TitanFall – Review

No Introduction Needed – This Is TitanFall

TitanFall aims to reshape the FPS genre in a way that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare did on previous generation consoles & PC.  To that end, Respawn Entertainment has melded a campaign-like story into a 6-on-6 multiplayer experience to try and shake up the typical feel of a competitive match.  This is accomplished by AI characters giving background to battles before and after they have done (usually during, too), which makes the experience seem less shallow and a bit more immersive.  However this entire “campaign” is exactly the same experience that you’ll face should you decide to run for what Respawn calls “Classic Mode”, which features the various gametypes for simply competitive matches without all the backstory being filled in.  For the story side, it’s kind of cool – a sci-fi future where rival factions are warring against each other over differences in humanity’s direction and who controls it away from Earth.  The only problem with this is that the story is nearly lost when you’re playing the campaign mode.  This is largely due to TitanFall being so action-packed that it nearly drowns out everything going on.  For those that care, you’ll likely want to avoid playing campaign mode with friends so you can determine what’s happening with the characters and worlds you encounter.  Otherwise, there’s just too much noise to focus.  But in a way it’s the thought that counts, and the campaign mode makes for some interesting play – especially when it’s mandatory to unlock other classes of titans within the game.  Lastly, you will play as both factions to observe the story from different angles – something that is a bit rare and adds a bit of interest to a game that makes no mystery over its focus on multiplayer.

As for the multiplayer, it’s honed.  You will be hard pressed to find a more approachable yet robust online experience anywhere.  Call of Duty thrived in the FPS world for years, but its reign may have just ended with the first iteration of TitanFall.  It’s because everything is so purposeful, whether that be the weapon balancing, player-to-titan balancing, titan options, loadout customizations, burn cards (similar to killstreaks in CoD).  It’s as if Respawn Entertainment slaved over the appropriate tone, pacing and intention of the game so that any player can pick it up and play it to at least modest success.  In Call of Duty, you can carry a team on your back as a lone wolf and rampage over an enemy team simply by being so much better.  TitanFall does carry a vague feeling of lone wolf rewards, but it certainly lends itself better to team play, especially when the titans start dropping.  There’s too much going on and it’s too easy to get flanked or assassinated from behind by enemies should you make the mistake of staying in one spot too long.  This makes the game constantly progress in its movement, and playing with friends heavily beneficial as you may not be the best in the business yet simply communicating and making some attempt at strategy would likely reward you with wins.

Since the game is basically multiplayer-only, the only lingering question is whether or not TitanFall can go the distance and remain relevant and loved six months from now or whether it will be more short-term in its effectiveness.  Players out the gate are praising it heavily, and rightfully so.  Yet it’s hard to shake the feeling that the substance could potentially thin out for fans that invest heavily into the game in its first month or two out.  To combat this, TitanFall includes 15 multiplayer maps at launch and a small handful of traditional gametypes.  There’s your Attrition (deathmatch-themed), Hardpoint (domination/territories), Capture the Flag, Last Titan Standing (round based with titans @ start, no respawns), Pilot Hunter (only pilot kills count toward team score, team deathmatch-style), and variety pack (random gametype selection).  Just like Call of Duty, you’ll have a level system that opens up weapons and abilities to help give you a leg up in certain situations as you progress.  The cap is 50, and there is a “prestige” option called “regeneration” which makes you a second-gen, third-gen, etc. pilot until you hit the cap of tenth generation pilot.  As you open up these new generations of pilots, you’ll be taken back to level 1 but with some bonuses.  You’ll earn XP faster – a lot faster.  The second generation pilots will double their XP intake.  Expect experienced players to probably run about 10-15 hours of play time or longer to hit the first level cap before regenerating.

Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts also are aiming to keep things fresh with future DLC and updates.  At this time we know that three expansion packs are due for TitanFall which will include maps and likely weapons and Titan addons.  Each segment of DLC will run you $9.99 if you purchase them alone, $24.99 if you invest in the seasons pass.  But don’t just expect the usual DLC content to come your way.  Respawn are going to watch their forums and get all the feedback they can to see how the game is being played and what people want going forward.  There will be free updates, according to Respawn, that will potentially add small and large game content to hone the playing experience and perhaps keep it from being put in a box.  At launch the game only supports 792p resolution on the Xbox One.  Respawn is not happy with that and have promised improvements in due time.  As they continue to learn the hardware of the Xbox One it is said that the game will either tag a 900p resolution with FXAA (smoothing effects) or 1080p resolution without FXAA (no additional smoothing effects).  The question is which will be smoother (consistently 60 FPS) as they get into the lifecycle of this now-released game.  There is also talk of increasing player caps.  The most extreme rumors tell of a 16v16 setup at some point.  Take that with a grain of salt, however we do see perhaps a 7v7 or 8v8 very likely.  Anything beyond 10v10 would probably be too chaotic for many of the maps, and it would only strain the GPU of all platforms it’s released on.  We bring this up in the review simply because Respawn have been so transparent about it, thus it’s important to take these improvements and additions into account now since they’re confirmed in one way or another.

For the time being, TitanFall is excellent.  It hits a lot of high notes and does nearly everything perfect from the beginning to end.  If the story could be a little more intentional we wouldn’t complain, and some launch bugs do exist although they seem to be mostly server-side.  Had Electronic Arts allowed this game to undergo another couple of months of development there could have been more in the mix.  Much like Windows 7 and Windows 8 during their prerelease development cycles, there was a deadline and TitanFall had to be good to go by then.  Respawn decided to do what the former Microsoft head of Windows Steve Sinofsky did – pull out what can’t be completed in time in favor of perfecting what must be available day-one.  It would be more convenient for gamers to get the whole package right away and it seems to be a trend from EA lately, pushing titles that aren’t complete to launch (resulting in some pretty buggy titles for months after launch).  But Respawn Entertainment is heavily invested in the success of TitanFall and have the expertise to make it grow in the future.  Since it comes just under four months after the Xbox One’s launch, TitanFall is a must-buy for any shooter fans with online access.  It really doesn’t stumble on what it delivers and offers the promise of a better tomorrow for gamers that are in it for the long-haul.  To see such a great title come out and know that it’s only going to get better is very exciting.

Grade: 9.0

Call of Duty: Ghosts – Review

Like another Fast and the Furious movie, Call of Duty is back… again.  Still hailed as the biggest selling and most played shooter franchise of all, Call of Duty has been the mainstay of the FPS genre for years after dethroning the once-great Halo.  But here was are at the end of 2013, and the biggest question everyone is asking about Ghosts is whether or not Infinity Ward have finally found the magic that they created from CoD 4: Modern Warfare. 

Let me save you some reading and give you a quick answer: NO.  This is not the new hotness that we were promised.  Ghosts had every opportunity to mix things up and offer a new height of experiences.  Instead, we’re left with a near copy of Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 2.  That’s not to say that it’s total garbage, but there’s a lot to be disappointed in – or, at the very least, bored of.  So where does one start with dissecting this now repetitive franchise?

The campaign is uninteresting most of the time.  Very seldom did I feel like I was being hooked with the story and its characters.  The apocalyptic mayhem begins so quickly with characters you know nothing about and it all just kind of becomes a blur of stuff.  A crippled American military and post-invaded country is such an awesome concept, but it never really takes off in Ghosts.  You will get a nice variety of environments to play through and the occasional mix of gun-play and gadget use, but at no point in time did I feel like I was experiencing something new and grand.  It was playing Call of Duty for the sake of playing Call of Duty.  At least there are achievements to be had. 

Then there’s the multiplayer.  In one hand, it’s the most balanced and honed Call of Duty has ever been.  It’s not as easy to be a one-man wrecking crew.  The levels are the best ever launched with the series as a whole.  There’s even new gametypes like Cranked and Blitz to offer some breath of fresh air when competing against other players.  Cranked is a team deathmatch variant that forces you to find another player to kill within 30 seconds of your first kill, or you explode.  Totally zany, but it keep people moving – so there’s less chance of getting corner-camped.  Blitz is a cool play on Search and Destroy, where instead of trying to get a bomb to a designated target, you must get yourself to a goal.  If you don’t get killed before you drop into the goal, your team scores a point.  But each team’s goal is active, so offense and defense must be played simultaneously to win out.  But even with these interesting new playlists and a more balanced game, it still falls short of a good time.

There are a few culprits to why Call of Duty misses the mark.  First, the lack of dedicated servers is simply unforgivable.  Not only were they promised for Ghosts, they are expected on all of these big multiplayer games.  In the lack of dedicated servers, your Xbox must server as the hosting console, which can create variable experiences for anyone joining your game because of issues like host location and internet speed inconsistencies.  This nearly eradicates cover-to-cover evasion tactics that are so well established in games like Gears of War or Ghost Recon, and a viable survival tactic that should be possible here but isn’t.  Infinity Ward added the lean mechanic to try and relieve this shortcoming, but it does little to create any real tactical edge in-game.  This can also lead to choppy play and a lot of anger management therapy for the competitive players.

Another almost-cool factor that ends of being nothing more than a bit gimmicky is the “dynamic map” element that IW attempts to drop into the fray.  Maps like Chasm or the Free Fall DLC map have things going on throughout the game that are meant to reshape the landscape or create chaos in some way.  What it all amounts to is a lot of shimmies and shakes.  Speaking of Free Fall – you may be better off not downloading it.  Just ask the community, who have done nothing but bash it on Xbox Live. 

There are a small list of other tweaks or additions to Call of Duty.  Some are interesting, others aren’t.  The omission of the AC-130 gunship killstreak is sad, as are some of the killstreak options.  Thus, after hours and hours of play and observation, I am helplessly torn between what is a good experience and a disappointing experience at the same time.  For every bit of refinement and balancing that Ghosts provides, there’s a frustration to counter it.  To that end, Call of Duty is just another game and lacks the greatness that could have been.  Perhaps these shortcomings can be blamed on a lack of prep time for the new next generation consoles, and the REAL Call of Duty resurgence is still to come on Ghosts 2, or whatever else comes next.  What positive mention Call of Duty does earn is a familiar and smooth experience when upgrading to the next generation consoles.  Games like Battlefield 4 require time to adjust to and learn, whereas Ghosts is pretty easy to simply pick up and play.  Just remember that there’s a host of exclusives and multi-platform titles comes to Xbox One in 2014 – among them the much-anticipated TitanFall which has been created by the original Modern Warfare creators.  That is perhaps the fine-tuned FPS experience we all hoped Ghosts would be.

SCORE: 6.5