I received my code in the early morning on Saturday and I promptly rushed to my PC to redeem it and download the beta. Of course that meant that I had to first install the Origin client and then clean the vomit off my desk. I ran a few errands, took my son to his basketball game, and then came home to fire up the freshly installed beta. Being married with two kids means that I don't get the immense amount of time to play games that your typical hardcore gamer gets, but I was still able to put in quite a few hours over the next four days.
Before I get to exactly what I thought was so great about this game, I want to take some time to address a couple of opinions I've heard around the interwebs about it. First, I've heard a lot of buzz from people saying that this is a whole new take on the FPS genre and that if you hate what Call of Duty has done to the genre, that this is your excuse to come back/take a crack at a FPS. Total garbage. This game is made by the very same people who created Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and that fact shines through in every aspect of the game. This game's DNA is entirely based on CoD and everything that game has done over the last 7 years. If you are a Mechwarrior fan hoping that this is the rejuvenation of classic mech games, or simply are someone that doesn't like FPS games at all, this game will not tickle your fancy. This is a classic FPS through and through.
Now mind you, the beta only covered a portion of the classic multiplayer modes that will be included in the full game. There is not going to be a proper single-player campaign, but rather some kind of multiplayer, story-based, campaign mode, that we have seen very little about so far. That could end up being a real game-changer, or it could end up being Halo 4: Spartan Ops all over again. We'll find out soon enough.
The other point that is being made by many naysayers out there is that the game is simply Call of Duty with mechs. I even said exactly that briefly on Facebook when I had only put a few minutes into the game. I see where that sentiment is coming from, but I do feel that it is overly reductive. Especially since I think that it isn't the titans that make the game as fun as it is, but the ability to move around the map, and the AI controlled grunts that populate it. If you really break it down, Titans are a more mobile, easier to counter, kill-streak chopper that you would find in CoD games. It's all the other stuff that makes this a better, more accessible shooter.
So again, this is not some kind of new game type that will suddenly make FPS haters join the fold, but isn't just the same old rehashing of CoD that many of us have grown tired of in recent years. If you walked away from FPS games in the last few years because of the annual churn that CoD has turned into, I think that this game is what will bring you back.
What works?
So since it isn't the second coming, what is it exactly that makes me like this game so much? There are several things that this game does that I think make this game way more fun, more accessible, and have me really excited for the final launch of the game. Most of these are seemingly small additions/changes to the core CoD formula, but taken in aggregate, turn the game into something I find wonderful.
Not too long ago Respawn announced that the match size for games would be 6v6 and the internet exploded in a cloud of nerd rage. People began holding up the Battlefield games and the 32v32 matches as what a FPS should strive for as a standard; especially in this age of next-gen hardware. Respawn repeatedly said over the next few days that 6v6 is what they found worked best in their play-testing of the game and that anything above that made the game less fun to play. Since I can't play it with more than 6v6 I can't say with authority that it's true, but it sure seems right after playing the beta. 6v6 seems like a sweet spot. A couple times I was in a match that wasn't completely full and it felt a little off, but as soon as it filled up to twelve players, everything gelled and felt right. My gut tells me that adding more would probably make the map feel too crowded and kill the pace of a match.
Part of why the 6v6 match size feels so right to me is the addition of AI controlled units in the game. Now these units are NOT replacements for actual players. The AI is often dumb, always easy to kill, and you need to be damn near dead already for them to kill you. Even still, they bring so much to the game, and are probably my favorite thing that Respawn has implemented (at least that I've seen so far).
Having all these units running around the map makes the battlefield feel more alive, without making it impossible to walk around a corner and avoid getting shot in the face for more than five seconds. They also are a great strategical source if used properly. In the Attrition mode (essentially team deathmatch) teams earn points for kills. The first team to hit the score limit wins the match. Killing other players or taking out their titans earns the most points, but killing enemy grunts also earns a small amount of points. These units are often found running around in groups, so if you pay attention, you can take out several of them quite easily and help boost your team to victory. All kills also reduce the build time remaining for calling down your next titan. Kill a bunch of grunts and you'll have your titan in no time.
The other thing that I found grunts were great for is their audio cues. Friendly AI units will call out locations of enemy players if you are near them. There were many times that I was able to pick up a kill or avoid being killed simply because I heard an AI unit say that there was an enemy pilot in a window on the second floor of a building.
One thing I've always struggled with in playing FPS games is map awareness. Whenever I would play CoD I would invariably end up in a match at some point where no matter where I went on the map, someone had a better spot already picked out and would kill me in short order. A large part of that is the fact that I only have a short time to dedicate to playing while many of these players are teenagers living with mom and dad and can put in 4-5 hours a night memorizing maps. Titanfall seems to fix this issue (at least for me, and at least in the two maps that were in the beta) by adding an incredible amount of mobility to the player. The ability to wall-run and double-jump around the map opens it up so much. What looks like a dead-end alleyway is suddenly a quick way to gain access to higher ground. It's a ton of fun to run towards a building, double jump through a second story window, run down a hallway, jump out the window into a wall run on the adjacent building, and then launch yourself up onto the roof. The ability to move quickly not just laterally but also vertically adds so much to the game. Getting on top of a building and then jumping down onto an enemy titan for a rodeo kill put a smile on my face every time.
Speaking of titans, while they aren't my favorite part of the game so far, they are still a great amount of fun. There's something about watching a giant robot fall from orbit and land in front of you that makes the 10 year old boy in me nearly piss himself with joy. Jumping in one and stomping on enemies, and then going to battle with another titan is definitely exciting. Even more fun in my mind though is taking out an enemy titan while you're on foot. That definitely makes you feel like a bad-ass even if just for a few fleeting seconds.
EA - Take Notice
I really hope this game does gangbusters (of course it will). Not because I find the game to be a ton of fun (which I do), but because of what it represents being published by EA. Given EA's recent track record of releasing online games that are completely broken, shoehorning online play into games that don't need it, and clogging games so full of microtransactions and timing gates as to be nearly unplayable, I don't fault anyone for being skeptical of a big release from them.
EA took a studio seemingly full of top talent at Maxis, and appears to have pushed an always online agenda so hard that they destroyed the beloved SimCity franchise. That kind of over-involvement and interference doesn't appear to have happened here. My guess is that the kudos should go to Messrs. West and Zampella at Respawn for brokering the deal with EA in such a way as to ensure their autonomy, but EA executives would have had to sign off on that as well. Regardless of how it happened, it did happen, and the game is all the better for it. It has a cohesive and sensible design (at least in the small portion that I've seen) that doesn't feel like pieces were bolted on to serve some darker purpose.
Darker purposes like gross microtransactions. Burn cards in this game would be a prime target for some really disgusting microtransaction shenanigans, but it seems like they are steering clear of that. Cards are instead earned periodically (and seemingly rather often, at least with the way the beta is currently tuned) by completing different objectives such as killing X number of grunts, rodeoing an enemy titan, etc. The cards can then be used after you die for some kind of temporary perk that lasts only as long as your next life. Some might be a amped up weapon, increased move speed, or shaving build time off your titan. The EA that gave us the latest rendition of Dungeon Keeper on mobile would probably have made each of those cards cost $0.99 or be tied to some sort of stupid premium currency. "Pay $1.99 to build your Titan now!" Instead, they've left Respawn alone and the game doesn't have that garbage (yet; I'm an eternal skeptic, after all).
Because of all this I hope it sells ridiculous amounts and makes disgusting amounts of money for EA. Not because I want to see EA make record profits, but because I want EA, and all game companies, to make record profits by making great games in a way that isn't predatory towards gamers. Let's all hope that this game sets an example that focusing on making a quality product is the way to be successful instead of chasing the quick profit.
