Thoughts on Titanfall 2?

[Bob_McMillan]

Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you, one of the maybe 8 people on the Escapist who bothered with this weekend's tech test.

Apparently the internet has a rage boner over how this game has changed from Titanfall. Less mobility, less Titans, weak Titans, etc. I never played the first one, so I can't really comment on that.

I did notice that the maps really don't suit wall-running so much. The game feels pretty shit if you don't have the grappling hook, which is fun. Although, like the wall-running, the grappling hook can feel a bit clunky at times, though maybe I just need to practice.

Overall, the game is okay. It's been a long time since I played a twitch shooter, and I did have fun with what I played. Oddly enough, I am more excited for the singleplayer. All the jumping about and boosting seems more suited for linear areas rather than huge fuckaround maps.

 

[Lufia Erim]

I played a couple of matches and i found it enjoable to be honest. Note i never played the first since im on ps4,but i liked what i played.

Ironically enough, i enjoyed pilot vs pilot more than the other 2 modes. Which kind of defeats the purpose since there are no mechs in that mode and titanfall is all about the mechs.

Definitely not a day 1 purchase for me. Maybe a bargin bin game

 

[JaKandDaxter]

The trailer makes it seem like a very action packed and fast online battle. But once your not climbing or running on walls, it feels more like an average shooter. I can definitely see the complains from fans of the original and they're pretty legitimate.

The shooting mechanics aren't bad and are a little more than passable. But its current not a mind blowing experience and needs a lot of work to make it so. Although the maps at this point are likely final. As it would take a massive undertaking to redesign maps more suited for parkour. And idk if RS and EA are up for that since its gonna cost money and a not as great release window.

 

[Saelune]

Havent played it, but if there is less mobility and less titans...then they really are shooting themselves in the foot, since that was what was fun about it.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Havent played it, but if there is less mobility and less titans...then they really are shooting themselves in the foot, since that was what was fun about it.

It's an alpha build. No one in their right mind would do that, being as that is the core reason for to play the game

 

[Saelune]

Havent played it, but if there is less mobility and less titans...then they really are shooting themselves in the foot, since that was what was fun about it.

It's an alpha build. No one in their right mind would do that, being as that is the core reason for to play the game

Ive seen way too many games throw away what was great about them to believe you. Doesn't help that a lot of those games were EA ones.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

It's only available on consoles and I can't stand fps games on consoles so I haven't tried it.

 

[sXeth]

Never played the first one, so can't really comment if the mobility is reduced. I also had the grapple hook which I'm very familiar with from good old UTChaos, so it was almost second nature. I did notice that not alot of people weren't good at getting high ground or looking up in the matches I had, even taking out mechs from above with little opposition.

Maps is hard to call, have they said how many there are? Could just be they picked a bad pair for the test.

Its more fun then some of the other FPSes I've played in recent years in MP, but I wouldn't pre-order it without more information (and single player info?)

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Surprisingly fun. Me? What? I can get into this, it feels very liberating to play.

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

I gave it a shot. I mostly played Amped Hardpoint and most of my matches ranged from boring to down right dreadful. Why? Because most of them ended up being 6 on 2. If I were on the side with a full team, the game ended up being boring. The enemy players could barely take any of the points. If I were on the side running on empty, it'd be a frustrating slog. Occasionally some players from the enemy team decided to start spawn killing until the game decided it'd be best to spawn us elsewhere. Oh, and then there were the players that refused to play the objective. I'd be capping every point on my own, and the scoreboard showed it. The fun matches, with balanced teams and players that actually played the objective, were few and far in between.

 

[Lufia Erim]

I gave it a shot. I mostly played Amped Hardpoint and most of my matches ranged from boring to down right dreadful. Why? Because most of them ended up being 6 on 2. If I were on the side with a full team, the game ended up being boring. The enemy players could barely take any of the points. If I were on the side running on empty, it'd be a frustrating slog. Occasionally some players from the enemy team decided to start spawn killing until the game decided it'd be best to spawn us elsewhere. Oh, and then there were the players that refused to play the objective. I'd be capping every point on my own, and the scoreboard showed it. The fun matches, with balanced teams and players that actually played the objective, were few and far in between.

That mode is completly broken in my opinion. I played two matches of that shit and it is completly flawed. I ended up on the top of the scoreboard both times. How? Well when you arm the objective you gwt double points right? But to keep getting double points you need 1 person to litterally sit on top the objective.

So while both team was having fun fighting for objective B, i sat on top objective A to keep the point Armed. And that gave me WAY more points that anyone else on my team

 

[Erttheking]

It's pretty good, but it has some balance issues. Namely that if a team can keep their Titans up for long enough and force it to the point where the other team has no Titans, there's no real turnaround form that point.

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

I gave it a shot. I mostly played Amped Hardpoint and most of my matches ranged from boring to down right dreadful. Why? Because most of them ended up being 6 on 2. If I were on the side with a full team, the game ended up being boring. The enemy players could barely take any of the points. If I were on the side running on empty, it'd be a frustrating slog. Occasionally some players from the enemy team decided to start spawn killing until the game decided it'd be best to spawn us elsewhere. Oh, and then there were the players that refused to play the objective. I'd be capping every point on my own, and the scoreboard showed it. The fun matches, with balanced teams and players that actually played the objective, were few and far in between.

That mode is completly broken in my opinion. I played two matches of that shit and it is completly flawed. I ended up on the top of the scoreboard both times. How? Well when you arm the objective you gwt double points right? But to keep getting double points you need 1 person to litterally sit on top the objective.

So while both team was having fun fighting for objective B, i sat on top objective A to keep the point Armed. And that gave me WAY more points that anyone else on my team

I did find it odd that a fast paced shooter would have a game mode that rewards camping. I definitely noticed that the game rewarded campers 300 defense points for amping the hardpoint, but I never camped long enough to find out how much I could actually get from it. I'm far too impatient and trigger happy. And, as long as it was within my ability, I'd never let the enemy keep a hardpoint amped. No idea what they were thinking when they designed this game mode.

 

[Lufia Erim]

I gave it a shot. I mostly played Amped Hardpoint and most of my matches ranged from boring to down right dreadful. Why? Because most of them ended up being 6 on 2. If I were on the side with a full team, the game ended up being boring. The enemy players could barely take any of the points. If I were on the side running on empty, it'd be a frustrating slog. Occasionally some players from the enemy team decided to start spawn killing until the game decided it'd be best to spawn us elsewhere. Oh, and then there were the players that refused to play the objective. I'd be capping every point on my own, and the scoreboard showed it. The fun matches, with balanced teams and players that actually played the objective, were few and far in between.

That mode is completly broken in my opinion. I played two matches of that shit and it is completly flawed. I ended up on the top of the scoreboard both times. How? Well when you arm the objective you gwt double points right? But to keep getting double points you need 1 person to litterally sit on top the objective.

So while both team was having fun fighting for objective B, i sat on top objective A to keep the point Armed. And that gave me WAY more points that anyone else on my team

I did find it odd that a fast paced shooter would have a game mode that rewards camping. I definitely noticed that the game rewarded campers 300 defense points for amping the hardpoint, but I never camped long enough to find out how much I could actually get from it. I'm far too impatient and trigger happy. And, as long as it was within my ability, I'd never let the enemy keep a hardpoint amped. No idea what they were thinking when they designed this game mode.

At first i thought i only had to amp it then leave and it would stay that way until the enemy captured it. But nope, you actually have to have at least one person on the capture point at all times. Which in turn means that the opposing team also needs to leave on person camped on their point or it's a guaranteed loss for them. It turns a 6 on 6 mode into a 5 on 5 mode with one person on each team bored with nothing to do. Definitely an odd design choice.

 

[gorfias]

Buddy that plays on PS4 tells me it is a must buy when it comes out.

I loved the first one. Paid $50 for PC version and then, about a year later, $5 on the XB1. To date it is arguably my favorite of the genre. I am looking forward to trying it out.

I like the idea of a campaign and sharpened visuals:

 

[Dalisclock]

Well, it's apparently gonna have a single player mode, so there's actually a chance I might play this one. And it has Mechs, which I'm interested in.

And that's all I got right now. Never played the first one due to being MP only so I have no basis for comparison.

Will wait for reviews on the full and finished product.

 

[sXeth]

It's pretty good, but it has some balance issues. Namely that if a team can keep their Titans up for long enough and force it to the point where the other team has no Titans, there's no real turnaround form that point.

Honestly, across the myriad of games I've played that have mixed "Guy on foot" and Vehicles in combat, this is a prettymuch universal, and I'm not sure how it could be solved without eliminating the point of vehicles to start with.

GTA:Online and Unreal Tournamaent 2004 technically solved the issue, but it became a case of making the vehicles pathetic (outside of the mode with the giant maps in UT where you needed them to get around). Other then that though, you'd get in your tank/helicopter/what have you, maybe make a few initial kills if lucky, then basically be fodder for homing anti-vehicle missiles.

 

[Livingskeletons_v1legacy]

Its a step backwards from the first one.

Kill streaks for Titans instead of the perfect timer system? WTF.
Terrible map design.
You move slower than in the first one.
Titans get taken out easily if you even get them.

Attrition mode gone.
Bots only in one mode? The bots help prevent camping and were important to the overall flow of the game.

I don't understand the reasoning behind Respawn's decisions. All they had to do was make the first game again with better visuals, a single player, and more content etc. Instead they destroyed the basic gameplay mechanics which most people agreed they nailed in Titanfall 1.

 

[Liljumpman]

Its a step backwards from the first one.

Kill streaks for Titans instead of the perfect timer system? WTF.
Terrible map design.
You move slower than in the first one.
Titans get taken out easily if you even get them.

Attrition mode gone.
Bots only in one mode? The bots help prevent camping and were important to the overall flow of the game.

I don't understand the reasoning behind Respawn's decisions. All they had to do was make the first game again with better visuals, a single player, and more content etc. Instead they destroyed the basic gameplay mechanics which most people agreed they nailed in Titanfall 1.

Most people also dropped Titanfall ridiculously quickly, so I really can't blame them for trying something else. "Everyone loved the first one, even though it was a ghost town three weeks in".

You're right though. I found the first one much better, and I won't even be buying this one, not until I see more after the game is out, and how long the user-base sticks around.

 

[Livingskeletons_v1legacy]

Its a step backwards from the first one.

Kill streaks for Titans instead of the perfect timer system? WTF.
Terrible map design.
You move slower than in the first one.
Titans get taken out easily if you even get them.

Attrition mode gone.
Bots only in one mode? The bots help prevent camping and were important to the overall flow of the game.

I don't understand the reasoning behind Respawn's decisions. All they had to do was make the first game again with better visuals, a single player, and more content etc. Instead they destroyed the basic gameplay mechanics which most people agreed they nailed in Titanfall 1.

Most people also dropped Titanfall ridiculously quickly, so I really can't blame them for trying something else. "Everyone loved the first one, even though it was a ghost town three weeks in".

You're right though. I found the first one much better, and I won't even be buying this one, not until I see more after the game is out, and how long the user-base sticks around.

It was a ghost town because it lacked content, was only on the less popular console,splintered the userbase with dlc, and also was a brand new IP. Those problems had nothing to do with the gameplay mechanics, which the majority of people found to be perfect.