Well I got my hands on it and played a good chunk of it, leveled my guy up to the level 14 max cap and here are my takeaways from 2014's first hotly anticipated game.
 |
| I wonder if it's bigger on the inside |
- 60 frames per second. This is a big deal. I did notice a few drops when the shit hit the fan, but overall I was impressed with how it held together.
- When you are in a Titan, you feel like a badass. You can take down guys who are on foot in one well-placed shot, or just squash the puny bugs under your foot.
- When you are on foot, you can be a badass. Your anti-titan weapon is super-effective (sings PO-KE-MON) and it is beyond satisfying to jump on an enemy titan, rip off his protective covering and unload rounds until he blows up.
which can lead to...
- Nuclear Ejection! Besides being a sweet death metal band name, it's the best perk I have ever experienced. When your Titan goes into a "Doomed" state, you eject, fly up in the air and look down as your Titan becomes a FREAKING ATOMIC BOMB! I killed many an enemy with this and if the Video Game Gods are real, this makes it into the final game. Also, anyone interested in starting a death metal band?
- Traversing the levels feels fluid. When I say fluid, I mean it's the best movement flow in a First Person Shooter I have played since Brink (yeah I played that, the movement was a strong point, the rest...well...).
- It's a nice change of pace from the Battlefield and Call of Duty type game. Titanfall is like no other game out there right now. Many have tried mech battles (Mechwarrior, MechAssault and Hawken being a few that I think do it well. Especially Hawken, man I wanna play more of that).
There are a couple more positives that I took away from it, but others have a differing opinion, so I will cover those later.
I had very few negatives, because I knew this was a beta and not totally indicative of the final version. Much like a first date, there are bound to be some miscues that you hope won't affect the chances of hearing from that person again. Is the 3 day rule real?....meh, I digress.
- I don't see many of the "Burn Cards" being that useful. A "Burn Card" is earned throughout the match for doing specific things, killing grunts, winning a match, completing challenges, etc. You use these cards for a one-time boost, and I mean ONE TIME. As in; you die, that card is spent and gone. I collected A LOT over my playtime and found I barely used them. The only ones I would use were the ones that take 40 - 80 seconds off the next Titanfall. The rest were one-time weapon upgrades and passive abilities that I didn't really care for. It's a neat idea that I guess I just don't get. Like this. Though this seems like it speaks to me.
- The game really didn't look "next-gen". Again, I get it, it's a beta and if the game needed to dial back a few textures just to run at 60fps, then you can keep your textures and I will take all the frames, to go please, I have lot's of shooting and explosion-ing to do. I guess the real bummer will come in if it looks the same on all 3 platforms. It's one thing if the Xbox One version looks like the PC version (in fact, I am pretty sure that's the point) but if the Xbox 360 one looks similar if not identical, then that would be cause for questioning.
Ok, so now let's talk about 2 things that I found myself in a debate over. (1) Hockey is the greatest sport ever, just get over it, I'm right. (2) The upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie might ACTUALLY be good. (Please, please, please....don't do this to me again Megan Fox).
What...? Oh Titanfall...
 |
| BOOM goes the Titan-mite!......Dyna-fall? Screw it. |
Well, self, I feel like the 6 vs 6 format works well because if you had more than that, it can become utter chaos that the game (or your history with epilepsy) may not be able to handle. Plus it's what I call the "New Player Factor". My NPF here is that the n00b wants to come in and start feeling like he's contributing, doing well, and won't get kicked by douchbags, basically the anti-Dota. If you kill a grunt, you help your team in some way and you get the satisfaction of a kill. Battlefield games had a great NPF with awarding XP for doing, well basically anything. I feel Titanfall is action packed enough as it is and putting fodder out there to add an extra layer and a NPF can only help the game,
- What is this "Epilogue" bullshit? The kills don't even count!
Getting a little feisty now, aren't we? The Epilogue would be after a winner has won the match and the losing team has a chance to escape on an extraction shuttle while the winning team tries to stop them from said escape. You die and your game is over, no respawns in the Epilogue and no, the kills don't count, this is purely for extra XP and extra satisfaction. Why do we live our gaming life by our Kill/Death ratio? You don't see this in any other game. Heaven forbid a game tries something different and actually is rewarding. It's the equivalent of rubbing it in the losers face or getting some dignity back while earning extra XP to level up.This is a neat idea that I actually get like this.
All in all I had a lot of fun with the Titanfall beta. The game was action-packed, unique, flashy, satisfying, and I felt like a badass. I can't say that too often. This is unlike any other game out there and well worth picking up when it's released on March 11th (Xbox One and PC with Xbox 360 to follow shortly thereafter).
No comments:
Post a Comment