How do you empower the FPS player that has already been handed the world and subsequently blown it to pieces with double-barrelled shotgun? This is a question that has puzzled developers for years, at a loss with where to take the genre following a decade of erratic escalation. But Respawn found the solution: by making you woefully underpowered – surrounded by towering walking battle tanks – you’re forced to find freedom and power within the act of movement itself.
The small, feeble looking runners easily tangled underfoot of a Titan or seen bounding across rooftops to escape enemy wildfire; they were the key to the whole Titanfall experience.
Thankfully, Respawn has brought the Pilots back largely uncharged for Titanfall 2. The game has an unparalleled sense of momentum to it that has a way of making you feel unstoppable. There’s a simple satisfaction to be found in chaining parkour moves together across an open space as a battle rages beneath your feet. Sweeping through an environment with a connection of wall runs, double jumps and perfectly timed slides is only made all the sweeter when it ends with a glorious enemy headshot; mastering motion, that’s the real magic of Titanfall 2.
The game is designed in such a way that you’re always moving faster when your feet are attached to a wall rather than the floor and Respawn has made it even easier to get airborne than its predecessor thanks to the introduction of a grappling hook for certain Pilot classes. Six will be in the final game – each with its own unique tactical ability – though the grapple will undoubtedly be the standout.
While the Pilots feel heavier to maneuver, with Respawn seemingly ripping out a degree of skill to make it more accessible [see: Critical Changes] the studio has made some attempt to make sure all players feel like they are making the most of their time as a Pilot – instead of standing by for Titanfall to survive. “There are a few new abilities that allow you to move around quicker; we’ve added a slide, it boosts momentum and adds to the chaining of abilities. Slide, double jump, wall run, clip and repeat the process to get around faster than ever,” Todd Alderman, Titanfall 2’s lead multiplayer designer told us, adding, “Grapple is a new tactical ability which allows you to get to specific locations directly or use your momentum to swing around corners.” Alderman undersells it, because the grapple hook is the single greatest addition to the game that we could have hoped to see. It can be attached to anything in a map and its application seems limitless. It can be released to assist with wall runs and used to gain access to higher areas of the maps without breaking your stride. You can use it to shift the momentum of a run entirely, leaving enemy players tracking your positions desperately turning heel, or you can use it to latch onto an enemy Titan from afar; repelling immediately onto its back for a quick assault will always be entertaining.
“It’s diverse,” notes Alderman. “There are a lot of ways to use it, [but the] new abilities now have counterplays. For instance, a new ordinance is the gravity star: which is this throwing star that sticks into the ground and sucks up enemies and projectiles into it. If you have grapple, then you can escape this instance before it sucks you up and inevitably kills you. So an escape mechanism, speed-boost and also a way to get vertical too.”
Titanfall 2 is fast and fun, and we didn’t exactly expect anything less from Respawn’s sequel. It’s still so impressive to see a player take on a machine again and again and walk away the victor. While Respawn has made a lot of tweaks to the core gameplay experience and upgraded the Titans’ battlefield capability, it’s while you’re flying through the air that Titanfall 2 feels completely untouchable in this year’s battle for FPS genre supremacy.
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