Titanfall

Last weekend I was provided a code to be on the TitanFall Open Beta. Being one of those rare titles that has an insane amount of buzz surrounding it, I raced home that night after work to get it started on the download. After an agonizing long time( my crappy ISPs fault) finally, the notification that I can power the game up and finally jump in…DENIED! Server issues. Awww well. That’s the kind of thing these tests are designed to look for right?

The next morning I jumped out of bed bright and early to get a little time in before my wife and daughter woke up. The anticipation was high…logging into server…connecting to server… JOY! It’s go time. Before getting into the online action, I was prompted to run through a tutorial which was helpful.

My first few rounds were bad…I mean, really really bad because I was admiring the graphics, playing around with the different weapons and the jumping and just looking to get a basic idea of the map layouts. Immediately it became apparent to me just just how accessible the game was to new players and veterans alike. I’ve played a lot of FPS games but in all honesty, if I was to rate myself, I’m pretty average at best for the most part but this game had me feeling pretty damn good about myself. Previously, I wondered whether the ability to call in a Titan might be associated with kill streaks but thankfully, that’s not the case. In fact, once in the game, you will be notified that there is currently a countdown (2 minutes)to when you may call in your Titan – Play better and you can cut that time down. Titan control is just as tight as controlling your combatant yet the size and weight of the Titan is easily felt without it coming off as clunky or cumbersome.

Admittedly, when I first heard about the running, super powered jumps I had concerns that the game would be full of people jumping up and down spastically in the same way they do in CoD or Halo but I was wrong. It actually works. Running through the levels and performing parkour style wall runs and jumps is seamless and feels natural. Another little thing that I noticed – NO CAMPING! Ok let me rephrase that – There’s camping going on but they ALWAYS pay for it in the end and there’s no quick scoping. It was such a refreshing breath of fresh-air to not be killed from 3/4 of the way across the map to some schmuck with a sniper rifle.

What really got me is just how engrossed I became as quickly as I did. I maxed out my level to 14 (which is what the Beta Max was), I actually tinkered a lot with my different loadouts, I learned the 2 available levels quickly,

All in all, I have to say that was some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time playing a competitive online shooter. If you’re sitting on the fence with respect to whether you should get this game, hop off. This game has the potential to being one of the best games 2014 has to offer. I absolutely loved it and can’t wait for the game’s final release.