Beta - TitanFallby Dorian Tranquille-Day
Format previewed on PC |
Developers; Respawn entertainment
Publisher; EA Formats; Available PC, XboxOne |
Titanfall is the first game from Respawn Entertainment. Their logo is the letter "R" in Braille, because it's all about the feel of the game for them. And boy does this feel good.
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With two maps, three game types and several weapons, the Titanfall Beta was far from limited. I mostly stuck to the simple Attrition game mode. The aim of attrition is to get 250 attrition points, whereupon the Epilogue will be triggered. You gain attrition points by taking out enemy Pilots, Titans and Minions. So it's basically Titanfall's version of Team Deathmatch - there are no objectives other than to kill as many enemies as possible.
At the start of a match everyone has a four minute timer before their Titan can be called onto the battlefield and this timer goes down with each kill that you get. With Pilot kills being more valuable than Minion kills. Pilots are controlled by humans and Minions are mindless NPCs who generally just stand there and look at you. Pilots are usually a lot harder to kill and harder to locate, which is why I generally target the droves of Minions at the start of a game, to get my Titan timer down. |
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I often used the Pilot ability that allows me to see all of the enemy Minions at all times, which I find is a big help when trying to find things to shoot at. Minions put up next to no resistance and I’m not sure what I think about this. On the one hand I feel pretty good taking out a dozen enemies when I rush to the other side of the map, but on the other hand I think I’d like them to shoot back at least a bit more so that I feel like they're actually enemies and not just target-practice mannequins. I played the beta for several hours and wasn't killed once by a Minion.
My favourite weapon was the Auto Pistol, a gun that automatically locks onto several enemies at a time when they're in range, requiring that you merely pull the trigger once to get multiple kills. It's incredibly effective at taking out Minions, but makes taking down Pilots quite difficult. The Auto Pistol needs to lock on three times to a Pilot to kill them and that takes what feels like an age and basically only ever happens when the person I’m locking onto isn't looking at me - in which case I would get the kill regardless of what weapon I’m using. When I come face-to-face with an enemy Pilot I'm at a huge disadvantage with the Auto Pistol. While I can shoot it manually, it's nowhere near as effective as the other primary weapons. Overall the Auto Pistol feels very balanced and allows me to mow down Minions with minimal effort, while I struggle to take down most Pilots – which is how it should be.
My favourite weapon was the Auto Pistol, a gun that automatically locks onto several enemies at a time when they're in range, requiring that you merely pull the trigger once to get multiple kills. It's incredibly effective at taking out Minions, but makes taking down Pilots quite difficult. The Auto Pistol needs to lock on three times to a Pilot to kill them and that takes what feels like an age and basically only ever happens when the person I’m locking onto isn't looking at me - in which case I would get the kill regardless of what weapon I’m using. When I come face-to-face with an enemy Pilot I'm at a huge disadvantage with the Auto Pistol. While I can shoot it manually, it's nowhere near as effective as the other primary weapons. Overall the Auto Pistol feels very balanced and allows me to mow down Minions with minimal effort, while I struggle to take down most Pilots – which is how it should be.
Once I've taken out enough Minions I can call in my Titan and take out Pilots with ease. The Titans are surprisingly manoeuvrable, with two rechargeable speed-boosts to help you escape heavy fire or chase down an injured enemy. The Titans feel very balanced and can be taken down in a number of ways and you may not even get to spend a minute in one before it's been blown up. My favourite way to take down a Titan is jumping on top of one as a Pilot and shooting its weak spot. This is known as a rodeo and is a satisfying way of single-handedly taking down a Titan as a Pilot. Titans are also very customisable - with different weapons and abilities.
Another way of customising your experience is through the use of Burn Cards, which I used frequently to gain an advantage. There are loads of different Burn Cards that do different things. You might spawn with a special gun, spawn with a Titan or have the ability to temporarily see through walls. Burn cards can seem somewhat overpowered at first, but they only last until you die – and you die very quickly in this game. They definitely spice up the action and add a lot of variety to the game – and I've only seen a limited selection of them. One that I used frequently was the Prosthetic Legs card, which increases your running speed as a Pilot, speeding up the already fast-paced action. Coupled with setting my Pilot to run automatically (no more holding down the joystick!), I made rapid progress across the maps – especially important on the larger, more open map, Fracture.
After a round of running, jumping and shooting, the Epilogue is where the losing team attempts to escape the battlefield in a ship that comes down to collect them. The winning team are tasked with preventing this extraction by eliminating the remaining Pilots or the spaceship itself. I definitely enjoyed this feature and thought that it added to the immersion of the game and the overall experience rather than the game abruptly ending and a scoreboard popping up on-screen.
Another way of customising your experience is through the use of Burn Cards, which I used frequently to gain an advantage. There are loads of different Burn Cards that do different things. You might spawn with a special gun, spawn with a Titan or have the ability to temporarily see through walls. Burn cards can seem somewhat overpowered at first, but they only last until you die – and you die very quickly in this game. They definitely spice up the action and add a lot of variety to the game – and I've only seen a limited selection of them. One that I used frequently was the Prosthetic Legs card, which increases your running speed as a Pilot, speeding up the already fast-paced action. Coupled with setting my Pilot to run automatically (no more holding down the joystick!), I made rapid progress across the maps – especially important on the larger, more open map, Fracture.
After a round of running, jumping and shooting, the Epilogue is where the losing team attempts to escape the battlefield in a ship that comes down to collect them. The winning team are tasked with preventing this extraction by eliminating the remaining Pilots or the spaceship itself. I definitely enjoyed this feature and thought that it added to the immersion of the game and the overall experience rather than the game abruptly ending and a scoreboard popping up on-screen.
However, not everything I encountered during this beta period was positive. I don't agree with the cloak being in the game – as playing against near-invisible enemies is not what I call fun. Also, I don't see why being kicked once by someone should result in my death when I'm shooting them. The melee from behind where you twist someone's head round is completely reasonable, but kicking someone in the chest should not be a one hit kill. I encountered these two gripes at the same time quite a bit and it is incredibly frustrating being kicked in the chest by a cloaked Pilot and instantly dying. Other than that, I thought the time between games, which was about 90 seconds, was too long for an action-packed game and slowed it down too much. It was also annoying the way teams weren't mixed up between rounds. If you were on a bad team you would lose over and over or you'd have to back out and find a new lobby to be in with a chance of winning.
Overall I had a very positive experience playing the Titanfall Beta. But it's just that - a beta. I'll reserve passing a final judgement until I've played the full game. I'd have appreciated an extra week of availability though, to really sink my teeth into it. Not all of us are able to simply put their lives on hold for a few days to take advantage of a limited test like this. Playing this has certainly whet my appetite for more action because Titanfall feels fun, fluid and fresh. And it's all about the feel.
Overall I had a very positive experience playing the Titanfall Beta. But it's just that - a beta. I'll reserve passing a final judgement until I've played the full game. I'd have appreciated an extra week of availability though, to really sink my teeth into it. Not all of us are able to simply put their lives on hold for a few days to take advantage of a limited test like this. Playing this has certainly whet my appetite for more action because Titanfall feels fun, fluid and fresh. And it's all about the feel.
