Titanfall Preview: Impressions from the Beta

Your Titan is ready. Are you?

Last year at E3 when the Xbox One was being announced, there was one game that stood head and shoulders above all else in its way, walking away with a ridiculous 60 awards. Titanfall is a first person shooter and debut of developer Respawn Entertainment and EA Games, a company headed by Vince Zampella who is known for working at Infinity Ward and on the early days of the Call of Duty juggernaut. Now we sit a mere three weeks from the launch of this game and Respawn has allowed us access to a Beta test of the game to stress test the servers and to give gamers a glimpse of what is to come, similar to what DICE accomplished with Battlefield 4 albeit on a smaller scale with only one map and game mode available.

Here we are given multiple loadouts for Pilots and multiple loadouts for the Titans (the mechs in the game). Two maps are available for the Beta test; Angel City and Fracture. Three game modes are on display; Attrition (team deathmatch), Hard point (Domination to control points on the map for XP) and Last Titan Standing (obviously a battle to the last man). With a good deal of the game on display to get a good idea of what is coming on March 11th, how does it perform and how excited should we be?

The simple answer is very excited; this game is the real deal. In my time with the Beta I have not experienced this kind of excitement about a game since Halo 2. Titanfall looks amazing, plays amazing, and depending how this all plays out in the final build, this is the killer app that Xbox One fans have been looking for. This likely will be the first absolute reason to buy a console of this generation.

Free running in game is a breeze and incredibly intuitive; instead of trying to flank around an enemy on an elevated platform, you can literally go right at them. Camping becomes more of a liability than a strategy with matches moving at an incredible speed but not so fast that you can’t plan your game strategics. It is very easy to get around maps on foot and get around over and under buildings in quick order.

Sometimes it is almost like two different games are going on in the same match which makes for much more exciting battles when you are chasing enemies through buildings in Angel City and meanwhile outside the windows, three or more Titans could be in a fierce battle with each other. It can boil down to one on one combat or blow up all the way into all out war between teams. It seems to me that Respawn has made something incredibly special here. While on a Beta test of the game with two maps and limited weapons and Titans, it is showing that there is a incredible amount of promise in the final product. With brilliant graphics on top of the insane action, this is one game to keep a very close eye on.

Another point is that even though there is wall running and some new additions to the FPS genre, the controls are very crisp and in actuality are very similar to Call of Duty controls which will make it easy for anyone to pick up and play. While some games may overwhelm newcomers with controls and button presses to pull off bigger combos, Titanfall keeps it nice and tidy. For example, if you just jump at all wall, you can just press forward and start running and then jump from that wall into a window. If you are jumping through that window and by chance there is a sniper in the window, press the melee button and you will automatically kick out at that person and take them out. It’s these kind of buttery smooth controls that will bring new players to the game with the high level of accessibility. However, I am fairly certain it will not deter hardcore players because it does take a certain level of mastery to balance everything together to become a true danger to others in the game.

Respawn has also given us a twist on typical multiplayer matches by adding some elements that generally would usually only be seen in single player campaigns. Matches open with drop ships unloading teams into the battlefield and its this element when your team is defeated or you are victorious the match is not entirely over. Respawn has given teams extraction points to get to, to retreat to get off the battlefield. If you are the winning team, its up to you to hunt down the remaining opponents, or for bigger points, destroy the drop ship. If you are on the losing end of the match, it is up to you to protect the drop ship and to get on board to get extra bonus points at the end of a match. It adds a nice level of excitement to the end of the match regardless of a win or a loss.

There are literally so many ways to play this game its incredible. You can take the fight to the big time and run in your Titan, unleashing massive amounts of damage, or you can have your Titan follow or guard you, acting as a tag team. You can run the ground with a wide array of weapons, or forgo weapons and take a parkour style of play where you can run fast, jump high, and melee other players or use the incredible Smart pistol that will lock onto targets for you and allow you to fire around corners. Another cool way to stir up trouble on the field of play is to literally drop your Titan into the middle of battle and watch as it drops and takes out clusters of enemies or even enemy Titans in its way.

One more thing to mention here is the addition of Burn Cards; they are cards earned through gameplay that you can enable as a one time use card that will enhance a particular aspect of your character, like being able to carry an upgraded version of your weapon to do more damage. It gives a slight edge over other characters but not so much to completely unbalance the game like unrealistic Kill Streak bonuses.

The bottom line here is that this is only the Beta and the game can only go up from here. With more modes, weapons, Titans, and of course maps, this can only become something very special. With Titanfall using the cloud where new additions can be dropped in through updates, there is so much to be excited about with this game.

March 11th is going to be a very important day for the Xbox One and its future.