Titanfall 2 is fast paced First Person Shooter and the first entry in the series to make its way to the PlayStation platform. Considering the first title was a multiplayer only affair that lacked any meaningful story, newcomers won’t have any issues stepping right into the world the sequel introduces via an actual single-player campaign. In it we play as Jack Cooper, a pilot training to one day have access to his very own giant weaponized mech known as Titans. Before that time comes, we must first learn how to maneuver around and fight with our own two hands. As a pilot one is not exactly equipped like a super soldier while on foot so it won’t take much to bring you down. What you do have over your opponents is a near otherworldly agility to wall-run, slide, and double jump around the battlefield.
The movement system is top notch and the controls are tight & responsive, so your skill level is all that will be stopping you from pulling off insane maneuvers. You can sprint indefinitely and can easily hop over any obstacles that cross your way. Hiding behind cover or simply ever having your feet on the ground is not the intended way to play, though is still effective if you want to take that route. Jack is also equipped with the ability to go completely invisible for short periods of time to truly make you feel like the ultimate predator or simply an easy escape when things go south. It does feature regenerating health like most other modern shooters, which does make it much easier to pull of reckless stunts or cheese your way through the game.
Once you’ve got the grips on the basics during the introductory tutorial, things quickly escalate and you’ll soon find yourself stranded on an enemy-infested planet. Your first order of duty is to survive and attempt to find batteries for a friendly downed titan called BT, that will drastically increase your chances to live another day. This is a far more lengthy process than one would assume from a game whose main selling point is piloting said titan. It will take time and you will have to get competent with the movement system to navigate through the massive mountainous terrain you now find yourself in. Verticality is a thing this title excels at. You will find yourself leaping and wall-running through insanely high heights with little time to stop to think about your next move.
Falling off or failing a jump does not count as a death, instead you’ll just be sent to the last position containing solid ground. There is a ton of platforming and it will get far more difficult to pull off as the game continues. To ease that burden on players that are not too keen on that aspect of the game, they have included Ghost Runners. These beings will automatically load into any area that requires any form of jumping to progress and will show you exactly how to get across. It cannot be deactivated which I found extremely annoying and does rob you of the experience of discovering a path on your own. At best you can rush through the zone before the ghost loads in if you want that thrill. Even with that unwanted help, the insane scenarios you will have to cross will require fast reactions and will get your heart rate way up.
The over intrusive ghost runner mechanic is made even more strange considering that Titanfall 2 doesn’t really hold your hand all that much. You are mostly left to your own devices as to how you want to play and experiment with the huge arsenal of weapons to be found. Cutscenes are also kept to the minimum, only appearing to introduce a boss character and not much else. When most other modern shooters would take control away from the player to show them something cool, this title lets you live it. You are fully expected to make it out of insanely one-sided or over the top situations on your own, and that keeps its flow from ever crawling to a stop. It is full of “I can’t believe that just happened!” moments right after you remember to start breathing again from all the crazy antics you somehow made it out alive from.
There are three primary forms of enemies to fight. The hostile IMC troops, robots and alien lifeforms. Both robots and human troops usually fight side by side with both containing different forms of AI. Your human foes fight in a manner in where they try to preserve their own lives by taking cover, flanking, and putting some distance between the two of you when you get too close. Robots, on the other hand, are programmed to make a straight b-line towards your position and flush you out. As you may imagine from a walking hunk of metal, getting into melee with them is generally a bad idea. They can also take far more damage and will not cease their pursuit even if you blast their bodies apart. Both the robotic and organic enemies have more quirks to learn about and will cause you to observe your situation closely, instead of simply gunning everything down mindlessly.
Aliens are a far less interesting to face. You’ll encounter a single variant which is a giant lizard-like beast whose only attack is to lounge, and they contain a bullet spongy amount of health. It is fun to outmaneuver the wild animal but is hardly its own faction and more of a situational foe in the slow-paced moody set-pieces. Your weapon limit at any one time is three guns of your choosing. As previously stated, there are a ton of them to try out and all have their own unique quirks to them. Laser weapons, shotguns, anti-vehicle ordnance and much more to discover or take from your enemies cold dead hands are all here for the taking. This is all without even having mentioned the Titans yet who handle and play in a manner far different than when you are on foot.
Titans are slow, lumbering things and above all, have a limited amount of health making them surprisingly vulnerable if careless. The only way to regain health lost from a battle is to find some more batteries laying around or take one from an enemy titan. When piloting a titan you have access to a whole different branch of enormous weapons, all making human enemies about as threatening as a blade of grass in front of a lawnmower. Your biggest threats in those situations will be either auto-piloted mechs or fellow human controlled titans who can easily go toe to toe with you. In the campaign you have access to a single titan, so to change his weapons or abilities you are given access to a load-out screen you can access any time. More are gained by finding them or defeating someone. Some are better suited to certain situations and none ever become defunct, so you can always go back to your preferred setup.
Now abilities are where things get really interesting and makes mastering a load-out that much more complex. You will have access to all kinds of interesting types that completely change how your titan should go about things. There are shields that stop bullets right in their tracks then returns them to your foes once you release it. Some allow you to temporarily fly around, others let you live out your wildest Gundam dreams and go ham on your foes with a giant sword, and all matters of other fun skills to use. It really is its own thing that completely differs from the gameplay when you are on foot as it is much more strategic and slow paced. Abilities take time to recharge and titan weapons have considerable reload times as well, so you have to plan every action accordingly to emerge victorious from a scuffle. Each titan has a pseudo energy meter that allows it to quickly dash in any direction up to twice to quickly gain ground or dodge.
It is a perfectly viable tactic to leave your Titan’s haul and pick off enemies from a distance while it fights on its own accord. A pilot doesn’t stand a chance against an enemy titan out in the open but that is where your insane agility and movement system comes in to play. You can wear it down as you dash within buildings, zoom overhead via wall-running, and generally put your small form to use against that Goliath. There is a ton of options at your disposal at any one time and it could have very easily carried the single-player campaign, but they go even further than platforming, mechs, and on foot fps action. From time to time it will introduce new “gimmicks” that fit into the core game-play perfectly without outstaying their welcome. Things such as a weapon like object to aim at certain platforms to activate them as you wallrun or an amazing glove whose effect I will not spoil, but was easily the highlight of an already amazing campaign.
Its story is not all that interesting to be honest with its tale of an evil corporation against the generically named Frontier Militia. It is more about the bond between you and your titan BT as you help each other out of tight spots all throughout your journey, rather than the overall narrative itself that gives it significance. Your travels will take you across many different locations with more unforgettable moments than you can count on this six and a half hour campaign. They truly went all out to please fans of the prior titles who wanted a single player section and is the optimal point to enter this series. Multiplayer is just as packed with content, featuring different titans to choose from, a ton of modes, and best of all, every DLC is free as to not split the community. It does have microtransactions for weapon skins and the like, however.
The campaign does not truly prepare you for what’s in store in multiplayer and since there are no bots to play against, you will have to learn as you go. Most importantly is the human abilities on offer aside from the one that turns you invisible. You will have access to grappling hooks to zoom across the levels, holograms of yourself to fool your opponents as well as other neat gadgets to make use of. Other than the skill differences between someone just starting out and the community that has been playing since 2016, newcomers will have even more of a difficult time due to weapons and other stuff being locked until you reach a certain level. It is far from impossible to break into however, people still die very quickly when shot with any weapon and if you remember to make use of the movement system, you’ll be able to hold your own.
As of the time of this review, you won’t have to wait all that long to get into a match (on PC) as long as you are fine with the Attrition mode. Other modes are far less populated and will require much more of your time to get a match set up, if at all. Attrition is a variation of team deathmatch but with the inclusion of AI controlled bots to make it feel more like a war-zone and gives less skilled players a way to still help as they can hunt them down. All the while each player has a timer that slowly ticks down and when complete they can call in a Titan to change the flow of battle. It is a ton of fun and is easy to see why everyone seems to default to that specific mode. Another of the most important things the campaign doesn’t inform you of is that you can mount an enemy titan from behind to damage it and steal a battery for your own or an allied mech to give it a shield bonus. If you find yourself on the receiving end make sure to deploy the electric smoke grenade to quickly suffocate whoever is on your titan.
Titanfall has always had a ton of potential and the devs over at Respawn Entertainment took all of their prior criticisms to heart in making this sequel. From the desire for a single player campaign to the hated auto-aiming gun of the original that has now been made a one use item, they listened and have crafted a gem of a game. Both it’s single player and multiplayer are well worth it for anyone that is a fan of the FPS genre, though as for the latter, you may want to try it sooner rather than later as the userbase is dwindling and support for the title ended this year. In the end of the day, Titanfall 2 is a sequel that improved in nearly every way over its predecessor and serves as the perfect entry point for newcomers to the series. These last few years have seen a resurgence of great FPS titles that break away from what has become the dull template for the genre and Titanfall 2 is easily among the best.
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