Standing Tall – Titanfall 2 Review

Titanfall 2 is the kind of game that only comes around once or twice a generation. It is in many ways a summation of Respawns previous game and all of their combined work on the Call of Duty franchise, while at the same time taking cues from games like Bioshock, Portal, and Half-Life 2 to end up serving up a potent and intoxicating cocktail to the player that is guaranteed to satisfy.

So, let’s start from the top. This game has a campaign and no it doesn’t have the Titanfall 1 “radio play” style story. This game has a standard single-player campaign that is structured very similarly to the standard Call of Duty style campaign that we have all become accustomed to. However, that is really where the similarities to CoD end. This game is incredibly different from anything this team has made before and is really creative and ultimately brave in the way that they structured and paced the action in this game. The pacing in this game is expertly designed. Every level in this game has a different “thing” for you to use. Some levels focus on the wall running and feature almost no combat. Other levels use items that are exclusive to that mission. I won’t go into specifics about some of the mechanics used in the later levels, but trust me. You need to see that stuff. One mission in this game is simply the most shockingly impressive missions I have ever played in a video game.

So, I will go ahead and say it now, yes Titanfall 2 is a first person shooter than has the user traversing to primarily linear levels to accomplish the goal of shooting men in their meaty faces. If that doesn’t appeal to you, I have a hard time weighing whether or not this will change your mind. But, I assure you that Titanfall 2 is one of the best iterations on this time honored shooting formula.

Multiplayer Mode

The multiplayer in Titanfall 2 is still a huge draw for this title. The game has 10 modes in it that range from classic Attrition to the new Bounty Hunt mode and a Pilots Only mode that doesn’t feature any Titan-based combat. The loadout system is much more fleshed out this time. Titanfall 2 has a ton of guns, something the original game lacked. One of the principle complaints from most players of the original game was that after the first few hours, you had already unlocked pretty much everything you would want to use. So, most of that upgrade ramp that folks love in games like Call of Duty was kind of gone. It is nice to see that the folks at Respawn didn’t just turn the crank and let another suite of multiplayer content fall out. There really seems to be a sense of pride and care taken with the different facets of this game’s multiplayer and that remains true throughout the entirety of the game.

Titanfall 2 looks totally amazing. The art direction in this game takes a lot of the universe from the original game and builds them into fleshed out worlds full of animals, plant life, and interesting politically charged set pieces. For the purposes of this review, I played through the game on the Xbox One, which is apparently the least impressive visually of the three versions. However, the PS4, PC, and Xbox One releases of Titanfall 2 all run at 60fps and look absolutely incredible on a technical level and are only bolstered in their appearance by an expertly crafted artistic universe.

I had a hard time believing that any game this generation, let alone this year, would top my appreciation of Doom. I think Titanfall 2 is incredibly special and might be my favorite shooter I have played in the last decade. You need to play this game if you have even a passing interest in shooters. The campaign goes crazy places and the multiplayer is some of the best in the world.

Overall: 5 Stars!