Titanfall BETA Impression

I’ll be frank with you guys; other than Team Fortress 2, I really haven’t played many multiplayer first person shooters over last few years. For some reason they just lost the appeal with me. Sure, I would play your other FPS games like Halo or Bioshock, but nothing of the multiplayer aspect online.

I managed to be part of a large amount of people to get Beta Access a few weeks back for Titantfall on PC. Now if you haven’t heard about Titanfall (I mean who hasn’t due to all the hype?), it’s a multiplayer only FPS set on a war-torn planet where players fight as mech-style 'Titans' and their pilots.

It’s the perfect game for people that used to love multiplayer FPS but are now tired of multiplayer FPS. Confusing? Basically it takes everything that is perfect about games like Call of Duty and blows it all out of the water.

Online reporting indicates that following the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Activision fired two of Infinity Ward’s co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella in March of 2010. This was followed by lawsuits between the two parties and the exit of many staff from Infinity Ward. Later in 2010, West and Zampella founded Respawn Entertainment with many of the former staff that left Infinity Ward. Pre-production for Titanfall then began in 2011.

Titanfall is set in the future fringes of human colonized space, where angry colonists have had enough of the corporate government controlling them. Cue fighting from both sides using Titans: a type of large weaponised armour controlled by the pilots sitting in them. When I first saw and heard about the Titans my immediate thought was of the Macross/Robotech (consequently the Robotech theme played in my head while I was playing the beta) and Mobile Suit Gundam series that I’m a fan of. My friend on the other hand thought of MechWarrior. 

If anything, the Titan is a combination of both being almost like a second skin with amazing mobility and fantastic fire power. Mobility is a major plus when you’re out of the Titan as well, with pilots able to double jump due to a jetpack, run along walls, leap over obstacles, hang on ledges, and even go across the map in an instant using ziplines.

Much like the pilots and Titans themselves, the control scheme for the game feels very smooth and highly responsive. Everything about this game is made to feel effortless and natural, much like how the Titans feel like a second skin to the pilots. It just feels like fun.

The beta only had 2 maps and 3 modes, but if they are anything to go by I cannot wait to play the others. Each map was a new chance to explore various tactics with my pilot and Titan. The game modes included Attrition, Hardpoint Domination and Last Titan Standing.

Attrition is a Team Death Match scenario with two teams of six players, and up to six Titans going at it with AI bots. Hardpoint Domination is a typical Capture the Flag style match, with points on the map designated as a critical place to capture. A handy tip for Hardpoint is to leave your Titan in guard mode to defend the point. In both modes your Titan will be made available to you after a certain point of time. The more people you kill, however, the quicker your Titan is available.

The last mode, Last Titan Standing, is a personal favourite of mine. You all start out with a Titan, and it is literally the last one standing. If you lose your Titan though, there is a chance you can still win the match by destroying the other Titans as a pilot.

Titanfall is due to be released this week at various dates and times around the globe and, needless to say, Respawn are onto a winner here. If this is the future of First Person Shooters, consider me locked in and ready to go.

- Billy