Developer: Respawn Entertainment
Publisher: Respawn Entertainment
Platform: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
Titanfall – Review
Badass titans, fast paced action, high tech guns, of course, it’s Titanfall! Titanfall is a game that has received loads of hype during its beta period. Now, Respawn Entertainment finally rewarded us with their new game. Will this high tech futuristic fps live up to the hype?
Story
The story in Titanfall is really poorly explained, you play missions as either IMC or militia and you get some snippets of information every mission. It’s hard to find the real plot or story behind the campaign because you don’t really get a full story. After doing some research however, and closely paying attention to every mission, you get a good idea of what the story and plot are.
You play in the Wild West of the future, it’s where the militia live, work, build their homes and make families. Then you have the IMC, they are the creators of all the robots and titans you see on the battlefields. They needed more resources to expand their engineering empire and they discovered that the area where the militia lives has a lot of the resources they need. So obviously, they took it by brute force.
The story can be played from either side. The first playthrough you play as one faction, then you play as the other. Once you completed both stories, you can just replay random missions in order to gain experience.
When playing as IMC, you try to defend your bases and resources against the militia that try to take them back. Obviously, when playing as militia, you attack the IMC for resources. The missions give some extra information here and there, but since the campaign is multiplayer, it’s hard to stay focused on the story.
Graphics
Just like Battlefield 3 was a big head turner in terms of graphics, Titanfall was able to do the same. The graphics are phenomenal and won’t be topped easily. The guns look awesome, every little detail has been paid attention to, as well as the titans, players and npc’s running around the map. The maps you play on have been polished very nicely too. There’s a couple of maps and they all look amazing. In some maps, you can look up and see the amazing galaxy you’re in, in other maps, you can see big cities far away that have been set ablaze. Overall, the graphics are living up to the current standards and they certainly live up to the hype!
On the other hand, nice graphics won’t come with a bad computer! You need a pretty good pc if you want to play the game maxed out, an old computer just won’t cut it. A bad computer will have you play on low settings and even then you might have fps lag.
Sound
So the pc version is about a 50 GB install, more than half of that install is actually the audio. The audio files are an estimate 35 GB, pretty crazy right? The big audio files actually work to your advantage! Most of the audio is not compressed so the files are pretty big, this was done to spend less CPU power on decoding audio therefore making the game smoother. It’s also a factor in the minimum requirements of the game. A high-end pc wouldn’t have an issue with decoding the audio as you play, a medium-end pc wouldn’t have a problem either. But if you have a low-end machine, almost all the CPU power would go to decoding the audio, therefore giving a lot of lag as you don’t have much power left for the rest.
The audio itself is great. Voice acting is awesome and the music just makes you feel like you’re in an action movie. Sound effects are also pretty good, from the gun sounds to the titan telling you when you’re in danger.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Titanfall is pretty much the same as your typical shooter, it’s very fast paced and there is always action on the map. There is however one thing Titanfall managed to get rid of: camping! It’s the nightmare of all fps players, campers in every corner that make the game slow paced and frustrating. The way Titanfall got rid of them is by simply adding AI bots that run around the map, it’s a genius and easy way to get rid of a frustrating problem! Every faction has grunts running around the map, they’re your basic assault soldiers. Then there are the spectres, those are robots that are a little bit tougher and will actually engage titans with rockets launchers. These spectres can be hacked by either team to get them on your side.
Another unique aspect are the titans. Instead of boring helicopters and tanks on the map, you can use titans! It’s basically a huge exoskeleton that you can drive or put on AI mode. Before each game, you have the option to customize your titan and pilot. Titans have three types of chassis or “bodies”. The atlas, strider and ogre. The atlas is a multi-role chassis with a balance of durability and agility, the strider is very fast and agile, the ogre is your “tank” body. Then you have your primary weapon which can range from a chaingun to an arc cannon. Every titan also has a tactical ability and an ordnance. The tactical abilities allow you to get out of sticky situations, like a vortex shield that will absorb all projectiles and send them back. The ordnance is an one use high damage ability, it can fire rocket salvos or you can lock onto enemy titans and fire precision rockets. The pilot loadout is pretty much the same, I won’t go in detail on that one.
Besides customizing your loadouts, you can also select burn cards. These cards can be activated one by one at the start of your respawn. The cards can enhance your weapons, make your titan stronger, give extra XP on hit, replace your grenades etc. There are loads of burn cards to try out and every one of them is very useful.
So now to the gameplay itself. There are a few different game modes, you can play through the campaign or you can play classic mode. Most of the missions in the campaign are standard team death matches or capture point missions. In the classic mode, you have the addition of Last Titan Standing (pretty obvious), Capture The Flag, Pilot hunter (team death match with no respawns) and the variety pack, which is a mix of all modes.
Playing as a pilot is your typical shooter experience but with the addition of double jumping and wall running. This is also good for the pace of the game, you can see people climbing buildings like monkeys and it’s surprisingly easy to do so.
You can also play as a titan, which is simply awesome. Before getting your titan, you must earn build time, which decreases when you kill grunts, spectres or other pilots. When calling your titan, it falls from the sky in a pod which can kill on impact, so watch your step! Playing with an agile titan is simply amazing, the titan feels like an extension of your body and you can even jump around to avoid rocket salvos. But watch out! Calling your titan also calls a huge target, it’s easily overpowered and killed if you see yourself standing in front of two enemy titans. Pilots can also jump on top of you and start shooting your electronics. The only option you have in a sticky situation is to abandon your dear titan. With some quick taps on the eject button, it sends you flying into the air and then explodes, trying to take down the meanies that killed your robot!
Conclusion
Titanfall is an amazing shooter that definitely lives up to the hype. I recommend all fps fans to get this amazing game, it will drop your jaw and have your eyes peeled with the amazing titans and loads of action.
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[…] Seeing we did a complete review on the game, we will not elaborate further on the ‘Story’ and ‘Sound’ segments of the game in the course of this review. To check the original review, click here. […]