Review of Titanfall 2 on the PlayStation 4

I had spent quite a number of hours on Titanfall 2 on my PS4 over the past few weeks and thought I would go ahead and formalize a review of the game for fans.  I hear that the game looks even more amazing on the PS4 Pro though I wasn’t disappointed with how it looked on the PS4 so I can’t even imagine how great it must look on the PS4.  Now I will warn readers that I typically don’t play and love first person shooter games that often, I do play Call of Duty games and Overwatch and a few others, but it is not my favorite genre and I am not very good at FPS games in general.  I will break this review of Titanfall 2 up into two sections, the first focused solely on my thoughts about the Single Player Campaign in which the original Titanfall did not have a single player campaign.  The second will focus on the multiplayer aspect of Titanfall 2.

Titanfall 2 Campaign Review

The campaign mode drops you in as a soldier hoping to become a pilot which are the rank of solders who are authorized to pair and pilot Titans.  Titans are these massive mechs that are not just dummy machines, but have a complex AI system that allow them to operate independently of the pilot and assist him.  The campaign makes great use of building the relationship with your pilot and the titan after he is paired with BT at first out of necessity to complete the mission but syncs so well with BT that he is authorized to stay as BT’s pilot throughout the campaign.  The soldier gameplay feels very much like Call of Duty Black Ops 3 to me and that is a good thing.  Wall running is in full force and the double jump with the jet pack gives you a tremendous amount of mobility.  The ability to run on walls then jump to a parallel wall and continue running lets you move around the maps quickly, there is a few excellent support abilities too like the ability to cloak for a short period of time which allows you to move around the map and reposition to a better angle, or simply get in and finish off some opponents with melee attacks unscathed.

Early Titanfall 2 Campaign Play

The levels are fast paced and make good use of your various abilities keeping you on  your toes, in particular there is a good mix of having to be the soldier and then having to pilot your titan so you are getting a fair amount of play in either mode.  The titan kits in single player give your titan a lot of variety and honestly I love the titan kits in single player, I will spoil multiplayer part a bit saying I wish you could customize your titan more in multiplayer like you could BT in single player campaign mode.  Back to the story, this is your typical soldier has to find intel on a top secret enemy weapon and stop it before it destroys worlds.  There is one level which has you jumping through time on the same level where you alternate through two different versions of the same map and this makes for an incredible experience as you can jump out of time to avoid enemy fire and appear behind them.  There is another factory building level where you have to constantly move between a construction facility and a travel through an entire complex under construction this will constantly have you shifting as the complex is rotated, where you are walking on walls, ceilings and is wonderfully disorientating at times.

Titanfall 2 Campaign Play Video 2

Titanfall 2 Campaign Play Video 3

Some parts of the campaign I found to be incredibly difficult, in the the video above against Ash I just got into a section where I was trying to catch up with my Titan who was under attack and he  he lost health so fast, dying before I could reach him, or spawning only when the boss revealed only to be under such an onslaught it was impossible for me to actually complete this part in any mode other than easy.  Another level where you are having to fight off enemies while on top of a moving plane is quite enjoyable.  The campaign was just amazing and I enjoyed it more than the Call of Duty Black Ops 3 campaign.  It did feel short in the end and does not really have any re-playability unless you want to just complete it on harder modes.  I do wish they gave a few “choices” where you can have some missions leading you one direction or another so the campaign had some better replayability or I am hoping for some more DLC that allows more campaign play because the story is great and this universe could be amazing to play in.  There is a contrast difference when I went from campaign mode to Multiplayer however and I can see a Destiny like future for Titanfall IP as it has that much potential to me.

Titanfall 2 Multiplayer Review

I was never very good in FPS games on PVP and always prefered going against AI or easier modes, so I find it reassuring that most multiplayer modes in Titanfall 2 also include AI on both teams to fight so if you suck against other live players you can at least collect points for your team by focusing on beating the easier AI.  Multiplayer has a great amount of customization for Pilot’s allowing you to choose and customize your primary and secondary weapons with mods though not as many mods as Call of Duty for guns.  I also am not sure why you would ever use a pistol in a multiplayer mode where Titans can spawn because the only chance a pilot has against Titans is to get some cover and launch a few blasts against a titan hoping you can defeat it before it defeats you.  You can however if you are lucky rodeo a Titan which is where you mount an enemy titan and rip out one of it’s batteries, this does a fair amount of health damage and actually gives your character a battery that you can use to heal your own titan in the process.

Titanfall 2 Multiplayer PVP

Bounty Hunt mode gives you varied bounties to perform during the match and you have to upload the cash at banks while avoiding being killed and losing the cash you earned while alive.  This mode and Attrition were the two most favored modes that I have played in my first week with Titanfall 2.  All players in these modes only get to play as their Pilot’s until they earn enough to call down their titan, the better you are at doing objectives, killing opponents the faster you can call down a titan and the team that calls down titans first has a huge advantage.  In multiplayer there are 6 titan configurations and they each fill a role but aren’t as versatile as pilots.  None of the titans in Multiplayer feel as powered as BT gets in single player, and you don’t have the ability to pick and choose which ability or weapon you want for each titan frame, they are locked into those primary weapon and abilities for that frame.  This was an area I would have loved to see improved, let there be a “custom” titan where you can unlock or mix/match abilities or being able to choose different titan Chassis.  The potential for creating more titan variety is appealing as there is far more customizations and unlocks for Pilots than there are for titans.  Though the game is called Titanfall you spend most of the time playing as a pilot which is fine because it does make it that much more exciting when you call down a Titan and climb into the frame.

You can also call down a titan and have it fight beside you instead of piloting it, though it is not nearly as effective of a fighter compared to when you pilot it.  It does however give you the ability to run and yank batteries out of other titans, or kill off enemy players who try to steal your batteries.  If you die your titan is still alive and fighting independent of you.  You can mount and ride on the top of team mate titans too giving you a high point advantage but typically this makes you a target for enemy rockets which are aimed at the titan anyway.

Summary

Overall I found the game Titanfall 2 to be well worth the money, the campaign alone was very engaging and worth the investment and the multiplayer was far more fun and has longer lasting appeal than Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 or Star Wars: Battlefront to me.  I have not played Call of Duty: Infinited Warfare or any more of Battlefield One than the Beta but I can tell you the controls fell great, and the way it feels getting in these massive titans is something different.  I didn’t play the original Titanfall so this may be something that feels new to me, but from what I gather Titanfall 2 did improve in every way over the original Titanfall. I would give this game a near perfect score with my only wish was them adding a little more variety for replayability in the campaign and more customization options for Titans in multiplayer.