679: Titanfall Hopes and Expectations

Prepare for Titanfall.

So here we are, a day before the big launch. Assemble your squadron and ready your snacks and soda—if anything you’re going to be occupied for a while. Whether you’ll be playing or just snooping around forums and trolling on reviews, one thing’s for certain, tomorrow being Titanfall day, everything to almost anything will be reading Titanfall on their foreheads. So before the day comes to be, here are some of my hopes and expectations for the massively anticipated game and its launch.

I’ve played the closed (subsequently opened) beta and the gameplay was surprisingly impressive. It’s fast, its fluid, and the pilot-to-Titan transition felt very organic. The ability to double-jump and parkour lends an added dimension of verticality to the game and it was most welcomed. A run-and-gun that plays out nothing like your common shooter—I suspect this will be a recurring idea in days to come when the game is put through lets-plays and reviews.

You might dismiss me for expecting too much but I’m hoping for a solid, if not revolutionary campaign experience. Doing away with the single-player element of the game was a contentious creative decision that left many traditionalists fuming. However having campaign and multiplayer intertwined has its benefits. With gamers on both sides, the IMC and Militia, playing for victory, we might have on the cards a reactive storyline that is both branching and dynamic. Hogwash? Well Respawn’s Community Manager, Abbie Heppe, did say “you’re going to have your own story” in an exchange on Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb’s website.

Okay maybe you need to twist the context a little on that last quote but that shouldn’t at all dampen the expectation of a good campaign. Early Call of Duty games came packaged with strong campaign narratives and it’s quite likely that as the developers of the CoD franchise will be able to build on what they have done in their salad days. Even if it’s not going to revolutionise the landscape of FPS storytelling, it should nevertheless score well in this department. My prediction for the story arch? At its worst—surprisingly compelling and coherent, nothing less.

If there’s one thing that will be enjoyed by the millions over the course of the next few months (at least), it will be the multiplayer segment. With an easy pick-up rate and a forgivable learning curve, multiplayer will appeal to many, noobs and pros alike. However, in being so casual friendly, the game relies heavily on its AI component, and I fear it will be hard to make balanced competitive plays from that. Unless Respawn has in place serious competitive maps and modes, the game might struggle for numbers in as little as two months. I’m staying grounded on this one though I am hopeful Respawn will do good here too.

Titanfall, if you’re not aware, launches the same day as another big hitter—Dark Souls II. Both in my opinion will sell well. Dark Souls II has the added momentum of being a sequel to a cult classic. But whatever juice the Dark Souls hype train is riding on, Titanfall is rocking something three times more potent. This wouldn’t come as much of a surprise but Titanfall will sell millions and even the astute analysts at Forbes seem to think so too.

I get my copy of Titanfall in a matter of hours now. If time permits I’ll put in a review myself. Seeing how well received the beta was with gamers and critics alike, I wouldn’t be surprised if the game earned generally positive reviews (something I’d define as an 8.5 and above). However, given the press infatuation with the game, brace yourself for possible flurry of inflated reviews (discounting the odd hipsters who think it cool to score a good game badly). Expect (some) game critics revisit scores and make retrospective revisions. I’d be very surprised if this game won flawless scores, but because I’ll be buying the game too, I hope I’m wrong.

Well then, the clock ticks and your Titan will be ready soon. Prepare for Titanfall.

366: Four for Titanfall

It’s on the way—stand by for Titanfall

Spawn of Respawn Entertainment, the successful bunch responsible for the Call of Duty franchise, Titanfall, has been winning popularity contests far and wide since its E3 debut last year. Yet, despite its rhapsodically outstanding reception, the game has of late come under fire for a couple of absent features. If you were in the dark this last month, here’s a list of four things you might have missed.

Multiplayer is capped at 6v6. This announcement caused somewhat of a furore last month though the violent upheaval has since calmed. Personally this was marginally disappointing as I was hoping for at least 16 on 16 but I trust Respawn enough to believe them when they say 6v6 works best “from a (creative and) game design” perspective.

There are at least three different Titans the gamer can call upon. Unveiled some weeks apart, Respawn published introductory videos of the three playable Titans; the Atlas, the balanced variant, the Stryder, the mobility variant, and the Orge, the tank variant.

Titanfall will not feature split-screen multiplayer. Interestingly I felt that this was more of a bummer than the 12-player limit on multiplayer. Titanfall with your friends over is more fun if two can play at the same time since lugging another XB1 to a friend’s place seems impractical. In addition, some of my best gaming experiences on console happened over split-screen, thus it’s a bit of a let-down that this will not be for Titanfall.

If you’re torn as to which platform should you Titanfall on do know that the Xbox One version will be the best (followed closely by PC), with the 360’s version being a port that will be handled by a firm independent of Respawn, Bluepoint Games. If you, like me, are without the Xbox One I’d strongly recommend the PC version. Even if you are one of those vehement console-controller proponents, take heart because Titanfall on PC will support the 360 controller.

If you’re not sure if your PC can run Titanfall get it checked out here.

All things considered, Titanfall is shaping up to be one mean shooter. We’ll work to have you our own little VG300 review when the game hits shelves next month.