Are you ready to drop very expensive military hardware from remarkably high heights again? Good, because Titanfall 2 will likely arrive sometime late this year or early in 2017.

That info comes from thisinterview with Titanfall 2's lead writer, Jesse Stern, who also shares some more info about the new game's inspirations:

So we are doing our best to deliver a vision of grand global colonial warfare retelling the story of the American Revolution and the American Civil War in space. We imagined the next generation of immigrants moving out to the new frontier of an inhabitable planet. Rather than taking a traditional sci-fi approach to that we wanted to look at how that would happen practically, what the ships would look like and with machines that were designed for excavation and construction , demolition and working the land, and what happens when they are turned into instruments of war.

Stern also explained that the sequel to Respawn's debut game would be about the seemingly inevitable collision of technological progress and war. He went on to say that while the game will remain "grounded and dirty and human and real," we'd also see scenes where "science meets magic." It's not clear if he means literal magic or metaphorical magical or science-so-advanced-that-it-may-as-well-be-magic magic, but hey, I'm game for any of those. Why not.

You may have heard that I like Titanfall. It's true. I like it a lot. It has mechs, and wall running, and really great skyboxes, and a really fun horde mode that went completely overlooked because it released way after the game launched. It was one of my favorite games of 2014, and if I'm being totally honest, probably my favorite first person shooter since Syndicate. So when I heard that information was starting to trickle out about the game's sequel, my ears really perked up.

That said, I've also spent a lot of time reading, watching, and playing through sci-fi stories set in American War analogues. I get it: The American Frontier and the genre of stories it inspired relate very clearly to both the American Revolution and our Civil War. But there are so many other frontiers out there that can be mined for inspiration, too. (I'd love to see a sci-fi adaptation of the Icelandic Sagas!) And whether your "frontier" inspiration is the American West, the Australian Outback, or the African Continent, I'd also love to see a game tackle the fact that very few frontiers truly are uninhabited worlds waiting to be "discovered." Maybe Titanfall 2 will take some strides in that direction.

In any case, I'm increasingly excited to climb back into my Atlas and rev up the old chain gun. Here's hoping that the game's single player campaign will help hook a solid player base and that the game's multiplayer component will make the improvements it needs to remain lively and fun for a long time.

(Disclosure: Titanfall 2 lead writer Jesse Stern has extensive credits on the CBS show NCIS. Giant Bomb is owned by CBS Interactive.)

I liked the gameplay of Titanfall a lot, but I'm not huge on playing competitive multi-player shooters. So the idea of a campaign in that cool world with that gameplay is really appealing to me!

A real good single player campaign would definitely bring me on board.

If it comes out on PS4 this time around I'll gladly check it out.

Space colonies fighting for independence, where did I hear that before, Austin?

Yesss. I really enjoyed Titanfall, and I hope they make good on its giant-robotty promise.

Give me a Giant Robot simulator game. I ain't talking mechs, I ain't talking exo suits, I'm talking about giant ass Super Sentai robots fighting giant ass kaiju in first person mode.

Titanfall is the only multiplayer game that ever just clicked with me. I don't know where else I could possibly get the opportunity to say this, and I know that it's impossibly lame but, I'm pretty incredibly average at shooters. If a kill to death ratio means anything, I have a 1.1 in Battlefield 4, usually around a 1.0 in most Call of Duty games, and pretty much a 1.0 in everything else too. Titanfall is the one game where I just got that game. I finished playing that game with a 5.4 kill to death ratio versus humans. I'll never understand it and it's not a good reason, but I need to play Titanfall 2.

Dead keen for more of Titanfall. In fact "more of Titanfall" is what the first game needed.

But will it have cool mech building/customization?

Campaign news is cool, hoping for information that they've greatly expanded on the multiplayer progression though. Plenty of time for them to do that it sounds like, and I'm sure they will, as it was one of the only real criticisms of the first game.

I don't really feel it needed singleplayer, but seems a lot of people did.

So the single player will feature a character who goes around slapping people on the back of the head?

This is the point where I yell at my newspaper for refusing to put the entertainment section on our website. I had this story last May with a source at EA, and a source at Respawn. At the time, they were also talking about doing a Spec Ops-like co-op mode, as well.

Don't mind me, just ranting at old media via new media.

I'm curious what Stern means by a "traditional sci-fi approach", because it doesn't seem like that excludes the sort of speculative technology he's talking about as an alternative. Anyway, looking forward to Titanwinter.

I wonder if they will actually call it TitanFall 2

Syndicate was straight fucking dope.

Really disgusted that they didn't disclose that they are owned by CBS and that the person the article is about has extensive ties to CBS properties.

I'm just happy this game is coming to PS4, so I can actually play this one.

Tell me more about your co-operative tactical experien... oh wait...

Full disclosure: NCIS is terrible.

The "science meets magic" claim sounds more like a confused bit of paraphrasing from the writer at Forbes (who seems to cover the general entertainment beat, focusing on movies rather than games). He also says that Titanfall 1 didn't have a single-player campaign because Respawn "only had a couple of computers", which comes across as someone who doesn't understand how modern video game development works. Respawn definitely wasn't lacking computer hardware.

I am still playing Titanfall daily. It is my favorite multiplayer game since Bad Company 2. Respawn did a terrific job with it. Given the that they've made some of the best single player campaigns I have played, I can't wait to see what they have created.

I watched John Cassavetes' SHADOWS last night. That was grounded & dirty & human & real. I dunno that the same words can be used to describe Titanfall, and I dunno that those are the words that should guide any of the development of the world of Titanfall.

@excitable_misunderstood_genius: I'm not sure if it was just added or not, but the last line does say this. To be honest though, I don't really think it matters all that much. Austin's love of Titanfall prior to working at Giant Bomb is well documented.

Man, I loved Titanfall so much. I'm interested and slightly worried about what they might change up for a sequel.

I really liked the first Titanfall, and I don't really think it needs a single player mode. But if the do the same great multiplayer and add a bunch more unlocks guns/mechs/perks. Plus a solid single player this will be a day one for me again.

I'll join the chorus of people saying they loved the first Titanfall. I certainly understand the complaints about the perceived lack of content, but everything about it just felt so good that I still ended up playing it for hundreds of hours and there were substantial updates after the initial release that added content and revised the progression.

Titanfall was great. Too bad it didn't catch on as much as Call of Duty. I would love to play the sequel.

I wanted to like Titanfall but it couldn't quite match cod for me, here's hoping they can deliver something interesting the second time around.

They really need to make the mechs more than just big dudes

The first thing I thought of while reading this was "Great, more Americanness in mainstream media. Just whats been missing".

Glad @austin_walker made a mention of it.

I knew you'd be the one to write about Titanfall 2, Austin.

How does Austin writing about Jesse Stern and Titanfall 2 help CBSi or GB out? Will people suddenly start watching NCIS, a show that already does incredible well in the ratings?

I'm all for revealing possible conflicts of interest but I don't see the connection in this one.

Are you being serious or is this some /s shit?

"...the fact that very few frontiers truly are uninhabited worlds waiting to be "discovered.""

Isn't this the opposite of a fact?

#followthemoney

I don't know what an /s is, but no, I'm joking about how hilarious that disclosure is.

Also, full disclosure, the business I work for has been compensated numerous times in the past by CBS for services rendered.

If I picked up titanfall again how disappointed will I be?

@veektarius: Austin is talking about the mythical frontiers of Earth, not, like, Pluto.

I think Austin hits every point here, including the super important one which is that Titanfall was so good goddamnit and so was that horde mode.

Despite the flawed progression system and lack of variety, Titanfall was a incredible game, so I'm really excited to see how Respawn iterates on their original design. Adding a campaign is definitely a good idea because there were some neat story ideas peppered throughout the first game.

This looks like a big step for this series.

@austin_walker I'm reasonably certain Jesse Stern is invoking Arthur C. Clarke's old axiom:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

@excitable_misunderstood_genius: This article has, since its initial publication a few hours ago, included that disclosure.

Titanfall was overlooked because the people who keep online shooters alive, tried it on Beta weekend and thought it was shit. So you never had those recurring fps players keep servers alive for more casual players to pop in.

The thing that turned most of these people away was the shit show called the Titan, and the AI trash. Basically what makes Titanfall, Titanfall. People who like to shoot don't want anything to do with Titan's, people who like Titan's only get to use them a bit then have to play a twitch shooter. No one liked Moba trash.

I'd wager heavily that the online activity for this game will drop like a ton of bricks, just like Titanfall. Everything but Death Match was a wasteland, and even that died off.

The only way adding a campaign makes sense is if they're giving up on making a popular online shooter, and just trying to sell a COD type game to Joe Blow Football Guy.

Good luck with your 2017 FPS with a campaign. While volvo rakes in the weapon skin money, and Digital Cocaine Inc steals all your moba-fps money with Overwatch.

I really like Titanfall also.

Does that mean they're going to have aliens? Something about that Stern quote makes me think "ancient precursor artifacts".