I think it speaks volumes and is tremendously accurate as well as sums up what I think of the game.. Fans and press alike have jumped into Respawn’s technical test for Titanfall 2, which is essentially a beta for the multiplayer in everything but name. Though the original Titanfall is a cautionary tale about how console exclusivity and multiplayer-only strategies can hurt a game, nearly everyone, even critics, has been excited to see how the game would learn from its mistakes in Titanfall 2. Instead, things are not going well. In fact, I’m frankly a bit stunned to see how poorly the game is being received. Titanfall 2’s technical test is painting a picture of a very different game than both the original and what fans were expecting from a sequel. The reaction seems to be largely negative across the board, with some fans even asking for the game to be delayed in order for some of these issues to be fixed. We’ll start with the most glaring and surprising issue, a relative lack of Titans during matches. Previously, Titans were on a timer, so eventually throughout the course of a match, you’d get one automatically. You could speed this process up if you were playing well, but eventually, you’d be able to call one in regardless. Not so in Titanfall 2. Titans are now given out based on performance alone. Not killstreaks, exactly, but they are tied to how you’re doing in the match all the same, and there is no more timer. The result is that if you’re not making much of an impact in a match, you can go entire rounds without even getting one Titan, which happened frequently in games I played, and it seems to defeat the entire purpose. What exactly is Titanfallwithout Titans? Kind of a…not as a good Call of Duty? But the problems don’t end when the Titans arrive. Changes to shielding and damage make Titans far more useless than they were in the original. Titan gameplay is overall less fun than it was previously, and the pilot ground game isn’t much better. Maps have been designed to accommodate even less mobility than before, with few places to wall-run, leaving players stuck on the ground a lot more often. Additionally, Titanfall 2 has cut the original’s most popular gametype, Attrition, and now only a single mode has AI grunts in it, which are now not allied to a side, but a neutral faction anyone can shoot, and they only appear in select pockets of the map. It makes everything feel a lot more lifeless than the original, and it’s just bizarre to see the game apparently move backward in so many different ways. These are not minor issues, hence why some fans are actually calling for the game to be delayed to the spring. Maybe buffing Titans, adding back the Titan timer and Attrition and tweaking some of the levels is possible in the next two months, but it’s a tall order. The real question is why these changes were even made in the first place. Respawn seems to have learned the wrong lessons from the original Titanfall. Since that game wasn’t a blockbuster smash hit, they apparently feel like they had to change a lot about the core of the game to try and make it more attractive. But that’s not what people were asking for. All anyone really wanted from Titanfall 2 was a single player campaign, all the new maps and modes and features the original got as post-launch content, and the ability to play it on all platforms. That’s it. If there was anything that did work about the original Titanfall, it was the central core gameplay loop. Pilot freerunning, Titan fighting, map design, weapon feel, these were all big strengths of the game, but so much of it seems to have been changed for the worse, at least judging by this technical test. Photo: Respawn This is extremely disappointing, because this is a game that people have held out hope for ever since the original, that all Titanfall needed was to be a bit bigger and have a bit more time spent on it. Instead, it seems like it’s moving backward for reasons that make no sense, and if it launches like this, it won’t have a prayer of standing out against the likes of Battlefield 1 or Infinite Warfare or even existing competitors like Overwatch or Destiny. The purpose of a test like this is to get feedback about issues, and perhaps Respawn can take a lot of this to heart and roll out some big fixes before launch. But right now, this technical test is serving as sort of anti-marketing for the game. “You thought things were going to get better for the sequel? Well, think again.” There’s still time to fix this, and honestly, I’m not opposed to the idea of delaying this game into the spring, but I’m not sure if that’s necessary, depending on what changes can be implemented. But Titanfall 2 clearly still needs a lot of work, or else this sequel will do nothing to realize the potential of the original.
No you have to earn your titans. You have to do some inane call of duty nonsense of streaks in order to get your titan. It is a joke. The game is a joke and a huge slap in the face. This is going to bomb.
This Forbes article is perfection. It clearly sums up what's wrong with the game. It's not minor technical issues but rather conceptual and design decision.
Yes...agreed. The way the pilots run.......jump....wall run... and feel. The way Titans clunk walk.......and feel. The weapons don't feel anything like the first T1 Too many changes.. Too many subtractions... All the sounds have changed....everything is different. They should have left the core of the game and simply improved on it. I think where they failed is they redesigned everything again... At this point I'm so disgusted with the game I could care less if it launches on October 28th. Perhaps I'll buy a used copy a few months later for a cheaper price......but no way I'm paying or buying another Call Of Duty Game....