Titanfall 2 Still Deserves Your Attention

Titanfall 2 is now at the level of online shooting perfection that I worry about the sequel (if there ever is one). By obligation, the developers will try to enhance things, switch them around etc. Yet Titanfall 2 is so perfect that anything other than itself will probably not hit the mark. Normally the gameplay alone would set Titanfall 2 apart from any other shooter I’ve played online. But to top it all off, we’re treated to map updates over time completely for free. The lobby system is ingeniously simple, user friendly and applicable to whatever mood you’re in. Limited time special game modes are always cropping up and there is a total crap ton of things to unlock.

Titanfall 2 Still Deserves Your Attention
Not only is Titanfall 2 the best online shooter you can pick up today and probably for a very long time, but it is also the most bang for your buck. With that, I figured it was high time we had a gushing article, explaining exactly why Titanfall 2 is a titles that still deserves your attention.

The footage you see below is not doctored or scripted in any way. It represents exact multiplayer gameplay found in the full release. 



“STILL?! ARE YOU SURE?"

“Ah but what about (insert popular shooter here)?”, I hear you ask. Well, sure there are plenty of popular shooters out there. They're each brilliant at what they do in different ways. Yet, Titanfall 2 has something especially diamond that they (for the most part) do not. That being – if you’re doing not so well in a match, you’re still having a lot of fun. It's simply NOT rage inducing. There’s a reason the most fun game modes are the ones that involve NPCs running around, queuing up for an intimate face time session with your bullets.

Titanfall 2 Still Deserves Your Attention - Titan execution
Yes, if you’re having a bit of an off day and your reflexes just can’t keep up for whatever hungover reasons you may have, players can still find the glory of a high score in other ways. They may even find themselves at the top of the scoreboard with just three kills when other players on the team have had as much as twenty. Again, this is something welcome and equally rare in online shooters where players can be rewarded for effecting a match in such a way that they win… without being inhumanly awesome at winding up the opposition with spawn kills or jammy glitch sniping. 

At the same time, if you are at that level of skill, an elitist and super fast paced sequence of rewarding events can be found in any game mode you play. Titanfall 2 excels at delivering thrill after thrill at a consistent pace, maintaining a great sense of momentum throughout each match. This welcoming series of thrills is available to you whether you're a noob or an MLG player.

EVERY MATCH EVOLVES IN A SATISFYING WAY

The sense of match progression and momentum is amplified yet further by the simple premise of the game. Wonderful giant lumbering death robots. Again, these are not reserved for players who happen to be shooting the opposition in the back over and over. Every player will get a Titan over a period of time. If they happen to be kicking ass, that period of time just happens to be shorter.

Titanfall 2 Still Deserves Your Attention - All aboard
More importantly, the transition from boots on the ground to stomping juggernaut completely switches up the gameplay, keeping every match fresh. I remember, refreshingly, in COD: Ghosts, a nuke may be set off and unlike other COD titles, it wouldn’t end the match. It would just change the shape of the entire map. With the goal of keeping matches interesting, in comparison, this was like a sea spray of refreshment to Titanfall 2's ocean of mecha slaughter on the offing. 

MOVEMENT CONTROLS TO MAKE YOU WEEP WITH JOY

Other games have also attempted (but not perfected) the idea of a super soldier. One that can run on walls and slide around corners at high speed to get the drop on their foes. We’ve seen it in Black Ops 3 among other titles. Even the birthplace of the “sprint slide”, Crysis, didn’t quite get it right. While a novel idea to start with, we always had issues with speed or the minutiae of the slightest movement / camera control while sliding. The result, be it on Crysis or Black Ops 3, would be the intention of achieving a sliding kill only to be chalked up to a twitchy instance of dumb luck. Yet Titanfall 2’s movement mechanics somehow nail the finer points of of the “sprint slide” formulae to new heights. We’ve gone from twitchy dumb luck to precise and dependable flanking manoeuvers. Perhaps even sneaky surprise tactics from long grass.

Titanfall 2 Still Deserves Your Attention - Acrobatic classes 
This dependable movement system stretches to all other aspects of running about Titanfalll 2’s wonderfully designed maps. Not only are these maps designed specifically for you to leverage this kind of movement, but the two ideas come together to create a style of play not seen anywhere else online. A style so dependable that a savvy player can learn ultimately satisfying new ways to drive home to the kill or rush to capture the flag much faster than someone who is perhaps not so adept at this system.

By that, I mean you could grapple around a corner, smack into a wall run, bounce from side to side down a corridor and on the way down, then… Well, you could land on an enemy titan and remove its battery. You could perform the ultimate flying melee kick into a foe’s face. Or you could initiate another slide and start the whole process again. It never feels difficult. It always makes the player feel like a pro where other games fail to harness this feeling, even when you’re sucking.

UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS OF JAMMY GLORY TO BE FOUND

Back in the day, the underpinning reason any of us played the older Halos was for their multiplayer experiences. The formulae of gameplay, weapon and movement systems added up to a totally unpredictable match each time. It also ended up in some incredibly jammy moments of glory. That gave the older titles  life for a very very long time. The same formulae are here in Titanfall 2. Jumping, twitchy combat. Hijacking of enemy titans, slide kills, executions. Hell, in the best case scenario, you could detonate your Titan, kill several foes, eject to fly sky high, snipe several more and perform an execution shortly after landing, all in the space of five seconds. 

Titanfall 2 Still Deserves Your Attention - Pilot execution
When randomly generated moments like this take shape, Titanfall 2 really shines. These moments take shape again and again, hitting you constantly with satisfying, organic gameplay loop every time you play. As a result, it doesn’t take long to understand how the mechanics of this game need never be changed. 

IT AIN’T OVER ‘TILL THE FAT LADY SINGS

Coming up to the end of any online shooter, players may find themselves in one of those “battle of wits moments”. Perhaps a long range snipe-off. Or a twitch around the corner-cover kind of situation. But the timer runs out and there is no conclusion to the briefest of battlefield stories that could have taken shape that match. Where other online shooters end on the defeat / victory screen, Titanfall 2 keeps going. If you lose, you must survive to reach your extraction ship.

Titanfall 2 Still Deserves Your Attention - Extraction
If you win, you must wipe the team or destroy the ship. Each of these actions give you extra merit points after a match, adding incentive and reward to the mix. More importantly, last minute rush tactics come into play. Are you thinning the enemy titans in the short time before the ship leaves to ensure the safety of your squadmates and their extra bounty? Or are you teaming up to pile on damage to the escaping ship to exact your total victory? It’s fair to say, the more interesting of the two is the defeat scenario. It gives you one last ditch effort to stick it to your oppressing foes and secure the safety of your surviving team. Oh did I mention, nobody can respawn in this phase? This adds extra significance to the situation. Even if you fail, in either scenario, your minor disappointment will fuel addiction, carrying you into the next match. And the next. And the next….

MEMORABLE MOMENTS ABOUND

As I’m sure you know, or have probably gathered by now, Titanfall 2 is chaotic in all the right ways. It’s blisteringly fast paced and manic. But it can also be tense and slow. Depending on your game mode, most matches crescendo into team members earning their titans. This evolves every match into an “accessible for all”, change of gameplay as you transition from boots on the ground to lumbering death bot. Each of the two require skill and knowledge to be leveraged properly. Yet, among all this glorious madness, peek a boo moments spring up in tight areas. I mean moments when both players are aware of their gun barrels poking out from that tiny bit of cover. No other players seem to be about and it’s just the two of you. 

Titanfall 2 Still Deserves Your Attention - Getting the drop from behind
You lob grenades, grapple away from one another, send holograms to deceive, run away or set down a sentry turret trap. Either one of you could bite it in an instant. These moments can go on for minutes at a time in rare situations and span entire maps while the carnage of the match goes on elsewhere, blissfully unaware of your acrobatic battle of wits. Losing these one-on-ones is devastating. Winning is ridiculously satisfying. Even if you’ve wasted time where you could have been elsewhere getting more points. Yet another reason for players with less points to have a bloody great time. 

INGENIOUSLY SIMPLE MATCHMAKING

Outside of actual matches, the genius of Titanfall 2 can also be found in its matchmaking system. No other multiplayer game has done this method that I know of. With one of the more recent updates, you can now set a playlist of your choosing. COD has done bundled groups where you get several games modes in one. But what if you don’t like one of those modes? And that match is less fun for you than the others? 

On Titanfall 2, you have a full spread of game modes in a tick box style list. What do you want to play today? Well, rack ‘em up and that’s what you’ll get. From going to a setlist marathon to a quickfire “I want this game mode now”, this method keeps things exquisitely simple. So much so, it frankly baffles me that no other online shooter has done this. Yet, I dare say DLC map packs have a part to play in how game modes are presented to us for selection.

TITANFALL 2 IS YOUR NUMBER ONE SHOOTER EVEN IF YOU DON’T YET KNOW IT

I’d like to think I’ve done a decent job of explaining exactly why Titanfall 2 is your number one online shooter, even if you don’t know it yet. Respawn Entertainment have made the incredibly smart move of adding all future maps as free content updates. As a result, addicts like myself have added incentive to stick around, where other money hungry games may lose their player base as we get bored of the same maps and sadly don’t have money to burn.

Titanfall 2 Still Deserves Your Attention - Become one
Titanfall 2 is oddly one of those games that has gotten fairly affordable over time, despite its roaring success. One of my Facebook followers said he’d gotten bored of it and traded it in. It broke my little heart. Then again, I was also informed the other day of someone falling asleep during Pacific Rim

1 Comment

  1. Avatar photo

    You got it right. Almost poetry on this great game. Thank you

    Reply

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