Titanfall – Xbox One

Titanfall is a game that means a lot to me. It was the first game I bought for the Xbox One that I played to death. It was the first game I had, in recent memory, maxed out in rank (I became a generation 10, level 50 a couple months ago). This was before the Rank Chip was introduced in the latest update, as I’m still working to reach Tier 5 Diamond (I am a completionist, after all). It was the first game I could call Xbox One’s first killer app that also happened to be a new IP.

I’ve played this game since the day it came out, so I’ve seen every update and enhancement from day one to the present. From the over powered satchel charges (they were like mini nukes) to the Titan Punch’s ability to send opposing titans flying twice as far backwards, to Nuclear Ejection explosions being twice as big to becoming somewhat more balanced, this game has mostly changed for the better. Titanfall requires you to be adept not just with shooting the standard weapons, but with movement, positioning, and Titan combat. Being able to outmaneuver your opponent as a pilot or Titan is just as important as being accurate with your shots. You also have to consider when to use Burn Cards, cards that grant the user temporary abilities, like being able to see every threat on the battlefield through Map Hack, being able to call in a Reserve titan at the beginning of the match, and having a high damage version of the standard carbine or Archer homing missile launcher. Just one of these cards can level the playing field, or turn the tide entirely.

Then, there are pilot and titan abilities. I personally lean towards quick reload and warpfall transmitter as a pilot, as it saves time for increasing your rate of fire for weapons, and for the latter, gets your titan into battle quicker, as well as gives you a better chance to crush an opponent by dropping your titan on them (you even get a satisfying *squish* when you make contact with a poor little pilot). The weapons themselves may be standard fare, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers, but there’s enough variety in them to make them fun to use. Like using the Plasma Railgun to pop pilots into bloody chunk balloons.

An impressive feature of this game on paper is using Microsoft’s cloud servers to render AI in matches. In practice, however, these guys, from the grunts, to specters, and enemy titans, are merely cannon fodder used to fund attrition points and decrease the clock for your next titan drop. However, it makes you wonder how future games will utilize this feature. At the moment, the player count for the game’s population is pitiful, as most online console gamers are preoccupied with Destiny and past Call of Duty games, but there are enough people currently playing in order to get you into a match relatively quickly. Just be sure to select your correct zone at the start of the screen by pressing X and selecting the zone with the lowest ping. I look forward to what Respawn will do in the inevitable sequel, and hope players keep this game alive in the meantime.

I’m going to take a little different approach on this review. I see a lot of reviews getting slammed because they were expecting a single-player or cooperative campaign, and didn’t read the fine print. I, on the other hand, knew that going in and I’m saying that what they released isn’t nearly enough to warrant a five star review.

The game is fantastic, don’t get me wrong. Resolution and graphics are solid, gameplay is smooth, frantic and fast paced. In short, it is a wonderful multiplayer experience–but so are plenty of other games. There is a lot you’ll be familiar with here if you are a fan of multiplayer games. You have a character–you play and get kills–you get to level up and thus, get new stuff. Nothing new there. Now in this case, you have your mech, and depending on how you use him, he is either a vehicle (If you are inside) or an AI controlled squaddie (If he’s following you around.) Is that new? Maybe, I mean who doesn’t like having a 20 foot tall mech at his back. But revolutionary, absolutely not. There were articles out there saying this was the “first true next gen title.” I don’t see it. It’s good. It’s solid, and it’s a great multiplayer experience, but the lack of a cooperative or single player experience makes me feel like they released half a game. It would certainly be worth , but is a little steep.

They tried to weave a story into the multiplayer experience, but there’s nothing there that is going to leave you feeling overly satisfied, or at least it hasn’t with me.

This is a great multiplayer game. But a great multiplayer game, by itself, is not worth . I knew that going in and I bought it anyway. I make a good living and don’t care about spending an extra to play with my friends, but a lot of people don’t have that luxury. And if you’re like me, you expect more out of “Next Gen” games–not less. And this game just shows the disappointing trend of continuing to cater to the multiplayer crowd and neglect everyone else. Sad, but true.

EDIT*** I’m surprised at how few people are willing to throw their money into a game that is so lacking. I wanted to add a little to my review to give it more context. Titanfall is a shooter. Here is how you build a five star shooter, folks. I’ll use one of my favorites as an example. Gears of War 3. A fantastic campaign, competitive multiplayer with far more options than Titanfall offers. Still not enough? No problem, then you can play cooperative multiplayer with your friends against bots, for those times when you aren’t in the mood for playing with a bunch of bratty twelve year olds. Still not enough? No problem! Hop over and play the fantastic Horde Mode for even more fun. THAT is a fully fledged shooter worth . In fact, after having the discussions, I think I will probably end up knocking Titanfall down to two stars. When you have a company try to sell a game like this for the same price as a shooter that offers much, much more, Titanfall really shows its lack of polish. As a gamer and consumer, it should be insulting. As consumers we vote with our dollars. And every copy of this game that sells is a vote that says–We as consumers accept games that lack features. I say think hard before you do that.

The game lacks a single player campaign, and like many Xbox One games, it also lacks split-screen muliplayer which is kind of a letdown. However the pace and sheer awesomeness of the game is unparallelled.