Review
Played on: Xbox One XReleased: 2016
Titanfall was one of the first titles I bought for my Xbox One, back in 2014. Much to my surprise, it brought back love for multiplayer shooters. You can read my positive review here.
Fast forward, to playing a multiplayer beta of Titanfall 2 in late 2016 and my excitement for a sequel soured. So much, in fact, I ended up playing it early this year instead. Boy, was I wrong about the beta impression and I really should have given the sequel a second chance much earlier. It's just fantastic.
There's a part of me that's glad I waited, I got to play this in a sweet upgraded form on my Xbox One X. Going for a ridiculously low price, like most Electronic Arts sales do, I purchased TF2 and dug into the singleplayer only, initially.
As you may recall, many people were disappointed in TF1 for the lack of a singleplayer, it was multiplayer only. While this is fine, it never claimed to be anything else, the amount of time put into the game's world and the design of it, kinda made it beg for a singleplayer. Luckily, TF2 offers just this, and not just a quick and generic singleplayer. No, it's generally a incredibly entertaining and one of the best shooter singleplayer games made!
There's a part of me that's glad I waited, I got to play this in a sweet upgraded form on my Xbox One X. Going for a ridiculously low price, like most Electronic Arts sales do, I purchased TF2 and dug into the singleplayer only, initially.
As you may recall, many people were disappointed in TF1 for the lack of a singleplayer, it was multiplayer only. While this is fine, it never claimed to be anything else, the amount of time put into the game's world and the design of it, kinda made it beg for a singleplayer. Luckily, TF2 offers just this, and not just a quick and generic singleplayer. No, it's generally a incredibly entertaining and one of the best shooter singleplayer games made!
Let's get armoured up for a closer look!
TF2's campaign eases you into the way Titans work, there's even a fair amount of playing on foot first. This allows the player to become acquainted to the super fast movement of the pilot. As a pilot, you can wallrun, take huge jumps and keep yourself airborne by parkouring around the environments. The story then puts you into a Titan, a huge armoured robot, and learns you the basics of controlling it.
It's a great way to get familiar with both the on-foot and robot parts, in an engaging and gradual manner. You visit everything from lush jungles, with dangerous wildlife, to high-tech factories and abandoned cities. The locations, and tasks along the way, are consistently varied. Combat shifts from small enemy engagements, to huge, full-on battles.
It's a great way to get familiar with both the on-foot and robot parts, in an engaging and gradual manner. You visit everything from lush jungles, with dangerous wildlife, to high-tech factories and abandoned cities. The locations, and tasks along the way, are consistently varied. Combat shifts from small enemy engagements, to huge, full-on battles.
It's a hectic, visceral overwhelming and fantastic campaign journey, with lot of new ideas and breathtaking moments. They even managed to make each main enemy pilot into a cool boss fight, I looked forward to fighting each one!
When I'd finished the sweet singleplayer campaign, it's approximately 7-8 hours long, I decided to at least give the enemy A.I. wave mode in multiplayer, named "Frontier Defense", a go. It was a great addition to the first game and has since been made available for TF2 too.
When I'd finished the sweet singleplayer campaign, it's approximately 7-8 hours long, I decided to at least give the enemy A.I. wave mode in multiplayer, named "Frontier Defense", a go. It was a great addition to the first game and has since been made available for TF2 too.
In fact, I'd recommend new players to begin their multiplayer journey here, it's easier getting used to hwo the mechanics work, with in increasingly difficult waves against A.I. and the company of real player teammates helping out. As I played Frontier Defense, it dawned on me, how much I truly missed playing TF1 online.
So, I decided to test out the classic multiplayer modes too.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that some of the annoyances from the beta had gone and the multiplayer matches were a blast, just like the first game! Gunning down either A.I. soldiers, or real player pilots, to gain sweet points towards a Titanfall is just as fun as back in 2014!
Once you get your hands on a Titan with enough points, jump in and start to wreck havoc on other enemy Titans, the franchise experience s just goes into this amazing zone of endless, mechanical, chaos of fun.
You feel like a bad-ass Transformer, just gunning huge weapons away at other robots. It's a fantastic feeling and great way to shift between traditional first person shooting and something entirely different, in one single online experience. The huge maps work so well on multiple levels too, there are small and narrow spaces for pilots to roam on-foot, while there's huge open landscapes for the Titans to battle out in.
Visually, Titanfall 2 is beautiful. I'm especially weak for the combination of stylish, minimalist buildings in white, combined with a orange and purple sunset and natural elements like trees and grassy fields. Everything runs at a super high resolution and rock solid 60fps on my Xbox One X too. It looks smooth, fast and sharp, and it plays so responsive.
Sure, TF2 doesn't quite reach the small detail up close, compared to a Call of Duty for instance, but it's more comparable to Battlefield games anyhow. It aims to make gameplay fluid and boasts a futuristic artstyle that works perfectly with the balance between large levels and the amount of moving robots, enemies and pilots.
You feel like a bad-ass Transformer, just gunning huge weapons away at other robots. It's a fantastic feeling and great way to shift between traditional first person shooting and something entirely different, in one single online experience. The huge maps work so well on multiple levels too, there are small and narrow spaces for pilots to roam on-foot, while there's huge open landscapes for the Titans to battle out in.
Visually, Titanfall 2 is beautiful. I'm especially weak for the combination of stylish, minimalist buildings in white, combined with a orange and purple sunset and natural elements like trees and grassy fields. Everything runs at a super high resolution and rock solid 60fps on my Xbox One X too. It looks smooth, fast and sharp, and it plays so responsive.
Sure, TF2 doesn't quite reach the small detail up close, compared to a Call of Duty for instance, but it's more comparable to Battlefield games anyhow. It aims to make gameplay fluid and boasts a futuristic artstyle that works perfectly with the balance between large levels and the amount of moving robots, enemies and pilots.
You'll be blown away by great visuals all through the campaign and even in multiplayer, it looks way better than lots of the competition. Thumbs up for a field of view slider too, letting me get a wider view of the action!
It's hard to pick out anything specifically bad in TF2, it's basically TF1 with more of everything. Prettier than before and just faster. There are far more Titans and pilot setups to choose from too.
If there's only nitpicking to be made, I'd like to mention that it could have tried more new ideas out, as it sometimes feels so close to TF1 it's like just a graphically upgraded version in multiplayer. The singleplayer campaign could have been a couple of hours longer too, sweet but short in other words, and please make it coop! I would have loved wrecking hell in coop singleplayer with a friend!
Titanfall 2 is for those seeking something different to the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises. Considering the combination of single and multiplayer in TF2, versus TF1, it's clearly the best game to start for beginners of the franchise.
What to rate such a game then? It's better than the first in every way, which I also gave a five star rating, but the existence of the first game keeps this second outing on the same rating, even though it's better. But man, is that a strong five star rating! Go play it!
Titanfall 2 is for those seeking something different to the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises. Considering the combination of single and multiplayer in TF2, versus TF1, it's clearly the best game to start for beginners of the franchise.
What to rate such a game then? It's better than the first in every way, which I also gave a five star rating, but the existence of the first game keeps this second outing on the same rating, even though it's better. But man, is that a strong five star rating! Go play it!
