Last weekend the Titanfall 2 multiplayer technical test went live for a couple of days. The test was available to anyone on Xbox One and PS4. I decided to have a go. I never played the original Titanfall , but I’ve been really curious about the sequel since its been on the receiving end of a lot of hype. I was pretty blown away by what I played.
Movement was fast and fluid, and almost everything I could see could be used as a surface for wall running. The guns all felt and sounded wonderful – shooting was a joy. The grappling hook, which I understand is new to the game, really opened up the map in interesting ways and made it really easy to hop on the backs of enemy titans. And speaking of titans, I was calling down 2-4 of them every match without exception, and enjoyed the feeling of controlling this massive, hulking machine. Overall it was a great time, and I had fun in all three playable game modes.
The rest of the internet hated Titanfall 2 . Or, I should say they hated what they played in the technical test. We were playing a pre-alpha build with only a couple of maps and three game modes, so obviously the scope of what we experienced compared to the actual game was very small. That’s not what everyone is complaining about, though.
The haters continue to harp on three points, primarily. They say that movement and maneuverability in general is slow and restricted compared to the original Titanfall . There’s also a lot of resentment because a new mode called Bounty Hunter has replaced the original Titanfall ‘s definitive multiplayer mode attrition, which was basically an all-out deathmatch with a lot of smaller AI bots thrown into the mix. The third cause for outrage is the fact that titans are no longer on timers – they’re more like killstreaks now since you have to accrue a certain amount of points before calling one in. In short, it’s just not the same as Titanfall .
I’m about to say something that’s going to piss off all of the Titanfall fans, and I don’t mean to be abrasive, it just needs to be said: You’re being a bunch of babies. We don’t want to hear you whine about how Respawn has failed to deliver everything you imagined a perfect Titanfall sequel would be. This wasn’t intended to be experienced as a direct sequel, anyway. Respawn COO Dusty Welch stated in an interview that the team was treating Titanfall 2 as a new IP due to the potential audience being so incomparably larger than when the original game launched with Xbox One. They’re seeing it with fresh eyes, and you should too.
My eyes were set to fresh mode by default, having never played the original, and everything that I played felt good. I stayed extremely mobile the whole time I was playing, and there always seemed to be a rock face, fence, wall, or building for me to chain for wall runs and power slides. My mobility ensured that I saw plenty of action, which meant I called plenty of titans. Those of you complaining about never calling a single titan are either exaggerating or have no business playing first-person shooters.
As for Attrition, I can see why that would be a disappointment. Bounty Hunter felt like the best game mode because of the wandering AI enemies that you could take out for points, and I bet a deathmatch mode with tons of those guys running around, mingling with human opponents, would give the feeling of a grand-scale battle. That’s something that can be worked on, though. Respawn has time to tune Bounty Hunter, and hell, we might even see Attrition patched in – it wouldn’t surprise me.
The bottom line is this: Titanfall 2 is a fun and creative FPS in its own right. It might not be everything you were looking for in a sequel, but to those of us playing the game fresh, it seems like a great product. If it had turned out exactly the same as the first Titanfall but with different maps and weapons, you would have complained and called it overpriced DLC. Respawn tried something different, and it’s working for a lot of people. Stop telling us we’re wrong for enjoying it.