I’m not normally a fan of first person shooters, especially modern military Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta style FPS’s. Titanfall is different: it has giant fighting robots. But is that it? Is it just Call of Duty with robots?
It would be if it wasn’t the most polished shooter in terms of game mechanics I’ve ever played. As a beta, there are a few things I think are missing, but overall my experience was really positive. Again, I should stress that I am in no way a fan of FPS’s, but it’s made me care again about AAA shooters which are often seen as derivative.
Right off the bat you’re thrown into a brief Portal-like VR training mode. This goes through all the basic mechanics and introduces them and their importance one by one. This was great for me considering I tend to get overwhelmed in most shooters, even without all the fancy running on walls and double jumping and ejecting out of giant exploding robots. It’s all very digestible and served as a good starting point for combat with simulated training exercises. That being said, you can easily skip it if you’ve done it before, or if you know what you are doing.
After that you’re thrown directly into a lobby where you can participate in 3 different game modes. Attrition is your standard team 6 on 6 death match. You gain attrition points for every person or titan you kill. Besides the six real people you face off against, there are several other AI grunts on either side which you can kill for reduced points. The team which gets to 250 attrition points first is declared the winner. The loser must then evacuate by heading towards a dropship, while the winners try and eliminate the rest of the opposing team and destroy their dropship.
Last Titan Standing is exactly what it sounds like. Every player starts in a Titan and you try and destroy each other’s Titans. Death is permanent, and once you lose your Titan, it never comes back. Lastly, Hardpoint is a King of the Hill style game where players must capture 3 points on the map labelled A, B, and C. My favourite is undoubtedly Last Titan Standing because you start in a Titan and that’s where the gameplay really takes off for me.
It’s fast and frantic, and I found myself quickly overwhelmed in my first couple of games. Eventually, you understand the important metagame of Titanfall. If you’re on the ground as a pilot with a bunch of Titans stomping around, you’re basically dead. You must use the pilot’s mobility of wall running and double jumping to get a beat on the Titans. To help you out, every class of pilot (Rifleman, Assassin, and CQB) has a cloaking device that makes you invisible to a Titan, but less so to a human. At the same time, there’s a timer that counts down until your Titan is available. The timer reduces whenever you kill or inflict damage on an enemy.
Once your Titan is ready, it falls from the sky and you can jump in. From then on, you try and stay in your Titan for as long as you can before you are blown up. When your Titan is at critical damage, you eject high into the sky, allowing you to plan you next move, or jump on to another titan and throw the pilot out. This leads to some truly glorious David and Goliath style wins against all odds.
Each class of pilot is equipped with a primary, sidearm and the all important Anti-Titan weapon. The three different classes of pilot cater to different play styles. The Rifleman is your standard class. They are equipped with a carbine assault rifle and a homing rocket launcher to take down enemy Titans. I see this class running around the most due to their rocket launcher which can chop down a Titan quite quickly. Next is the Assassin, a female soldier. She is equipped with a Smart Pistol that can lock on to enemies and deliver near instant head shots. This was awesome for me, because I can’t aim for crap. One of her perks involves seeing all AI on the map to hunt down for points, the other recharges her cloak faster. Her Anti-Titan weapon is a gun that shoots micro missiles at Titans for decent damage. Lastly, the CQB; a close quarters specialist. He starts with a shotgun that is really effective in close quarters, while his Anti-Titan weapon is the same as the Assassin. His perks include a movement bonus for wallrunning and jumping and the shield around his Titan lasts longer.
When you level up, you get one use perks called ‘Burn Cards’. You can use up to three different cards at once, but only when you’ve reached levels 9 and 11. Considering the three different classes of Titans and Pilots, I can imagine many varied loadouts depending on your play style. Since all of the classes weapons can be swapped out for ones you unlock later, you’re really spoiled for choice.
I’ll say that the best part of Titanfall is the pilot and Titan mechanic. They work seamlessly together and it’s just magnificent. The Titans handle exactly like a pilot, save the fact that Titans cannot jump. They can, however, dash and use their Vortex Shield to catch ammunition fired at you, and launch it back! It’s insane how intuitive and free-flowing it is. Getting in and out of a Titan is also very fluid and easy. You can approach from any angle, even from the air, and you’ll get in with a slightly different animation. My favourite is when you slide through its legs and it catches you and throws you into the cockpit. Titans also have AI. By pressing V, the Titan will follow and defend you without you having to be mounted in the thing. Keep in mind though, one of the weaker points of this game is the AI. They are not a challenge in any way and are just flat out dumb. If you leave your Titan to deal with a human player, it’ll likely be destroyed very quickly.
The graphics are very polished. Source engine can still look fantastic if put into the right hands ,and running at max settings, the game is a feast for the eyes. There are two maps to play at the moment: Angel City, a futuristic cityscape, and Fracture, a larger map set in a fuel depot. I like Angel City the most due to its smaller size and aesthetics. As far as performance goes, I did notice a slight problem with vertical sync. It seems to make the camera jitter if you have either double or triple buffering v-sync on. I’m not sure if this is just a problem I experienced, but I thought it was worth mentioning just in case it’s a wider problem.Thankfully, the framerate was locked at 60fps no matter how busy it got on screen. The source engine has always been really optimised and it’s no different here.
So how was the online play in terms of performance? Considering my geographical location in Australia coupled with busy servers and my middling internet connection, Titanfall held up really well! I had 100ms-150ms ping to the Southeast Asia server which was way better than I expected. I noticed a few hiccups here and there, but I was able to get on very well and enjoy the game. Hopefully it’ll be the same for our South African gamers. So far, good news!
Overall, Titanfall was a very positive experience from an online multiplayer perspective. More Titans, more pilots and more content in general will only serve to deepen an already nuanced and beautiful game. As a casual player of FPS’s I would kill for a single player story mode of Titanfall, but even as a multiplayer experience, it holds up wonderfully. If you’re lucky enough to get into the beta, expect an absolute blast with friends and foes alike.
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Last Updated: February 14, 2014
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:08
How much did MS pay you @Stephen??
Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim
February 14, 2014 at 13:09
..it’s an EA game…previewed on PC. What does Ms have to do with it? ?P
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:10
Ms has ways of making people do things!
Spathi
February 14, 2014 at 13:12
They made me buy Windows :`(
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:12
See they MADE you buy it! I am sure you felt so violated and hurt that day!
Captain GUZ
February 14, 2014 at 14:50
*puts on tinfoil hat*
Unavengedavo
February 14, 2014 at 13:23
Uh… PC runs Windows which in turn is developed by MS? 😛
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:24
Don’t listen to Timmeh. He’s taken it upon himself to single-handedly lay down a hate campaign on Titanfall 🙂
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:27
Sony paid me well 🙂
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:29
Erm, @OddSockZA:disqus is this a MS exclusive?
Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim
February 14, 2014 at 13:35
Yeah, if you include PC as being an “MS” thing.
Bob
February 14, 2014 at 16:10
Ignorant much? Microsoft has stated that the exclusivity agreement will run the life of the title. Quite clearly they have provided both funding and have an agreement in place, it’s just not complete public knowledge.
DarthofZA
February 14, 2014 at 13:09
Can’t wait for this game. Looks like it will be the FPS game to finally get me back into the genre.
Rags
February 14, 2014 at 13:09
This is how you do a beta writeup. Nicely done sir!
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 13:45
Thank you very much!
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:12
The question I would love someone to answer, is there any damage besides the titans?
Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim
February 14, 2014 at 13:13
Vague question. not sure i understand it. Can you, when you’re out of your titan get damaged? can you create damage?
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:14
Ok let me be clear with my question. Is there A. any environmental damage. Do any buildings crumble, trees break ect.
Spathi
February 14, 2014 at 13:15
No building damage. I bet you can shoot the lights out though!
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:19
If you cant then that’s really sad.
Unavengedavo
February 14, 2014 at 13:21
Did you miss this article?
http://www.lazygamer.net/xbox-360/the-titans-in-titanfall-cant-shoot-through-walls/
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:36
lol
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:25
Why? How many other games that you play online right now do allow for that? I think there are maybe 2 out there that allow for this and they are all on the next gens…
VampyreSquirrel
February 14, 2014 at 13:26
Battlefield 4 is on PC too… the “always” gen…
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:27
He does not play PC 😛 And that is 1 game. Any others?
VampyreSquirrel
February 14, 2014 at 13:30
Tim played PC at my place a couple weeks ago.
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:31
It was glorious! must do that again sometime.
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:31
Is that what you call it?
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:32
No man I brought my pc. Its old but good enough for older games.
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:33
I meant what games do you play NOW on your PC that can do this? If most games do not/cannot do it it is a redundant issue.
VampyreSquirrel
February 14, 2014 at 13:34
Yep cos that’s what it was.
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:39
REALLY?!
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:40
yes REALLY.
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:41
No but, REALLY REALLY? Sorry, it seems to easy to irritate squirel when it comes to you and I discussing something that I can’t help myself 😉
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:43
hahaha Gareth is a cool dude, he is alot smarter than he looks too *runs*
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:44
lol You haven’t got a gold account yet have you? We haven’t all met up in GTAV for such a long time… @illuchnemancera:disqus you think you going to be online as in Xbox Live this weekend?
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:46
Haven’t felt the need to be honest. Still got a handy 1 month free but yeah, now if heists were available in GTA online then would be there in heartbeat!
VampyreSquirrel
February 14, 2014 at 14:01
Will make a plan Rince… Got something else I’m working on, but I’m sure I can put it aside for a couple hours.
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 14:12
Cool man. John and I are quite keen to meet up 🙂 What else are you playing atm?
VampyreSquirrel
February 14, 2014 at 14:33
More sorting something out than playing at the moment, but trying to put time into Hitman Absolution, Terraria and Planet Side 2 at the moment between the other thing and World of Warcraft. Haven’t been on Xbox for a little while, don’t even know if it’s still working.
VampyreSquirrel
February 14, 2014 at 14:00
01010010 01000101 01000001 01001100 01001100 01011001
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:30
Dude I like atleast the lights to be shot out. I am this way due to AVP2 when there were lights I could not take out and others I could. It just left a feeling of being cheated, like “was it that much work to add that little bit to the game” I am not asking for alot.
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:32
It is actually. Not many games do it because it is not easy.
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:34
I dunno, I mean Titanfall is basically a next gen game. sure after reading this article it has changed my view on Titanfall a little but I mean COD was great too in the start. lets not forget that.
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:35
How many times have we heard the so called PC master race laugh at our next gen consoles? Yet there is (to my knowledge) only 1 game on their MASTER consoles that allow for building damage. LOL
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:36
I get that, but If they allowed atleast some minor damage it would add so much more.
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:36
We do not know if they don’t. We just know they do not allow for scene destruction. It’s still only in beta remember.
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:37
Well I hope it does. anyway you gonna get Titanfall if it’s any good?
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:39
Nah. I don’t like only being able to play with people online. Like to be able to play single player too. Know what I mean?
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:40
I feel the same way man, MP is sweet but SP is important esp when you just not liss to play with people and rather chill out on the couch and get some much needed gaming alone.
RinceandLeSIGH
February 14, 2014 at 13:41
Damn straight brother.
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 13:44
I think it’s the one of the major things the game is missing.
Brian Murphy
February 14, 2014 at 18:10
Because, as far as next-gen is concerned, shouldn’t…you know, we be expecting them to apply these resources to things we don’t typically see in games…due to the lack of resources they’ve been hamstringed by?
Just because not many other games employ it, doesn’t mean it’s not or couldn’t be integral to the experience. Most of what we DON’T see in games is down to what hardware can and cannot do.
Though, it’s likely that because this is also on the 360, that there’s your reason. It’s unlikely that you’d get any serious level of physical destruction w/ that hardware. Which kinda makes me feel like this should’ve been One/PC exclusive, but whatever.
Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim
February 14, 2014 at 13:16
No environmental damage. when you’r in a titan, pulling in your enemy’s bullets like you’re neo from the matrix and then shooting them back, you won;t care.
Rags
February 14, 2014 at 15:03
Dude you are going to be cannon fodder if you really care about looking at holes and bricks laying about or trying to shoot out lights, lol. 😀
Brian Murphy
February 14, 2014 at 18:08
No, there’s no environment destructibility, bullets also cannot penetrate walls. Which I think is kind of a missed opportunity. These cities should be falling apart as 12 mechs battle it out. Buildings should be crumbling and collapsing left and right, which alters the landscape and makes tactics change on the fly.
Spathi
February 14, 2014 at 13:14
There was a question?
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 13:38
Unfortunately no. There’s something I forgot to mention!
I feel it might be intentional, otherwise Titans would be too overpowered as cover for on foot pilots would be insufficient.
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:39
okay how about on the titans themselves do like arms or legs get damaged? perhaps become limbless?
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 13:40
Nope. They do smoke and explode like a supernova though. There’s even a perk that will make it a mini nuke upon blowing up.
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:41
ok thats pretty cool. Did you ever feel as if they should of added more? or was the pace of the game so intense didn’t really give a crap?
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 13:44
The game is really intense and there’s a lot to unlock and upgrade in the beta. I’d imagine the full release will have more content. But considering the beta is free assuming you get it, lot of bang for your buck here.
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
February 14, 2014 at 13:17
Nice writeup and you’ve managed to convince me it may be a good game afterall
Admiral Chief in Vegas
February 14, 2014 at 13:31
Same here
Bad @ss
February 14, 2014 at 13:35
Whooa
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 13:45
I’m glad. It certainly is very good.
Matewis Jubilai
February 14, 2014 at 13:26
Sigh I don’t think anything will ever beat for me those endless half life deathmatches in highschool.
I still remember in near exact detail the Crossfire map and the Oil Refinery map that came with Opposing force.
Is anyone else getting jaded with the AAA scene? If I had to choose now between GTA V and Master of Magic I would choose… GTA V. Ok bad example, uhm… if I now had to choose between skyrim and Age of Empires II HD / Galactic battlegrounds I’d choose the latter…
Dev
February 14, 2014 at 13:29
Now to wait and hear how it holds up on the now backward cousin of xbox.
Bad @ss
February 14, 2014 at 13:40
Well done for making me soooooo jealous. Now just the small teeny
weeny task of getting a key…………oh and then convince EA and
Microsoft to have azure servers in SA
Please give us our servers!!!!!!
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:44
You hinting there? You want a key?
Bad @ss
February 14, 2014 at 13:45
Dont mind if I do… Off course I want a key!
TiMsTeR1033
February 14, 2014 at 13:48
here go to http://www.freegamestuff.com ;P
Bad @ss
February 14, 2014 at 13:51
To be honest…..totally not what I expected
beavermatic
February 14, 2014 at 13:46
Ouch.. my biggest fear was the source engine behind it. From the video, it looks pretty dated graphically. I know valve does it’s updates and overhauls for releases of the engine, but it’s still a framework running all the way back to 2004 at heart.
It makes me grind my teeth when things of such hype and excitement come out having yester-years graphics, especially when its target platforms are all DX11.1 systems. Being so fast paced with multiplayer being primary focus, i’m sure this played a large role in toning it down on engine tech for performance reasons.
Of course, always gameplay before graphics… and apparently, as you say, Titanfall excels at that.
Won’t stop me from buying it.. good writeup, OP.
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 13:47
Thanks! The still images and twitch garbled video don’t really do it justice. They aren’t mind blowing visuals, but they certainly aren’t dated.
beavermatic
February 14, 2014 at 13:55
I guess I was expecting it to come out the door with more “Crysis-esque” style graphics, though it still has that Source-y look and feel to it that all source games have since its release… though I will note its thus far the best looking Source engine game I’ve seen to date (in comparison to something like Stanley Parable).
I can’t blame them for choosing Source… it’s a well optimized, extremely stable engine with a lot of support, especially for the multiplay side of things.
Just seeing the vids and gameplay overviews, I can tell it’s a sure-fire hit. And on that note, time to preorder…
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 13:57
I doubt it will disappoint many =)
Bad @ss
February 14, 2014 at 13:59
Are you guys not concerned about the latency issue seeing that there are no hosting done in SA. In my experience anything above 100 ms makes the game………well unfair
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 14:02
It’s slightly concerning. At about 100-150ms I had no issues. there were plenty of people with higher pings and it was smooth all around.
That being said, I really hope for some sort of single player mode.
Bad @ss
February 14, 2014 at 14:05
What is your PC and line specs if I may ask?
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 14:09
My line is adsl2+. The speedtest on the article is my speed.
I have a Intel i7 3770k clocked at 3.9ghz, 32gigs of 1600mhz ram. Booting off a 128gb SSD with additional 3tb hard drive. I have a gigabyte GTX760 windforce OC edition with 2gb of dedicated memory. running windows 7 on a 1080p monitor.
Mossel
February 14, 2014 at 14:55
Random question: I also have a i7 3770k, not overclocked. At what temperatures does it run? Mine hits mid to high 70’s on occasion!
beavermatic
February 14, 2014 at 15:31
Seems a little high.. but if it’s heatsink/fan cooled it’s gonna run a bit higher. I’ve got mine oc’d to 4.5ghz bit on a cooler master h100 watercooler. Idle it stays around 28c to 31c per core. Max load it can go upto mid 50c’s an low 60c’s per core.
Again that’s a desktop 3770k (ivy bridge) oc’d on watercooling.
Now my alienware laptop has a 4800qm in it ( haswell) and it runs much hotter even though it’s clocked less and it’s also on heatsink and fan. 70c on it is not uncommon.
Mossel
February 14, 2014 at 15:36
On idle mine sits at 35c-39c on heatsink/fan cooling. But it doesn’t stay at 70, it usually jumps there for a couple of seconds then runs at about 60-65 on max load. Just weird because it didn’t used to do this, have had it tested at 2 different places and no one finds fault. I just don’t want to damage my mobo or something. Think I should consider watercooling…
beavermatic
February 14, 2014 at 15:48
I wouldn’t worry about it. Seems mid60c’s and low70c’s are pretty common under load on the 3770k on air cooling.
Judging from this article.. that’s normal operating temps underload…
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/333567-28-what-temperature-3770k-stock-heatsink
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 17:20
It’s rated for 80 plus, so you’re fine.
VampyreSquirrel
February 14, 2014 at 13:47
In completely unrelated news… Dungeon Keeper (original) is free on GoG
trueLies
February 14, 2014 at 14:18
COD Titan Edition.
Stephen Snook
February 14, 2014 at 14:18
In some ways, yeah. But that ain’t a bad thing, trust me!
Bad @ss
February 14, 2014 at 14:23
Did you (yes I am talking to you) or anybody you know in the beautiful SA recieve a key?
There is an article which stated that keys for SA are being held back
Rags
February 14, 2014 at 14:25
I am holding thumbs for my key. But its going to be pointless apart from just checking it out if we don’t get local servers. 🙁
Bad @ss
February 14, 2014 at 14:40
So totaly true. Seems the gaming world is regressing instead of progressing
bluegoon
February 15, 2014 at 08:43
Email Origin support, tell them you got an xbone key, you wanted it on PC. Boom, beta added to Origin.
Willem Swanepoel
February 14, 2014 at 14:39
I get the idea they kept to the winning formula that made CoD fun. Yes I played CoD 4, that was the last one but it was still damn fun.
They just added massive fucking awesome looking titans!!
I think I will grab this 😉
I also watched AngryJoe’s video release. So far I am hearing a lot more GOOD than BAD from this game.
Hopefully in the future they can get a TitanFall with Frostbite 4 engine ;-)~
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
February 14, 2014 at 16:35
Excellent write-up Aussie Stevie.
Brian Murphy
February 14, 2014 at 18:05
“More Titans, more pilots and more content in general will only serve to deepen an already nuanced and beautiful game.”
Right here is the problem I’ve heard other people talk about, Angry Joe touches on this in his Titanfall impressions gameplay vid. Everytime anyone asks about more Titans, more content etc… they completely duck the question, and that’s worrisome coming from a company like EA and Microsoft.
I’m just curious exactly how much content people are going to require from this game, since it doesn’t have a SP campaign. I mean, it should have a shitload of maps, mechs, guns etc.., right out of the box, right? That’s what concerns me. It may be very fun, but that fun wears out when it’s the same shit in perpetuity. Even the best games can hurt from lack of content in the core game.
Thankfully though, I can simply wait to decide whether I want to put my money into buying the PC version. We’ll see what it looks like after it launches (since we really can’t trust most companies to be forthright about jack and shit these days).
Titanfall falls short
February 17, 2014 at 10:11
The game gets boring really fast. Shoot bots (only 6 real people), get a Titan, get Titan blown up (because it feels everyone gets them at the same time almost), shoot more bots, get Titan, game over It was fun for 2 hours then got really lame
JustAnotherGamer
February 17, 2014 at 12:04
Now that the smoke has settled the verdict is in. It’s just call of duty with mechs.
UrineMonster
February 20, 2014 at 21:26
Latency to Europe from South Africa was between 180ms and 220ms. Still very playable, hoping for local Azure Servers. MVP’ed a few times.