Titanfall

Titanfall may well be the first big, post-launch title for next-gen consoles, creating a large enough weight on its metallic shoulders as it is. Yet developer Respawn Entertainment seem to have even loftier plans for their new baby; they want to rejuvenate the stale and elitist online first-person shooter.

Respawn have already made some big decisions in the run-up to the games’ March release, most notably a six-on-six player upper limit and the complete absence of a traditional single-player campaign. It’s been more than enough to get entitled, hardcore gamers foaming at the mouth as it is, and that’s before we get onto the inclusion of a self-targeting smart gun, a generous cloaking device and those Titans themselves.

The titular mechs that Titanfall is built around are perhaps the games’ biggest pull. They are also about as exclusive as a Tesco clubcard. After no more than two minutes on the battlefield, ‘pilots’ can call in their own Titan, drastically changing the playing field for all. These machines are effectively an extra life, a novelty in the FPS genre, and a sort of mech equivalent of Mario on mushrooms. It matters little just how quickly you fuck up your Titan either as, like those mushrooms, another one will be on the way soon.

This lends the experience to cater well towards the less-skilled of players. They may still get totally ‘pwned’ or whatever, but careering inside a massive ED-209, or even ‘wall-running’ and ‘double-jumping’ with the standard pilot, will at least make the brief experience fun. And whilst the smart gun or cloaking device will not make you immune to the best sharp-shooters, it at least gives a fighting chance and, again, a fun one.

Of course, Titanfall caters to the more elite player too and perhaps its biggest concession is the verticality of the maps on offer. The incredible litheness and propulsion of the pilots means scaling great heights becomes a breeze (after some perseverance) allowing a more three-dimensional playing field than most will be used to. It’s on the crumbling rooftops you’ll find veteran pilots whilst the noobs scuttle around on open-street ground level, ripe for sniping.

It remains to be seen if Titanfall can pull off this apparent ‘open to all’ policy over the longer term, and with only online play it may still inhibit some casual players. Its design is also not the most original and levels can seem overly cluttered, especially when you look skyward to see a sky so full of spaceships it would make George Lucas blush. Yet whatever the finished game is like, Respawn are at least trying to give the first-person shooter a much needed shot in the arm. [Darren Carle]