Titanfall 2 (Xbox One)

Titanfall 2 is the sequel to Titanfall. Just like the first game it is a fast shooter where battles are fought between agile Pilots using parkour-like movement on foot and mech-style Titans that are slower, but deal a lot of damage. Once again on many occasions players have the ability to call in, enter and exit these Titans during matches, quickly shifting between two very different types of gameplay. A lot of focus is on multiplayer matches, now supporting up to sixteen people in a single game, but entirely new is the inclusion of a full single-player campaign.

The campaign has a story with many levels that have different types of gameplay. At the same time it can be used as an introduction to the multiplayer mechanics. It includes the Pilot movement and the available guns, controlling the six different types of Titans and experimenting with combined Pilot and Titan mechanics, both when controlling them and when confronting them as enemies. In the campaign the player controls the rookie Pilot Jack Cooper who dreams of controlling a Titan. He is part of a mission on the planet Typhon used as a battlefield between the two factions that were introduced in the first game. There is the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation (IMC) and on the other side the Militia that Cooper is part of. The Militia mainly uses recycled parts and has been able to construct its own Titan, the Vanguard. Cooper allies with his former squadmate’s Titan BT-7274 to fight local creatures and the IMC. While the story is linear, many environments are open, allowing for different approaches focusing on movement, stealth and long-ranged or short-ranged weapons. There are multiple objectives and in many occasions the use of the acrobatic movement with wall jumping, wall running, platforms, a new sliding mechanic and double jumps leads to hidden areas or is used to solve environment based puzzles. Certain weapons and abilities are restricted to certain levels. There are also sections not outdoors, but inside military complexes. It is also possible to communicate and talk to the Titan. Other campaign elements introduced later on are portals and shifting between two types of realities on the fly.

Pilots carry up to two weapons along with grenades. There are six types of Titans that are all entirely new: Ion, Legion, Northstar, Ronin, Scorch, and Tone. They are divided over three classes: Atlas, Ogre and Stryder. They each have different abilities. Northstar is weaker, but can hover and launch a barrage of rockets, Legion is slow but well protected, Scorch uses a flamethrower, Tone has tracking rockets, Ronin aims to get close to do melee attacks with a katana etc. The battery is a new element. It is used to generate a shield, but as a separate component that needs to be attached manually. At the same time enemy soldiers can attempt to remove the battery to get rid of the shield right away or bring it to their own Titan.

The core multiplayer mode is still Attrition played between two teams of Pilots who can earn the points needed to call in Titans. Computer controlled Grunts are still present lending support and there is still the Epilogue segment where the defeated team attempts to escape, while the winners hunt them down to prevent the retreat. Capture the Flag returns along with Amped Hardpoint where three sectors need to be controlled. Coliseum is a new game mode. It is a duel played between two Pilots in a small dome as a simple shootout. The environments in that mode are flat so the focus is on shooting on running, even though the invisible dome walls can also be used to wall run. Bounty Hunt introduces fighting to earn a currency that can be exchanged at banks that appear on certain moments at fixed locations. It is based on risk and reward as all cash is lost when shot down, so players need to decide to exchange it right away or hold on to it until there is a safe moment when a bank reappears. As in the first game it is still possible to play matches only between Pilots or only between Titans.

Both Pilots and Titans have upgrade paths to unlock new abilities, items, weapons and customization options. There are now more rewards for a single player’s performance, rather than just taking the team effort into account. The Pilots now have access to a grappling hook to move around quickly. Other elements are cloak (returning from the first game), Tripwire of Ticks (bombs that hunt down characters), the Pulse Blade as a throwing knife that reveals the location of nearby enemies, a Holo Pilot as a decoy and the A-Wall fence-like shield. Loadouts can be defined before starting the game. Burn Cards are no longer a game element, but most of the advantages they offered, such as Map Hack to see through walls, are still part of the game. Soldiers use a smart pistol, shotguns, rifles etc. complemented with Tactical where the abilities and items are chosen.