Titanfall Review

Ia??d like to tell you all about a game that is very near and dear to my own heart, Titanfall.

Titanfall is a first person shooter available for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC. It was released on the Xbox One on March 11th, and was released on the 360 April 8th in 2014. Titanfall is a very different shooter in many aspects, to begin it has no single player campaign to it, relying solely on multiplayer.

It did offer an open beta on the One which I believe lead to its instant popularity, not to mention that it greatly differs from the classic Call of Duty style of shooters.

In my opinion the game play is faster paced and the action never seems to stop. It is a classic FPS in most senses, however the ability to wall run and use your jetpack to get just about anywhere on the map regardless of height make it a whole different game.

The other part that makes Titanfall so different is the ability to call in your very own mechanized can of destruction in the form of a Titan, a giant robot mech with your choice of varying main weapons with everything from a machine gun to a gun that shoots lightning and arca??s off and can knock out whole groups of grunts all in one charged shot.

Titans come in three types, the fast lightly armored Stryder, the slow but heavily armored Ogre and the middle ground Atlas. Titans also have a secondary weapon ranging from the rocket salvo to my personal favorite, the cluster missile that shoots a main missile that then breaks off into many smaller explosions that last for a short duration and are great for clearing a whole room or an enemy pilot hiding in some crevice.

Titans have an additional ability in the form of a vortex shield that can absorb bullets and rockets and hurl them back at your enemy, electric smoke that can help get those pesky pilots off your back, trying to get you out of your titan or a particle wall that can act as a shield that will absorb incoming fire while allowing you and your teammates weapons to fire through it at the same time.

Titans can easily be a game changer and you dona??t even have to pilot it if you dona??t want, you can easily set the titan to guard a certain area like a flag in CTF or a node in hardpoint domination or follow you around to just double the damage. In addition to titans there are burn cards. They give you in game boosters that can be used any time at the beginning of the match or before you re-spawn. Burn cards can range from calling in a titan to amped weapons that do more damage or even faster speed, invisibility to infinite satchel charges.

The weapons in Titanfall are fairly standard.There is a carbine, burst rifle, single shot rifle, a machine gun, two sub machine guns, two sniper rifles, a shotgun and smart pistol that can lock on to enemies automatically allowing for fast paced wall running action. All pilot loadouts have a choice of one of 3 standard side arms, and an anti titan weapon to help level the playing field when on foot.

In addition a pilot ability of either invisibility, speed boosts, or special vision to see through walls. There are two sets of other special abilities that can do anything from warping your titan in faster to combat to the ice pick that can hack enemy robots and turrets faster.

Titanfall features many different game types including classic team death match in the form of attrition, hardpoint domination, capture the flag, the very strategic last titan standing, pilot hunter, variety pack which is a mix of all of the above and the newly added marked for death where a player from each team is marked and the entire teams focus is to kill that one player while defending their mark in the process.

Some other features are a very similar prestige system called generations, after you hit level 50 you have to option to start all over again except instead of only getting a new symbol next to your name you get to hold more burn cards and get an experience booster with each generation to level up faster.

In a time where gamers are getting tired of standard shooters, Titanfall dares to think outside the box and try something new.

The game itself may not be perfect, but the graphics are amazing. The lobbies tend to time out often and the 90 second wait time in between matches is a little high, but it does give you time to set new burn cards and change your load outs or use the bathroom or stock up on snacks.

With the most recent update many of the bugs were fixed, however the game still suffers time to time with lag spikes and connection issues. With the addition of a moderately priced map pack and two others on the way it seems the fun may never stop.

In addition to new game modes, which are all free in updates to everyone not just season pass holders, Titanfall has added new challenges and burn cards specifically to boost your titan into the supreme killing machine. Overall Titanfall delivers and in a big way.

The game play never seems to get repetitive with so many possibilities and new ways to get kills. I would easily recommend this to anyone, especially those looking to break up the same old shooter routine.

With new map packs on the way and a confirmed sequel in the works we will see if Titanfall survives the test of time with the list of triple A titles being released in the near future.