Post written by Matt “Mr.X” Morello, Call of Duty Coach of compLexity Gaming.
March 11th, console gaming as it is will take a drastic change. This as most of you may or may not know is the release date of Titanfall, the new FPS brought to us by EA and Respawn entertainment. When I first saw the trailer at E3 I immediately knew there was potential for this game to be huge, the look, movement and idea was all next gen but could they get it to work? The beta has far and away answered that question.
For those of you unfamiliar with the game Titanfall is a FPS that blends arena style gun play with huge mech titans. In a spin on MOBAS, as a pilot you get points for killing the various types of NPC’s which speed up the build time for Titans. As a pilot, you have a few abilities to choose from (in the beta limited) and the abilities to double jump, run on walls and reach insane levels of verticality. The mechanics for all of this are extremely easy to use and balance and makes for unreal fluid gameplay. As a titan, you also select a load out , with various guns and missiles to choose from as well as abilities.Titans do crazy damage, and killing other pilots, titans and NPC’s lowers build times of your titans special abilities. In the beta, you have 1 class of Titan to choose from, the Atlas. The Atlas titan is well rounded in that he can take a medium amount of damage, move at a fairly nice speed and has a death core special ability. The death core ability once gained gives you double damage for a small period of time. Other titans confirmed for the games release are the Ogre class and the Strider class. Having played both the Ogre class can take heavy damage is good for leading rushes or locking down ones side of the map as a tank. His special ability includes an Overshield ala the Halo franchise. The Strider was my personal favorite as he’s extremely fast and agile with more boost than the other 2 mech classes. This made it easy for me to dash around the map and run circles around opposing titans and his ability is unlimited boost for a period of time where can play at Quake speeds.The game modes in the beta include Attrition, which is your standard team death match. This plays well, usually quicker games than the other game modes with a winning score cap at 250 points. Hardpoint Domination is Domination from the Call of Duty franchise. This plays great and frantic with Titans roaming the lanes and pilots gun battling over the flags in the buildings around the points. The shining game mode for me is Last Titan Standing.Last Titan Standing is a 1 life titan only game mode in which must kill all the enemy titans to win the round. This game mode has played the most intense and team oriented of the 3 with players forced to coordinate attacks and team shoot to take out titans.
So how does this change the landscape of console gaming? This is the first time someone has tried to blend the MOBA and FPS genres and it plays to perfection. I haven’t had this much fun on a game since Halo2. After playing and watching Titanfall all other games feel old. This is great for Titanfall obviously but will also force other competing franchises to step their game up, innovate and create real next gen titles. Titanfall, out of the box with some support, could easily become a valid eSports title even the flagship eSports title for the next generation. The action is always constant and mind-blowing whether its pilots amazing fluid movement, intense Titan battles or a great Hijacking. Next gen has officially arrived with Titanfall.