Titanfall Beta Video Game Review

Final Verdict - Definitely Worth Playing

So one of 2014's most anticipated games finally graced the public eye in the form of a Beta. Toted as one of the major competitors to the Call Of Duty FPS throne, its debut at E3 was heralded with much praise and admiration. A fresh new outlook on the FPS genre and its potential for growth and breaking the mold; fast forward months later to the first accessible public build of the game. Does it live up to the hype? Has it met expectations and more? Join us as we take a look at the Titanfall Beta...

Titanfall is an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts as an exclusive for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game was officially announced as Respawn's debut game at Microsoft's E3 2013 press conference, and is scheduled for release on March 11, 2014. In Titanfall, players fight in online multi-player-only matches set on a war-torn planet as mech-style Titans and their pilots. Its action is fast-paced, including abilities to run on walls and hijack mechs, and extended periods between player deaths. Respawn describes the game as bringing "scale, verticality, and story" to first-person shooter multi-player gaming, incorporating elements traditionally used in single-player campaigns. The game uses Microsoft's cloud computing services to offload non-player activity to servers and optimize the home computer for graphical performance. The game won over 60 awards at its E3 2013 reveal, including a record-breaking six E3 Critics Awards, and Best of Show from several media outlets. It also won official awards at Gamescom and the Tokyo Game Show. Many reviewers predicted Titanfall to be the next step for the first-person shooter genre.

What’s Good:

Soundtrack: As a multi-player game, Titanfall has a large number of tracks to avoid repetition. The sound ranges from your typical dubstep heavy bass line type music to to your more melodious fast paced action sequences. Each side has its own identity and its own musical sound world, this helps keep the pace new and varied no matter what team you end up playing on.

Graphics: Respawn chose to build Titanfall on the Source game engine early in their production cycle due to their developers' familiarity and its ability to maintain 60 frames per second on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. This is a very versatile and well known engine that is known for its use across multiple platforms and yields good results. The game looks especially great on PC's that can fully take advantage of the 60 FPS and hi-res textures.

Game Mechanics: The very well executed game-play design of Titanfall revolves around 3 main aspects:  "player mobility, survivability, and the merging of cinematic design with fast-paced action". All the aforementioned are seamlessly executed and integrated into the natural progression of the game.

Replay value: A fair amount of replay value exists as there are three main game-play modes: Attrition, Hardpoint, and Last Titan Standing. Essentially your typical FPS multi-player modes of Deathmatch, King Of The Hill and Last Man Standing respectively. Throw in a wide assortment of maps and you got yourself  some fun times ahead.

What’s Bad:

Story-line: There is no single player campaign. Still undecided if this is good or bad but leaning towards bad for the sake of feeling like getting an incomplete game.

Game Mechanics: Computer controlled A.I. is horrendous and most times just stands around waiting to get shot. Lack of Anti-Titan weaponry and ways for pilots to effectively fight Titans on the ground.

What Should Have Been Added:

I know the developmental team at Respawn Entertainment has their reasons for not adding a story mode to the game whether it be to focus on multi-player directly or due to the lack of man power but I feel a lot of back-story into the Titanfall universe could have been covered in an adequate story mode campaign. Also I feel like there should be a wider weapon set allowed than just a primary, a secondary, and a Titan specific weapon. Improved A.I. is also on the list of things to include as currently the computer controlled players offer little to no impact on the round proceedings except to act as cannon fodder and offset balance issues on teams.

Final Thoughts:

All in all a great game seeking to shake things up and give us a new way to play FPS games. I can definitely see the mass market appeal that will garner new comers as well as the classic Call Of Duty (CoD) play-style that may very well coax a lot of CoD players away from their copy of Ghost or whatever iteration of the franchise they are playing. Personally I had my own personal gripe with the game and how Titans feel a bit overpowered but all in all its a solid and enjoyable experience. Most times playing matches were fun and balanced until Titans came into play and that's when all hell breaks loose and Titan superiority plays a major role. For something that can be summoned every two minutes or so I really feel they should not have made the Titans so hard to fight when you are not in one. Granted you can rodeo kill a Titan but its a simple matter for someone to eject from their Titan and shoot you off the back of it before you can do any real damage. Also pro-tip side note; the Smart Pistol and Shotgun are the two most over powered weapons in the game. You're welcome...