pilot; there is a corporation who has hired a band of mercenaries to steal an item so they can use it to power a rather large planet-destroying weapon (thankfully no Death Star from Star Wars!). Of course, your mentor bites the big one so you become his Titan’s new pilot and it is up to you and BT (your Titan, not the phone provider) to carry on and complete the assigned mission.
Each level in the game has it’s own set of rules and a specific feature. You will get something, then the remainder of the level will focus upon it. The first level gets you used to wall-running and piloting the Titan, while another focuses on environmental traversal where you’ll follow a prefabricated house factory that’s automated and riddled with enemy sentry robots and soldiers. At the end of this level, you’ll have to go up a wall of sorts with part-built houses. Other levels include all-out battles with your Titan, time-shifting which is really cool and you need to discover for yourself a level which that revolves round an arc gun (electrical type key). This are only a few of the memorable moments you will go through while playing Titanfall 2, so it keeps things fresh and moves forward at a steady pace.
Your Titan is an Artificial Intelligence machine. Various points during the levels you get a chance to chat with him while moving on (two reply options available through the D-Pad – up or down). There is some great shared dialog and you feel like there’s a true bond between man and machine. Some of the dialog had me laughing out loud – as an example, later in the game the thumbs-up scene is awesome. I also chuckled when taking the Arc Gun from a robot – when you take it, the screen on it’s stomach shows a pixelated unhappy smiley face, which all adds to the immersion.
Overall, it is worth jumping into the campaign and playing it through. It doesn’t feel like it has been an afterthought tacked onto the game in the last few months of development. Even the end credits have scenes in slo-mo of the actors (characters in game) with their Titans behind them and the other key NPCs from the game. There are a few scenes with your pilot being congratulated and shaking hands with the head commander etc. I would love to know what the very final scene with helmet is hinting at (I do have a thought on what it is)?!
Go to page 2 for more thoughts on the game.
Retro at heart and lover of all things ’80s, especially the computers, the music and the awesome movies and TV shows! Crazy huge retro gaming collection spanning the ’80s and ’90s with hundreds of tapes, discs and carts for various machines on top of a 600+ strong Steam library that is ever-growing. No I am not a serial hoarder, just a dedicated retro gamer!