Titanfall 2

I'll be totally honest, I never played the first Titanfall. I am just not the type of person who enjoys competitive online first person shooters, and to me, that seemed to be the focus for that particular game. I watched a significant amount of it, and always thought the movement looked fantastic, along with the dynamic of alternating your play between being on-foot, and in a Titan. It also seemed interesting how they co-opted some ideas from genres like MOBAs, but contextualized it in a way that makes sense within an online FPS. But, again, to me - the kind of guy who prefers his FPS games to have a focus on campaigns - it wasn't enough to pull me in. So what is it about Titanfall 2 that grabbed me, and wouldn't let go?

I know the rule is to never start a show with the showstopper, but this needs to be said upfront: Titanfall 2 may have the best FPS campaign I've played since Half Life 2. That isn't something I say without a certain amount of weight, considering the original Half Life was my favourite game until I played through HL2's campaign in a single sitting back in 2004. The reason those games resonated so deeply with me was because it was clear that they changed things. That's a vague statement; but there is an observable difference between how shooters (and, one could argue, games as a whole) were designed & executed before Half Life, and how they were after. That goes doubly for HL2, which introduced the extraordinarily powerful Source Engine, and its fantastic implementation of physics. Those games innovated, and they raised our collective standards. I am willing to say that the campaign created by Respawn Entertainment for Titanfall 2 has become a new standard.

There are so many positive things I can say about Titanfall 2, but the core of which has to be how it feels. There is something about the game which simply feels "right." The way you gain momentum when running, the way your Titan feels like it is actually giant and has real weight, running across walls and double jumping your way across huge gaps... Everything about Titanfall 2 feels amazing. I can't stress that enough, the act of playing the game feels satisfying - and that carries across the entire experience, whether you're interested in it for the campaign or the multiplayer.

So what is it about the campaign that leaves me so rapturous? You can tell a lot of care and love went into every aspect of the experience. The characters feel human, the writing is a combination of funny and charming, the gameplay pacing is perfect, the scenarios are unique and varied, and most importantly, it holds your attention from beginning to end. They were willing to take risks, and do things that other developers would likely find too "out there." There is an entire section of the game which I would call akin to Portal, or the latter stages of Half Life 2. There are scenes where you are part of an army of Titans fighting off another army of Titans, and its scale feels palpable. BT is also, easily, the greatest robot character in a game (sorry Dog).

I want to avoid spoilers, but I cannot stress this enough: The campaign for Titanfall 2 is a gamechanger, and I cannot wait to see what Respawn does next. I hope that other developers take inspiration from the successes of this campaign, and are more willing to provide more thoroughly realized single player experiences!

I tend to err on the side of providing more details than less in my reviews; but I think I would like for this review to be a short, concise one. I am very passionate about the single player campaign of Titanfall 2, and would have a difficult time being much clearer without including spoilers. Yes, the Loadouts are great, and I could detail all of the intermingling systems in the game which complement the entire experience; but I feel much better saying this: You need to play Titanfall 2.