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Titanfall 2
PC (Steam)
Falls Flat
2.5/5 stars
Back in 2014, Respawn Entertainment promised to revitalize the FPS genre by blending it with mechs, those loveable, ridable giant robots that anyone who grew-up during the ‘80s wishes were commercially available already. Unfortunately for Respawn, they made a slight miscalculation with their game, “Titanfall,” and neglected to include any single-player content, instead releasing a compulsory-multi-player, online-only experiment in ‘multi-player storytelling.’ Because of this oversight, I, and likeminded folk in droves, gave that game a pass. Two years later, and in the custody of cannibalistic EA, Respawn got a second chance with “Titanfall 2,” a game that promised to provide the single-player, story-driven experience missing from the original, while keeping multi-player as an entirely separate mode. Unfortunately, it seems that the reason “Titanfall” didn’t have a single-player story mode is because Respawn has absolutely no idea how to make one.
Presentation
Unlike most modern “AAA” shooters, “Titanfall 2” doesn’t use Unreal as its engine, but instead uses the venerable Source engine created by Valve Softworks. Impressively, the polygons and textures all look super-clean for such an old engine. However, the artistry that went into creating the game’s assets is rather uncreative. All of the character uniforms, equipment, and designs are couched in modern realism, with very little in the way of fantastical or truly Sci-Fi designs. Even the titular Titans, giant humanoid mechs, all look very uninteresting and similar to each other. Environments are mostly bland, drab, and generic, with the only point of creativity coming unexpectedly from a stage that takes place in a giant, underground factory that pre-fabricates buildings – and perhaps even entire cities. Character animation looks good during combat situations with a lot of movement, but during low-key story moments when background extras are mostly idle, it’s easy to see the cut corners of dead-eyed NPCs who all look alike.
Audo-wise, “Titanfall 2” is merely acceptable. The game is fully voiced, and doesn’t employ any celebrities (there is one Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator who was almost convincing), for adequate, if unmemorable dialog. The soundtrack, though, may as well not exist. If there’s any music in “Titanfall 2,” I didn’t notice it.
Technically, “Titanfall 2” is nicely polished on EA’s Origin platform on PC. It seamlessly swaps between keyboard and xinput, and I never experienced so much as a hiccup, let alone a full-blown crash. Shockingly, though, the game is HUGE, with over 60GB of installed data, which is ludicrously unreasonable.
Story
Let’s not mince words here: “Titanfall 2” is a military shooter, like your ‘CoDs,’ your ‘Battlefields,’ your ‘Medal of Honors’, etc. Just because it takes place in ‘teh footure’ doesn’t mean that it tries to be or do anything distinct from the bland and generic “AAA” military shooters for which the mainstream gamer seems insatiable. The story mode in “Titanfall 2” puts players in the boots of generic grunt, Rifleman Jack Cooper of the Militia, as he works his way through training simulations to become an Honest to Gosh Real Life Pilot. Pilots are apparently the top-tier, best-of-the-best, most skilled soldiers who get the privilege of teaming up with an AI-powered, semi-autonomous mech known as a Titan.
Jack’s training is interrupted by an attack by the IMC (Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation), and next thing he knows, he’s got boots on the ground in the middle of a lopsided firefight in which the Militia is losing. Jack’s mentor, Captain Lastimosa, is savagely killed by a group of IMC-funded mercenaries – the APEX Predators – armed with their own Titans, and with his dying breath transfers authorization to Jack, via field promotion, to take over operation of his own Titan, BT7274, in order to continue ‘the mission’ which, at the time, it simply meeting up with Lastimosa’s commanding officer.
As Jack and BT fight through hostile environments, IMC soldiers, and sadistic mercs, they eventually learn that ‘the mission’ has something to do with scuttling the IMC’s attempts to restore and field an alien weapon discovered on the planet Typhon which would give them the ability to obliterate entire planets, including the Militia’s base planet, Harmony.
The characters, both friendly and villainous, are entirely one-dimensional. The main bad guy, General Mardar (sounds like ‘murder’) is never mentioned by name, that I can recall, leaving me to deduce his identity via the in-game subtitles. The motivation for both the Militia members and the IMC seem unclear, outside of a blanket expression by the Militia of wanting some nebulous ‘freedom’ and the IMC wanting ‘control.’ The IMC seems to represent everything that EA and other big corporations like EA stand for, which makes their appearance in an EA-published game seem like a tongue-in-cheek joke or a tone-deaf oversight. I even found myself agreeing with the villains’ propaganda more often than not, which makes for some rather unspectacular conflict.
Indeed, the only interesting character in the entire story is BT7274, whose quirky AI mannerisms make him rather reminiscent of other loveable not-quite-human robots from much better Sci-Fi stories, like Lt. Commander Data from ‘Star Trek.’ The banter between Jack and BT really only makes BT come off as interesting, while Jack never rises above Generic GaryStu ${#}.
The game world and lore is likewise one-dimensional. Perhaps the game assumes some familiarity with its predecessor, or perhaps (more likely), the dev team didn’t spend much time thinking about backstory, worldbuilding, and lore because they know the military shooter audience is really only in it for the online PvP fragging. Regardless, I wasn’t just unimpressed by “Titanfall 2” from a narrative perspective, I was outright BORED.
“Titanfall 2’s” story mode encompasses 8 missions and a tutorial. I spent an hour in the tutorial beating my head against some of the gameplay mechanics, but still managed to finish the story in a piddly 9 hours. I spent a couple more hours in the Team vs. AI multi-player mode, but don’t feel compelled to come back to it. Not only are the story missions few in number, but they are wholly linear affairs whose only attempts at some sort of ‘depth’ are a handful of hidden collectables that DON’T DO ANYTHING.
Gameplay
The main gameplay gimmick of “Titanfall 2,” like the original “Titanfall,” is the ability to play as either a Pilot on foot or as a Pilot riding around inside a Titan mech. In the story mode, Jack and BT often get separated, forcing the player to be on-foot or in-Titan as the plot dictates. When on foot, Pilots have the ability to double-jump, drop into a slide by crouching while running, as well as wallrun along vertical surfaces for a short time. Titans, on the other hand, are significantly less mobile, lacking even the basic ability to jump, but bringing overwhelming size and firepower instead. After playing “Shadow Warrior 2,” I have come to greatly appreciate mobility in the FPS genre… but “Titanfall 2’s” Pilot parkour really didn’t click with me. I found the wallrunning to be gimmicky and tiresome in the story, as it was really only used to overcome linear platforming challenges in the linearly-structured missions, with no real freedom of movement involved. I spent a lot of time falling into pits while wallrunning, giving me horrible flashbacks to certain 3D ‘Sonic’ games. I also found the ability to shoot while moving to be rather inconsistent. At times, I’d be able to fire off shots at enemies while on the run, while at other times, Jack would just fail to pull the trigger.
“Titanfall 2” is, like its predecessor, by-and-large designed to be an online multi-player Live Service. Strangely, though, the story mode has entirely different gameplay mechanics from the multi-player mode at times that can be completely disorienting. For example, in the story mode, Jack only has access to one Tactical option (read: Action Skill with a cooldown): Stealth. But during one mission, his Stealth is taken away and replaced with a time-hopping mechanic seemingly ripped straight out of Activision’s “Singularity” (not coincidentally, the one mission where “Titanfall 2” rips-off a good game, it comes dangerously close to being enjoyable). In multi-player, though, Pilots have half a dozen different Tactical options to choose from, with the mobility-enhancing grappling hook (reminiscent of the not-based-on-a-movie ‘James Bond’ games from the 6th Generation) coming off as an easy favorite. Perhaps the most unsettling difference between story and multi-player, though, is the way Titans take damage. In story mode, BT acts basically like a ‘Borderlands’ character, with a regenerating energy shield that protects his non-regenerating ‘real’ health bar (both of which can be replenished by grabbing batteries). In multi-player, Titans don’t have shields, and just take a beating from the outset, making them far less durable than one would expect. Pilots, on the other hand, have the same modern FPS bog-standard regenerating health in both modes.
The variety of weapons available in “Titanfall 2” is rather underwhelming. There are a large number of assault rifles, sub-machine guns, and light machine guns that all feel nearly indistinguishable. There are a handful of mediocre pistols, three shotguns (including a pistol shotgun, which I ended up liking quite a bit), three snipers, a few useless grenade launchers, and a handful of anti-Titan weapons that almost get creative in their ability to allow an on-foot Pilot to deal significant damage to a Titan. In the story, Jack can carry a whopping 2 weapons at a time, while in multi-player, a player’s loadout can contain 3 weapons. In the story, Jack is forced to use whatever weapons he comes across, sometimes being forced to abandon a favorite because he’s out of ammo for it, while ammo for some other (crappy) weapon is plentiful. In both modes, players also gain access to a thrown grenade (which come in several varieties). This arsenal of weapons can be modded, but only in the most cursory, unexciting ways. In story mode, weapons can be found with a mod pre-applied. This isn’t random, though, as every weapon in the story is placed by hand. In multi-player, by using a weapon a LOT, players can level it up and unlock a couple of mod slots, as well as a scope slot. None of the mods are particularly interesting, though.
Titans aren’t particularly interesting either. While they do have a variety of weapons available, their loadouts aren’t truly customizable. In the story mode, BT can pick-up new prefabbed loadouts and swap between them at will (which is, honestly, pretty hokey), while in multi-player, each loadout is tied to a specific class of Titan and can’t be changed in any meaningful way. I would have enjoyed being able to mix-and-match Titan weapons and Core abilities (super moves that need to be charged-up by dealing/receiving damage), but this freedom was sacrificed on the altar of PvP balance.
Overall
“Titanfall 2” just goes to show that a bland, generic military shooter by any other name is still a bland, generic military shooter… just with bland, generic mechs that show up occasionally. The much-touted player mobility pales in comparison to that of Indie-developed “Shadow Warrior 2,” with the parkour/wallrunning coming off as no better here than in the most maligned 3D ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ titles. The uninspired gameplay combined with a tacked-on story mode combine to make “Titanfall 2” an absolute paragon of mediocrity. As someone who is never interested in PvP but who loves mechs and has come to enjoy high-quality FPSes, “Titanfall 2” has next to nothing to offer me.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 1.5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 2.5/5
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