The original Titanfall, in my opinion, has been the BEST game that has been made so far on the XBOX ONE. I have always had a fascination with Mechs (giant hulking pilot controlled robots) going all the way back to the mid 80’s and watching Robotech. I remember that it was on during the summer, circa 1985. All episodes were played in order (1-85), and my love affair with giant Mechs was born!
Up until Titanfall, there have been only a handful of games where you can play as one of these monstrous behemoths. Chromehounds was the first one for the XBOX 360, and it was a colossal failure. When Titanfall came out, it was released on both the XBOX 360, and XBOX ONE (as a launch title). I was a little skeptical about this game to say the least. Like I said earlier, it was an amazing game, and one of my most favorite video games EVER made. I felt that the only drawback to the game was that it lacked a traditional campaign mode. I loved the game because of the simple, no frills approach within the multi-player. The game was so easy (even a caveman could do it. Sorry, we are talking about cavemen in Anthropology class now and could not resist). The game has daily, weekly, and monthly challenges as well as weapon and titan upgrades that can be unlocked as you progress through accomplishing said challenges. Another positive about this game is that all DLC is now and will always be free. Not a fan of the season passes in any way, shape or form for any game. However, the simplicities of the game are what also killed it.
I was so excited when their was an announcement of Titanfall 2 with an added campaign. I went and preordered it the day of the announcement. I was thinking to myself, “Great, multi-player is on lock, and now there will be a campaign, should only be smooth sailing from here on out.” Boy, was I wrong!
The campaign was a phenomenal one, albeit short. As the pilot Jack Cooper, you are thrown into battle. Needing to fill the shoes of BT’s previous pilot. Untested and seemingly out of place, Pilot Cooper seems to learn as he goes, and almost single handedly fights off the frontier fighters, leading the militia to a much needed victory. The name of the mech is BT-7274. He is one of my most favorite characters in the story by far. He has a compassionate way about him, and he has a special link with his pilot. Primary goals are to finish the mission at all costs, and to keep pilot safe. The latter is tested several times throughout the campaign which are visible in the cut scenes. This campaign is a relatively short one, a paltry 5-7 hours depending on the difficulty you choose. But a worthy first attempt campaign by Respawn Entertainment.
That is where all of the positivity for this game ends. The multiplayer was such an extreme disappointment. Being a veteran of the first one, this should have been an easy pick up. Controls, style of play and unlockables. Boy, was I wrong. For everything that I loved about the first game, it seemed like they took it away, and built a new game from scratch. I never understood why companies see the need to reinvent the wheel after they have a hugely successful game, just like 343 did with Halo, and People Who Fly did with Gears of War Judgement. No longer do I feel like I am in this big hulk of a robot menace. I feel like it is dummied down to two thirds the size of the original. They also eliminated the recharging shield. You still have a health bar, but no shield that regenerates. It has been replaced with a battery pack that you can find sporadically sprawled throughout the map. It seems to me that this game is going to become another game that either folds, or turns its sights onto Call of Duty and begins to morph into a Titanfall style of Call of Duty much like Halo and Gears of War has done.
For the Campaign, I give this game 8.5/10 stars. The campaign had a nice mix of puzzles, and choosing what dialogue, much like the Telltale game series, as well as some great first person action. The Boss battles were a little too repetitive, however what shined the most about this game was BT. He is an awesome character, and you, too will grow to love this gigantic robot pilot mech! Now onto the multiplayer. I give this a big fat 3/10 stars. I really wanted to love this game. I had hoped that Respawn Entertainment had kept the same game and added to its awesomeness, however they failed miserably.
Does anybody have any ideas on the next game I should review? This review is my own opinion.