iNTRO

I am a "hardcore" gamer playing FPS's since Wolfenstein 3D.

So far played about 2h 30m of Titanfall, mostly leading the boards with kills/points. During this time I have tried every gun, burned cards, played around with the all of the abilities, mastered my titan and found the "sneaky" pathways to the enemy's flank. Enough to rip the game apart to look at it's inner workings.

GRAPHICS and DESIGN

The aesthetics are borrowing a lot from Neill Blomkamp who made District 9 and Elysium. It's very cool but after a few hours it get's kinda depressing since almost everything is a worn metal surface. There is also very little context for this design so it feels very abstracted, but this is something I would hope exists in the final release.
I also hope the other maps in the final game have a bit more color and life to them so we get some color variation. Other then that the graphics looks great and according to several sources these textures are not final.

MOVEMENT and SITUATION AWARNESS

This game reminds me more of Quake 3 and Tribes then COD. Mainly because of the vertical fighting. But it is more driven by parkour where you combo walljumps then using jet packs which is nice.

Your situation awareness has to be on it's top game in order to get to the Top 3 / MVP. There is several ways to kill your opponents in this game and you can play it more calmly but that often results in you getting back stabbed. But I do recommend having several plans ready before jumping into the fray.

I also wish there was something that would tell you what is going on around you. Of course there is voice chat but no one uses it at least not on the PC. But then again this game is really fast paced but it would have been nice to get a "Your teammates are having problems here! WAYPOINT" when you havn't engaged in a fight in a while, mostly because you don't know where the fight is. This is less of an issue with objective based game modes.

MAPS and FLOW

I have a issue with the tight maps and "small" minimap, where buildings often obscure your view of the overall battle. And the minimap doesn't really show you the battle lines, maybe a zoom out option? This is mostly a issue during titan fights, when its pilot's only the action is too fast too care about lines.

The maps are larger then COD but they are almost too large as a pilot. You will often be suprised by players because you can wander around without finding anyone.

6V6, is it an ISSUE?

It feels like 6v6 is too much when everyone got their titans out, and too few when there is no Titans around.

Another negative part of 6v6 is if it becomes 5v6 or 4v6, because the game does not auto balance. So every player is very vital and if one of the teams have a murder machine OR a new guy, you will notice it. So if this is an issue depends on how many friends you have to play with/how many good players are on your team.

Gun PLAY

The gun control is much like COD, maybe even "worse" then I remember. It's like you are not quite sure on where your bullets are going. Of course it's much more "responsive" and easy to learn than Battlefield, but I don't feel like the weapons have any character or weight to them.

But this is not nessessarly a bad thing, since your character can move and jump around fast. I think It would have been impossible to have "more realistic recoil", maybe "heavier" sounds?

What ELSE

you can shoot the enemy AI's to get more points to get a Titan faster or hack the Spectre AI's to make them follow you around.

You can choose abilities/perks to define your playstyle. There is also cards that you "burn" which are one-use rewards. I myself find these "buffs" in FPS games really tiring, I'll rather switch that system to another ability/perk.

It feels like it's there to "plan" your gameplan, but for me you don't plan much in these games you adapt or die trying.

FUNNY THING

TotalBiscuit pointed something out that I had a hard time getting out of me. This game reminds a lot of MOBA games. You have minions (creeps) that you kill to get your titan faster, which feels weird because these minions are utterly useless. Their sole purpose is to fill out the maps and give you "points".

And maybe that is why I'm not sure how to feel about this game, is it too much dependant of these system that are not common place in FPS's?

CONCLUSION

I really hope this game turns out awesome, I mean the design direction that borrows that new realistic Sci-Fi feeling of Neill Blomkamp is pretty. But for someone who hasn't liked COD since MW2 and don't play MOBA games the core mechanics of this game/beta feels dull in the long run.

WHAT is it MISSING?

I guess I want to see more of the universe, maybe harder AI's so they actually tip the scales on the battlefield? AI vehicles? More help with situational awarness.I could throw in some more suggestions but this is a beta after all.

Why Titanfall might get good review scores from companies but bad user reviews

I know this is a touchy subject but the truth is this is a very good COD clone. If I was playing COD I would definitely jump on this train and say it's awesome!

But is this "The Return Of The Gods That Made COD4"? No I don't think so, at least if I am too judge by it's core mechanics. It does not feel very new, innovating or engaging. It's more like stuff we've seen before but with cool new clothes. I truly hope this game will turn out to be really awesome, but after trying out the core mechanics I am not especially impressed, though I truly wish I was.

But if you think this is game for you after reading this, go for it! You'll probably like it a lot.

So EA... When is Titanfield 2242 coming?