Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts, have a new surprise for US! Titanfall 2! It is official, the game is scheduled for 28th of October, for PC, PS4, Xbox One. And even more! The game is available now!
Thoughts on Titanfall 2:
First, the game mode we’re playing is new so there’s no straight line comparison. I’m still not 100% sure how it works or what the best strats are, so I’m going to not comment on it specifically other than to say it’s fun and I suspect there’s a lot more depth to the mode than I’m seeing yet.
Good news first: the game is pretty. And it’s Titanfall, no question. I had zero lag issues. The more I played and unlocked the more I enjoyed it, even the limited version we’re playing. It keeps getting better.
Other stuff: Pilots feel heavier. I don’t have a good feel for pilot movement yet, so I’m going to wait a bit before deciding if movement is still the best thing about Titanfall. It would be sad if not. Stim provides a much higher speed gain and seems to last shorter in time.
Your customization is totally different but if you look past the new ways to change loadouts; you can see it still offers many of the same kits/options. For pilots at least.
Ion’s little shoulder mount squirt gun sucks. Not sure what it’s for. It’s just bad all around. Doesn’t do much Titan damage and it’s super hard to hit pilots with. Plus it seems to have a long cool down.
Titans have fixed core and weapons, then you tweak with kits similar to how you do with pilots. In this limited version the kit options aren’t all that impressive. Extra dash seems easily the best. The 20% core head start would feel better if cores were more useful. They’re basically an infrequent high damage attack move that can be LoS’d or dodged. That extra dash is life and always available. No comparison.
Rodeo is strange. Totally new mechanic. I don’t mind it. Different isn’t always bad. If there’s an irritation it’s watching pilots walk past me in my Titan with batteries all over and not putting them in me. Be a good teammate folks.
The game is really colorful. Everything feels absolutely awash with color. Compared to Tf1’s bleak stark vision it’s really different.
That gritty, dirty, edge of space toughness that Tf1 had is missing. It feels nothing like that now. It’s bright and colorful and… Takes getting used to.
Pilots have an amber glow around them so they stand out better now.
The thing I dislike most is how un-solid and un-deadly weapons feel now. The act of firing weapons in tf1 felt weighty. Guns made gun noises. Bullets made bullet noises. Impacts felt visceral. Ion has this odd energy weapon and it’s really underwhelming. Scorch lobs these thumping mortar thermite rounds but even that feels like… Maybe like hitting the enemy with a giant sparkler. It doesn’t sound/feel like it should be lethal. Ditto with some of the pilot weapons. Grenades aren’t as clear either in terms of what they’re doing or how effective they are. In fact I find that to be the case with everything, but especially grenades.
No shields… Makes me sad. I’ll get over it because it’s just a mechanic, but it’s a mechanic I owned to my advantage for years and I miss it. One of the natural consequences of no shields is a lot of mutual dooms. At least so far. Maybe this gets better when I get in a faster Titan but so far it’s a bit annoying. I’ll win a fight but be doomed shortly after. I suspect this is a learning curve thing but mutual dooms seem way more frequent.
Overall, it’s a definite buy for me and I will get lots and lots of hours out of it. Easy easy buy. Should sell really well. I can’t wait to dig in further.
Edit: I want to hit the last point a little harder. I spent a lot of time on differences between the two in a way that seems like I may be favoring tf1. First, I think Titanfall is an absolute classic. It’s just one of those games that nailed everything so well. It’s set a super high bar that is going to be hard to beat ever.
Having said that, I actually really enjoy tf2 so far. I’m finding new ways to pull together awesome kills. The rush from doing that h******** amazing thing is actually BACK for me. After so many games and so many hours in Titanfall 1 even the amazing things you can do become routine. This game has new amazing things.
I could easily have written a post this long about what this game gets right and why it’s going to be amazing. Because it will. I just chose to frame this for an audience like myself: folks who love tf1 and want to hear how they compare.
Take advantage of the tech test to get in the game and check it out, but give yourself enough time to grow, learn, and experience what they’ve crafted here. It’s really good.
