Titanfall, one of 2014’s biggest titles, has launched in the UK & Europe. The amount of hype surrounding Titanfall can only be described as ridiculous. It has to be one of the most anticipated launches in several years. No pressure then!
A brief look into the ancestry of the developer, Respawn Entertainment, quickly suggests that there is a serious pedigree at hand. This isn’t Titanfall creator Vince Zampella’s first rodeo. Mr Zampella did of course co-create Call of Duty as we know it today, before someone called someone a nasty name shortly after Modern Warfare 2 and everything went to shit.
Here we are, nearly half a decade later and we get to pick apart Zampella’s latest creation, the most anticipated Xbox One game of the year with 80 awards being dished out, before it was even finished…never really understood that!
If you’ve followed any of our other reviews, you’ll know that at UGP, we have a system for reviewing games. We believe that there are three key elements to make a game which if combined correctly, create a dynamite experience. These elements are the engine (visuals & how it plays), the scope (story, content & lifespan) and the effect (is it fun, does it keep you coming back for more?).
THE ENGINE
Titanfall is very nice game to look at. While not mind blowing visually, it certainly does feel like a nice place to be once you’ve got into a match. It’s difficult to appreciate the detailed artwork that’s gone into the Titans because if you’re close enough to see it, you sure aren’t going to hanging around long enough to actually appreciate it. And that’s really how Titanfall plays, it’s very smooth but very very fast. Absolute chaos in fact. I like it, and the game does it well. There’s no bugs or glitches, random getting stuck, tearing of the map…it actually works. A shock in this era of games being released flat out broken I know! The controls are intuitive and very familiar, standard FPS stuff really. If you’re able to master the double-jump and wall running element of Titanfall, while not new it is nice to see, you’ll find that you can move about very very quickly, covering large spans in a short time. You do get rewarded for timing your jumps and runs and you can get a real flow going. Don’t and you’ll feel like you’re trying to run around on a bouncy castle.
With regard to balance, the weapons are very nicely balanced, the limited number of them, and there’s no obvious over powered strategy or loadout. There is no strategy to Titanfall to be fair so that’s not going to be an issue. My only gripe is the accuracy of Titan weaponry. If you’re spotted by a Titan as a pilot, you’ve had it. The weapons are so accurate, and cover so sparse, you’re unlikely to get away. It would be nice to see Titan weaponry be a bit less accurate, it’s not like the primary target, a Titan, is small and difficult to hit!
THE SCOPE
In terms of storyline, they might as well have not bothered. The campaign is next to non-existent and when you are playing it, you don’t even notice it. The campaign in Titanfall consists of 9 mission for each of the two factions, the IMC and the Militia. These missions are basically just multiplayer game with some predictable audio overlayed at intervals during gameplay to make you think you’re fighting for a cause. The cutscenes between missions honestly just get in the way. There’s no depth to the story and it certainly doesn’t leave you wanting to know more and wishing it went on. The only reason anyone would want to do the campaign is to unlock the two additional Titans that you are awarded for doing (doesn’t matter if you win or lose) the 18 missions, which takes about 2 hours incidentally!
The lack of depth and scope to the storyline is a good marker for the rest of Titanfall, read on and see what I mean.
I’ve played Titanfall for about 6 hours over the 3 days since release before writing this. It’s not challenging at all. Many other reviewers are seeing this as a positive, that beginners can jump in and survive more than 30 seconds before being annihilated. Well, that’s not a good thing in my book. Honestly, if I’d known this game didn’t really expand on the BETA, with which I was bored after 2 days, I wouldn’t have bothered looking at this. Titanfall multiplayer, which is all there really is to this game, is a lot of fun. For a few hours. But, the complete lack of strategy and objectives or goals means that once you’ve unlocked most of the things to unlock, of which there’s just 31, what do you do? Take the RC-101 rifle you get at the start. There’s 2 attachments for it…2!!!! There is such scope available to make something awesome surrounding weapons, it’s the future and there’s fuck off great big mechs storming about the place. Why can’t we have a Dead Space style weapon builder? If there was, this game would have a lifespan that extended past 6 hours. What do we do in multiplayer games other than unlock things and build classes? There’s none of that in this. 5 hours of gameplay and I’ve unlocked all but 5 things in the game. It’s poor, very poor.
THE EFFECT
The effect Titanfall has on me is one of massive disappointment, unrealised potential and boredom. The maps are very linear due to the need to allow for Titans and the lack of content in Titanfall is such a shame. As I’ve already mentioned, less than a day’s solid gameplay and you’ll have done everything there is to do. Battlefield 4 is a game where strategy and tactics require mastering, plus a shed load of stuff to unlock. Call of Duty: Ghosts, despite its faults, has clans, squads, and killstreaks. These things keep me entertained, and I’m not alone in my thoughts. Playing with a buddy of mine on Titanfall and after 1 day we both concluded that we’d probably only play this for a few days. He’s ok with that, he’s go a disc to sell. I on the other hand, have spanked £55.00. Fifty five bloody quid on this is not worth the money!
Titanfall was an immense amount of fun for a few hours but, as I realised this is as good as it gets, it got stale really quickly. There’s no progression, I’m at level 30 at the moment. The last unlock is level 48 or something close. I’m not sure what I’m meant to do after that? The 5 game modes certainly aren’t going to keep me interested. Particularly when two of them are just bits of attrition on there own.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, Titanfall is a good game technically. It’s built very well, works well, looks good and the gameplay is nice but…there’s just no meat to it. I get the impression that they did all the tricky technical stuff. The engine, the graphics, the controls and software to build the models and simply ran out of time. There’s potential for so much more. The Titans could come with so many more customisation options, the weapons are limited and the attachments for them are next to non-existent. We’re in the future, there’s no limit on what can be done. Where are the killstreaks? It’s perfect for that. But no, all we get is a nice little voice in our ear telling us it’s an impressive streak. I’m sorry but I need a bit more than that to keep me entertained.
Final verdict is this. Technically very very nice but a very lacklustre game. The lack of content and the potential to make a completely engrossing game is a massive massive let down. Yes there’s DLC coming, but it’ll cost £20 and it’s only for 3 map packs. Doesn’t really add to anything. It’s not worth £50. Wait and pick it up for £20 when you need something for a weekend. Due to it’s complete lack of depth and the fact I’m done with it after just a few hours play time, I’m going to give Titanfall 7.5 out of 10.
HOW INDULGENT IS THE GAME?
It all starts on a boat sailing to Japan – a young and fresh faced Lara Croft is with friends on a somewhat ‘gap year-esqe’ archaeological trip. This being a Lara Croft title, lets just say the boat doesn’t quite arrive at it’s intended destination. In fact, it sinks. Poor Lara, washes up on a remote island with her buddies. The island is inhabited, they soon discover, by tribal psychos and hordes of killer animals. The premise of the game, without giving too much away, is an introduction to Lara, before fame and fortune, and how she became the skilled tomb raider she later becomes. This is a brutal game – Lara starts the game in agony and it continues to get worse for the girl. Her survival skills – and yours as the game player – are tested to extreme limits. This is a dark period in Lara’s life and as such, the storyline is a continuous survival centric affair. The peaks, the rapids, the wolves and upgrading equipment all make this ‘survival’ theme so pressing and yet so fulfilling. For fans of Lara Croft, this storyline will not disappoint.
HOW INDULGENT IS THE GAME?
For those who have been living a hermetic lifestyle, Skylanders Swap Force is the next incarnation of the Skylanders franchise. The game is a platform video gamer, published by Activision. It is the third in the series of Skylander titles. It’s pretty easy – you use a Swap Force Portal (a USB device) to swap figures. Once you place your plastic figure on the portal they come alive on screen. Each figure is unique and has different abilities and attributes. However, what is different with Swap Force is that each figure can be split in half. You can change top and bottom halves on a figure to strengthen their skill base. There are sixteen characters – however you can use older games figures as well.
MachineGames have done away with dimension jumping where you were attacked by angry blow fish and everyone’s eyed glowed. They have done away with weird crystals that not even Jesse or Walter would consider cooking up because of the absurd powers they gave you. Granted, Nazi robot dogs and a Nazi empire that covers the world is also a stretch but, what makes this Wolfenstein so enjoyable is the focus on telling a good solid adventure story, throwing in great gameplay mechanics and puzzles with a challenging AI system, something that lacked in the previous title.
For a game that came on four discs (no, really) the graphics are good. No that is a lie, the graphics are incredible. All the set-pieces have been lovingly crafted for your destruction and they never feel half done or over-crowded. If you are a stickler for frame rates and high definition explosions, then this is also your kind of game.
Looking at the unit, it’s not the flashiest or most trendy game recorder on the market but it does sit nicely next to whatever it is you’ve got it plugged in to, in my case, an Xbox One. The recorder is a much smaller unit than the likes of the Hauppauge or Elgato counterparts, probably about a quarter of the size, but then…the best things come in small packages! There’s nothing really to write home about when it comes to the aesthetics, the Game Recorder HD is finished in gloss black plastic, the type that just loves to show off fingerprints and smudges. Put that aside, the controls, all three of them, are simple. The two buttons to control recording input type and whether you’re wanting 720p or 1080p HD recording are on the top and a nice big “Record” button on the front.
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In an attempt to sex-up the gameplay, Activision and co have created a new type of gameplay format. This is called Squads mode. There is still the single player mode and the Multiplayer mode. However, Squads has been debated as the main ‘killer’ reason for the gameplay’s successes. Or in my opinion lack of success. The challenging nature of CoD is stymied by this title. It ends way too soon. The online multiplayer and squads don’t really offer anything different. It all seems like Activision and co are now simply in ‘launch mode’. They’re counting down to the next November launch and don’t really care about the nitty gritty of gameplay. Modern Warfare 1 and 2 really changed the dynamic, Black Ops 1 changed the aspect of gameplay. However, Ghosts fails to really change anything. The lack of a storyline and a short campaign mode really means the title has a stymied gameplay. The lack of a challenge really focuses the title’s failure to define itself in a better context.