Titanfall 2: Welcome to the Resistance, Pilot.

Titanfall was well received when it was first released, garnering numerous awards and praise from both the industry and players alike. It was also something of a redemption story for the studios founders, proving that their decision to leave Activision was the right one. For me personally, someone who enjoys traditional FPS games and lost many an hour to the Mechwarrior series as a teenager, Titanfall was a perfect blend of FPS and mech based combat. However the lack of variety in the multiplayer did mean that I left the game shortly after reviewing it, racking up another 6 hours before I finally gave it up. With the success it garnered however I was hopeful that Respawn’s next title, whether it was Titanfall or not, would be a much more well rounded. Thankfully that hope was not misplaced.

Titanfall 2 takes place shortly after the events of its predecessor with the Militia now on the offensive after their success in segregating the IMC’s fleet at the Battle of Demeter (if you don’t quite remember which map that is, like I did, here’s a good summary). You take the role of Jack Cooper, a rifleman in the Militia who’s undertaking pilot training at the hands of veteran pilot Captain Lastimosa. When you’re sent to attack the IMC held world of Typhoon Lastimosa is struck down but with his final breath he transfers his titan, a vanguard class called BT-7274, to you. It’s now up to you and your new titan to complete the mission.

The heavily modified Source engine that was used in the original is back in Titanfall 2 with a few improvements to bring it into line with more modern engines. The engine improvements bring things like physically based rendering, a new texture system, HDR, bloom and DOF. This means that whilst the models and environments all feel about the same when you get up close to them it definitely feels like a more modern game overall. The trade offs here are most certainly in aid of ensuring a smooth, consistent framerate even in high action scenes, something which happens quite often in both the single player and multiplayer experience. If I’m honest I probably expected a bit more of a step up from Respawn graphics wise, but I can definitely understand the reasons for not going for Crysis levels of fidelity.

The core of Titanfall 2 hasn’t changed much from its predecessor, retaining all of what made it good whilst adding in more variety in both the single player and multiplayer components. There’s now double the number of mechs to choose from, numerous weapons for your pilot, a multitude of modes in the multiplayer and a fully fleshed out single player campaign. You’ll still be alternating between playing as a pilot on the ground, jumping and wall riding to your heart’s content, and the venerable titan mech. The single player campaign functions as an extended tutorial to the main game, giving you a view of all the weapons and titans so that once you jump into multi you’ll be instantly familiar with the arsenal at your disposal. However like all good multi player games these days most of the weapons are hidden behind a persistant levelling system, something you’ll have to grind out to get your weapon of choice. Overall Titanfall 2 feels like a fuller, more rounded game than its predecessor was; one that could potentially have the longevity its creators hope for.

Combat is well executed, maintaining the same levels of polish that the original Titanfall brought with it. Considering Respawn’s pedigree this is no surprise but it’s good to see them not messing with things that weren’t broken. The weapon roster has been expanded considerably although the controversial smart pistol (which honestly was my favourite) relegated to being a boost rather than a primary weapon you can choose. You’ve also got a wider choice of various augments for your weapons and pilot allowing you to really specialize in your preferred method of combat. Thankfully even though most of these things are locked behind levels (or in-game currency, which I don’t think is available for purchase) the base weapons are still highly competitve.

One of the major complaints many had for the original was that the multiplayer campaign was somewhat confusing and underdone. Indeed whilst I didn’t mind it myself, I do recognise that it was far below the standard set for your typical FPS campaign. Respawn have taken this feedback to heart and Titanfall 2’s campaign is true to its name, giving you an extensive single player experience. As I mentioned before it serves well as an introduction to Titanfall’s mechanics and weaponry, giving you a taste of what’s to come in the multiplayer experience. The highlight of it is definitely the exploration of the relationship between Titan and Pilot, something which I don’t think was really elaborated on much in the original. It might not be the deepest story around, following your typical one man army action trope, but it’s definitely more than enough to keep you motivated and pushing forward through the campaign.

The multiplayer follows the current FPS norms pretty closely with your profile, guns and titan all having separate levels attached to them. This does mean that players who’ve played for longer have an advantage over you, something that can be a little frustrating when you first start out. However the levels come with a relatively reliable pace so you shouldn’t be without a particular upgrade for too long. The in-game currency, which comes in at a slow but reliable pace, is one avenue to short circuit the levelling system and buy a particular thing that you’re after. One improvement for this system would be the use of a trial of a certain upgrade (even just a one time trial would be useful) as the cash I’ve spent has, honestly, been completely wasted. That’s on me though really, I should’ve probably looked into them a bit more before laying out my cold hard in-game currency.

Again I preferred to stick to my anti-titan build for both my pilot and titan, although the delineation between specs of titans is somewhat murky in Titanfall 2. The reasoning for this is pretty simple: titan damage and take downs charge your abilities way faster than pilot or AI kills do. Of course this means early game is a bit hit and miss, especially if the other pilots are heavily anti-pilot geared, but afterwards it usually means that I’m rarely without my titan. Of all the titans I tried the Tone seems to be the overall best, having great all round capabilities and not as many drawbacks as the rest of them seem to have. It does require you have a bit better aim than some of the others but honestly the hit boxes are so generous in Titanfall that I don’t think many would struggle with it.

Whilst the overall experience in Titanfall 2 is bug and crash free there is one irritating aspect of it that has caught me out multiple times. If you’re inside a room and you call your titan it appears that whatever determines the fall location doesn’t clip with certain walls. This means that, if you position cursor in the wrong place, you can end up spawning your titan all the way on the other side of the map. This can sometimes be the difference between getting your titan instantly and losing it to the enemy team since it’ll become active and start ploughing head first into them with the usual AI tactics. I’d much prefer a “titanfall out of range” error or something similar as it has happened often enough to be something of an issue.

Titanfall 2 is a most worthy successor, building on all the great core aspects of its predecessor whilst addressing many of the issues that the community raised. You now have a full single player campaign, one that you can actually get engrossed in rather than distracted by. The expanded multiplayer experience is much welcome and the promise to provide free DLC packs in the future will go a long way to ensuring the game doesn’t become a graveyard. Titanfall 2 is definitely one of those rare sequels that manages to markedly improve on its predecessor, no small feat given the high bar the original set. It will be very interesting to see how this game tracks in the coming months given its rather interesting release date that was smack bang between two other heavy hitting AAA titles.

Rating: 9.25/10

Titanfall 2 is available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 right now for $79 on all platforms. Game was played on the PC with 13 hours of total play time and 68% of the achievements unlocked.