Entry into the Beta was initially meant to be controlled, but logistical errors quickly saw the price of entry change to "an Xbox One." Of course, I've yet to part with the money required to own any next (now "current") gen console, and those of us on PC were still subject to the draw.
My brother was lucky enough to be selected for the beta, and I was lucky enough to be the nearest person with a computer that could handle it. Titanfall is the first game I've seen that requires a 64-bit operating system, though any of us with the technical understanding of what that means knew it was only a matter of time. He and I entered in to a fairly predictable agreement, splitting play time between us.
We sunk a little over 10 hours into the beta, and I'm sure the lion's share of it was mine. This is highly unusual for me; I've never been one for multi-player shooters. The only purely competitive game I've spent any real time in it League of Legends, and even other members of the MOBA arena weren't enough to hold my attention. In addition, betas don't generally sell me on games I wasn't planning on purchasing to begin with.
Titanfall is another matter entirely.
There are innumerable reasons this is so, but perhaps I can contain the concept in a single, PR-ready word, it is "dynamic." Titanfall is constantly changing, and constantly in motion.
The eponymous Titans completely change the motivations of the player. As a Pilot (a player yet to call in their Titan), the raw combat is somewhat analogous to CoD, in an "iron-sights, low-amount-of-regenerative-health" kind of way. However, entering the Titans grants shields, hard-kickback weapons, and devastating melee, and is more reminiscent of something like Halo. What were once multi-storey buildings become chest-high walls, and though they grant you cover from other Titan fire, they serve as warrens into which the hopelessly out-gunned enemy Pilots can escape. Though Titans do move faster than Pilots, the new scale of the battlefield makes them feel slow and lumbering.
Scale is a very important word when considering Titans. Entering one suddenly makes you ten metres tall, and everything shrinks to insignificance except for enemy Titans. All you see is the handful of other machines on the battlefield, and they take all your attention. Robots rarely engage anything but other robots, and this tunnel-vision is what gives unmounted Pilots a fighting chance.
Almost overlooked in comparison to the Mecha-Godzilla is the "parkour" style movement of the Pilots. The advantages of this preternatural mobility are myriad, and to enter a Titan is to forsake it. Titans are incapable of even jumping, meaning that a Pilot can potentially escape one by vaulting over a relatively short wall. Jumping atop an enemy Titan allows you to fire your pitiful firearm directly into the reactor of the beast, causing severe damage if you manage to survive long enough. If you can't risk a "rodeo" attack, firing heavy weapons from foxholes is enough to tip a Titan duel in your team's favour. After the novelty of Leeroying my robot into the heart of battle wore off, I rarely boarded my Titan, instead preferring to remain a kind of Kaiju slaying Ninja.
As though Matrix-level acrobatics and giant robots wasn't enough, every map is populated with AI "grunts" and "stalker," filling a function similar to creeps in MOBAs. Killing these infantry units grants points that contribute towards victory. They're not very threatening to players, and so are mostly ignored, but can tip the tide of a close match if players farm them. They also add a great deal of atmosphere to the fight, desperately shouting when they spot an enemy Titan bearing down on them.
Game types further differentiate the abilities of Pilots and Titans. Other than deathmatch-analogues, the only game type offered was "Hardpoint," a fairly straightforward capture-point scenario. Of the three points, two are only reachable as Pilots. The third, though Titan-accessible, left the machine little room to move, and left it vulnerable to ambushes. This forces players endowed with their God-Devices to regularly disembark, constantly altering the style of play. This was true of the two maps offered in the beta, and I imagine we'll see similar set-ups in those yet to come.
A common criticism levelled against the game is the small player count per match. The game is set for 6v6, and many people lamented that this wasn't higher. Though it does sound like a strange number without context, after playing I can say with great certainty that this is the absolute perfect amount. It works when every player is a Pilot, when every player is a Titan, and every combination in between. Every element of the maps, movement and weapons seems built around this number of players, and scaling up would throw out this fine balancing act. In a game that moves this quickly, and has this much going on, six is definitely enough.
The ultimate appeal, I think, is in variety. In CoD, if the other player is better at CoD than you, you have a fairly miserable nine minutes ahead of you. In Titanfall, you just have to wait until someone (ideally you) gets a Titan, and then The Game Has Changed. Instead of engaging the enemy Pilots directly, you can farm infantry. If you're miserable behind the controls of your War Beast, you can set it to AI mode, and slay your enemies as God intended. All of this is compounded by Burn Cards, short-term buffs that grant you different weapons, perks or special abilities. This variety makes every match engaging, and allows players to utilise their own strengths.
It's hardly a remarkable opinion, but I think that Titanfall is an impressive game. I plan to purchase it the moment I have enough people to build my own team, and eagerly await my opportunity to Fall more Titans. It's clearly a game made with a great deal of polish and enthusiasm, and easily worth the price of admission.
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