While preparing for the coming downpour of E3 information, Brandon and I had a chance to get some hands-on time with an early build of Titanfall 2. Long story short, the game looked and ran great, and the gun-play has never been sharper.
To add more detail, we had a chance to play a single multiplayer match against some other early attendees. The game type was objective focused, and put both teams up against groups of grunts and AI-controlled Titans as objectives, as well as the other team of course.
The gameplay itself was fast-paced, but not quite twitchy, which I personally could really get behind. The parkour was really well controlled, and it felt natural – at least to the point where I always felt like I knew where I was going and how the controls would respond.
The mobility played a huge part in the game as expected, and the verticality – which is usually a good solid advantage for whoever has it) seemed to almost not matter in many firefights; Probably because it’s so easy to just grapple up to anywhere to make the ground equal in a matter of seconds.
During the one match I played, we had a few loadouts to choose from; I went with the typical soldier with an assault rifle and grenades, just to play it safe.
There were also two Titans to choose from – a fire-based titan that utilized what was essentially a napalm launcher and other fire related abilities. The second was more energy focused, that needed you to do well with energy management, but packed a hell of a punch.
The match was over fairly quickly, only lasting maybe 6 or 7 minutes. The scores of the game increased with every kill, but the match was practically decided by the one who claimed the first Titan bounty, which certainly made the game feel far more objective based than just set on kills.
Although the amount of points from the Titan bounty was huge, it wasn’t enough to end the game outright. In fact, there was a second Titan bounty that entered the game, but we managed to finish off the point threshold just before it was captured.
Overall, I think that Titanfall 2 is headed in the right direction. The movement is smooth, and a huge draw for the game. And, of course, Titan combat is huge and you definitely feel like you’re more dangerous in them. But there’s still no feeling quite as fantastic as annihilating a Titan from the outside as a Pilot.
Titanfall 2 is currently set for an October 28th release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
