Review:
#titanfallthatisall
No kidding, believe the hype.
It is a rare moment in our gaming history that a game comes along and grabs center stage completely, demanding attention. We have seen it with Quake 3, the venerable Starcraft, the once ubiquitous Battlefield and the indomitable Dota.
In 2014, such a title is about to be unleashed on the masses yet again. TitanFall.
How can we know for sure? The good people at Respawn Entertainment were kind enough to allow us to play the Beta. Providing a first hand preview of the next generation, competitive multiplayer game.
It did not dissappoint. The experience was surreal. It left many of our members in a stupor, suffering from a TitanFall Tabanca as they await the second coming on March 11th 2014, the official release date.
The developers out did themselves and an ever increasing list of Awards (75 at my last count) from all corners of the gaming industry confirms our sentiment. This is the future.
Tight gameplay mechanics, fluid movement, intuitive controls and most of all...fun. That is a recurring theme you will hear from gamers who played the beta. It was an absolute blast.
Screen shots were posted, videos recorded and it generated a buzz of constant chatter on our various communication platforms. Inspiring action and activity across the association like wildfire.
Uniting gamers in a common warcry like neverbefore....#titanfallthatisall
If you did not notice, this is a multiplayer only title. Don't let that and the word competitive fool you. It is still very accessible. They took a page out of DOTA and included AI grunts that populate the map and provide easy fodder for less skilled players.
There is comm chatter from the AI that keeps you abreast of the situation and advises on the next course of action. Very helpful if your human team mates are not being particularly vocal in guiding you on.
Also, everyone is rewarded with a Titan
That is right. After about two minutes of regular run and gun gameplay, you are rewarded with your very own mechanized machine of death, aka a Titan. The combination of traditional first person shooter action with mech combat is a winner. The maps we played were cleverly designed to allow both to exist in the same space. Allowing enough freedom for the lumbering Titans to roam and dish out damage while still providing sufficient cover for pilots to wall run and double jump to safety.
Verticality is dominant. You will soon realize that being on the ground level as a pilot is counter productive. Best left to the AI grunts. Pilots are extremely mobile and due to the defacto jumpjet, can scale pretty much any obstacle with parkour like antics. It is very liberating and stronly advised as the Titan's, for all their power, cannot take to the high ground. Grabbing some sky is the best way to prevent yourself coming under foot of one.
There is an elegant simplicity about TitanFall. Everything just works. No need for a series of complex key presses nor extraordinary skill to achieve spectacular feats. The game is very forgiving and exceedingly generous in this regard. Still, beneath that simplicity is a complex game of "rock, paper, scissors" that will open up a lot of deep strategic options for veterans.
A minute to learn, a lifetime to master.
For example, to perform a finishing move on the enemy titan, you just have to land a melee attack while it is in the doomed state. One key press, that is all. The opponent could have countered by equipping his Titan with a nuclear self destruct mechanism, in which case, getting close to perform the melee attack would be suicide. Another example, to "rodeo" an enemy Titan you have only to jump and land on top of it. Taking you into a sequence where you bypass the shields and can destroy the mech at point blank range with your primary and secondary weapons. This in turn is countered by equipping your Titan with electric smoke which would shock the intruder to death. It is a beautiful song and dance that players can revel in as they begin to peel back layers and layers of the game.
Another area of excellence that must be mentioned is the net code. This can make or break a multiplayer title. Especially coming from our region where we depend on Microsoft Azure servers based in the United States to host our games. Poor net code can result in your shots not registering, enemies killing you around corners, rubber banding and other nefarious in-game anomalies that lead to frustration. Pleased to report that at average pings of 90 - 120ms, it was very playable with only nominal incidents of these.
In fact, we defeated many teams with US players sporting latency three times faster than ours. That is an absolutely fantastic achievement by the developers. My hats off to them.
Amazingly, being built on the Source engine (which powered Team Fortress, Half Life and Dota 2) this game does not require a super powerful computer to play. It ran smooth on even modest specs.
I tested it personally on my primary us$1500 rig and my lowly US$500 steam machine, clocking twenty two hours of game time between them both. The primary rig ran TitanFall beautifully at 1080p while the steam machine managed competently at 720p. If you prefer the console scene, our members had great things to say about the game on the Xbox One as well. Microsoft has even created a bundle which provides the game for free with the purchase of a new xbox one system.
Boom Bang
In closing, one very minor peeve, for a futuristic game...we need lasers. #titanfallthatisall
Recommendation: Buy
Rating: 10 Booms out of 10
There are many versions of the game available, see below for a list and some notes regarding them:
Xbox One TitanFall Bundle
Free Copy of TitanFall with the purchase of an XBOX One
Xbox Collectors Edition $250.00
Comes with art book and statue
PC Collectors Edition
Comes with art book and statue
PC Download (Online Game Code to Redeem in Origin)
http://amzn.to/1gKEK7TPC Instant Access (Link your Origin Account with Amazon, no key redemption required, preload)
PC DVDROM (Disc version of the game, you will need to wait for this to be shipped)
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