Titanfall 2 is an incredibly old game at this point. Despite what common sense dictates, 2016 was nine years ago now, and a lot has changed since then. Games have even bigger download sizes, graphical fidelity has gone up, and quality has generally gone down. Corporate greed has gotten even worse in those years, with games like Cyberpunk 2077 bombing on release due to poor quality management. Microtransactions have become commonplace in most games, with the worst cases costing you half your wallet.
And yet, Titanfall 2 still remains one of the top shooters in history. Made by Respawn Entertainment, a studio formed after fracturing off from Infinity Ward, Titanfall 2 implements deep movement mechanics with a typical futuristic shooter setting. Another thing that sets Titanfall 2 apart from the competition is the Titans; gigantic mechs that the player can pilot on the battlefield after reaching a certain number of kills.
But before moving on to the Titans, it is imperative that we discuss the buttery-smooth movement in Titanfall 2. The game has various movement mechanics, with the two most important being sliding and wall-running. The names mean what they say on the tin; you can run on walls for a short period of time, and slide to gain a short boost in momentum. This on its own creates an incredibly engaging system, but this just scratches the surface.
By timing jumps periodically while sliding, you can conserve your momentum and rocket across the battlefield on your butt. It looks ridiculous but is also absolutely terrifying when you see a blur of a human passing by you, shedding bullets like a cat sheds hair. The movement can get even more complex from there on, but it requires a level of skill I have yet to reach.
Since movement is so snappy in this game, it sounds like it would become incredibly easy to dodge bullets. However, the guns have been tooled to work with this. By reducing recoil and bullet bloom, your shots will typically land where you’re aiming. My only knock against this game’s weapons is that there are way too few. There are only about 3-4 weapons per category which feels painfully low by modern standards. The guns also have very basic customization, only allowing two attachments and a camo. Maybe I’ve become too conditioned by Call of Duty’s frankly overwhelming arsenal and weapon customization, but this is one of the few parts of the game that feel outdated to me.
On the complete flip side of this, the game’s Titans feel like a fresh concept for the shooter industry. In the game’s menu, there are seven Titans the player can choose from. Each Titan has unique abilities and a special Core attack that requires a certain number of kills to unlock.
There is Ion, a complex medium-range laser Titan that runs off of an energy management system. Overuse an ability, and you’ll not have enough energy to use your others. All of Ion’s arsenal focuses on high-tech and lasers. You can use a Vortex Shield to capture enemy bullets and fire them back at your opponent, and your Core lets you shoot a massive beam of energy from your chest.
Tone wields an explosive rifle, and can deploy a shield. When using its targeting cloud, you can fire a barrage of heat-seeking rockets at any enemies who you have targeted. Its Core launches an even denser barrage of rockets at its opponents, shredding a Titan if they take the full brunt of the attack.
Ronin is an incredibly annoying hit-and-run melee Titan, being able to dodge and weave out of danger with its small size and phase dash ability. Very few Titans are able to effectively counter Ronin. In most games, the Ronin will end up being steadily whittled down by those it attacks until it’s dead.
Scorch is a Titan that focuses on area denial and close-range annihilation. Unlike Ronin, it is incredibly bulky, and uses fire-based attacks to shred through its opponents. It thrives in close-quarters maps, using its napalm charge to layer a floor in fire and cut off an entry point. Its melee attack is a fire shield that can both shred nearby opponents and melt incoming bullets.
Legion, a Titan I used to play very frequently, is arguably the most basic of all the Titans. It has a giant machine gun, a shield attached to said gun, and the ability to switch from long-range concentrated shooting to close-range spread-out shooting. Legion’s Core is the auto-targeting Smart Core, which is incredibly powerful. Overall, if you’re getting into Titanfall 2, I’d recommend trying out Legion first. It’s easy to learn and not too hard to master.
The Titan I’ve lately been using, Northstar, is a sniper Titan melded with an explosive powerhouse. Northstar is a glass cannon in every sense, being able to deal incredible damage at the trade-off of being one of the squishiest Titans in the game. It has about as much health as Ronin. It has a chargeable plasma rifle and a missile barrage. It has a rope trap to hold off melee opponents like Scorch or Ronin, and its core lets it unleash a massive ordinance of explosives. My main issue with Northstar is that I feel like its ability to temporarily fly up into the air contradicts its lack of health because it makes you a very easy target.
The final Titan, and one of the most popular, is Monarch. Monarch is easily the most complex of the Titans and was actually added as extra content post-launch. Monarch boils down to trying to live as long as possible. It has a stun attack and an energy-siphoning beam. The more kills the Monarch gets, the more abilities it will unlock. When a Monarch kills a Titan, it will steal its battery and gain a full extra layer of health. Monarch’s unwillingness to die makes it very annoying to fight alone.
The pilots you play as also have their own complexities, in the form of classes. One grants a grappling hook, letting you sling around the maps. The stim shot makes you regenerate faster and makes you incredibly fast. The A-Wall creates a stationary shield that you can shoot through. The phase shift ability is similar to the one that Ronin has, allowing you to temporarily shift into a state where you cannot shoot, but also cannot be shot. The cloak is a generic invisibility ability, but it is imperfect. In maps that have a more orange tint, the cloak can be seen fairly easily. The holo pilot lets you create a fake clone that will distract opponents. Lastly, the pulse blade allows you to see enemies through walls in a certain radius around the thrown blade.
The game has even more depth beyond this. However, I would highly encourage you to play the game yourself in order to find it yourself. The game has maintained an impressive level of quality for its age, and it will hold your attention for a long while. Despite how long it’s been around for, it remains a fresh and innovative title in a swamp of cash grabs and microtransactions.
