This weekend was the Titanfall closed beta. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy and I put a good few hours into it. The Beta was available for both Xbox One and PC but came with a hefty 12GB download which left some waiting hours just to play it.
The beta offered two maps, three game modes, a couple of weapons and extras from each set to give an overview of what the game has instore for us, this included pre-made classes and custom classes for both pilots and titans. The three game modes were Attrition (similar to Team Deathmatch), Dardpoint Domination and last titan standing which is a take on the popular search and destroy except each pilot spawns in a titan and there is no respawning so whoever holds the last titan wins. Each of these game modes are very fun and even after hours playing didn’t find me getting bored with them.
Titanfall combines the basics of an FPS like call of duty with mech-bots and free running, allowing the player to access every part of the map and not be limited to the ground, with wall running and extended jumping this is achieved and from what I’ve seen has meant a more free and opened experience while playing,. The game offers 6 vs 6 games with players (pilots) being partnered up with AI bots who have very weak health and seem to be there just a cannon fodder, with the maps being very open they are a great addition as it feels like you are never out of the action with finding enemy’s everywhere on the map.
Maps
The two maps offered with this beta are Angel City and Fracture. Angel City as its name boasts, has a city setting with loads of buildings for free running and close-quarter areas as well as a lot of routes of titans. Fracture is a lot more open with a good mix of mid to long range engagement areas, the map seems to have suffered from an earthquake which has left the map in its state of destruction, this map works really well with titans to having good open places for engagements as well as buildings for cover and flanking routes.
Both these maps are very fun and hopefully the other maps that will come with the full game will be just as good or even better.
Weapons
The beta gives one gun from each category. One assault rifle, SMG, shotgun, sniper but also something new a “smart pistol” this gun having the ability to auto-lock on to enemy’s and getting a headshot every time. This aim-bot style weapon does have some implications, the first being that it needs at least a second to lock on and the second being that it needs 3 shots on pilots for a kill (only one on an AI so pretty awesome), these little things means that there is a high chance of being taken out before locking on to your enemy, despite this the gun is pretty awesome and a lot of fun to mess around with, it does need some nerfing before the games full release, it also leaves me thinking if the developers have other cool weapons up their sleeves which could offer some cool features.
The weapons seem quite balanced each suiting their categories well.
Burn-cards
These are unlocked while playing the game and allow the player to gain abilities or weapons which would not normally be accessible. A player can equip up to three of these and activate them in game but only for one life. One example would be the upgraded sniper rifle which gives you a beast of a gun with explosive rounds and great one hit kill potential, another could be a speed boost for a life. You only have a certain amount of space to hold these so make sure to either use them or discard the ones you don’t want.
Titans
The main feature with this game is the titans, these mech-suits are accessible in game by all players. Each player starts with a 4 minute timer to when they can call in their titan, this is reduced as the player either racks up kills or captures objectives, once available the player can call in their titan and wreak havoc on the enemy’s. There are 3 titans, one with high armour/low mobility another high mobility/ low armour and the third with a middle stand on these perks. Titans can also be customized with the ability to equip different guns and effects like the ability to have your titan explode after destruction which can result in some crazy carnage.
The titans aren’t crazy protected but can sustain a fair amount of damage before forcing you to eject from destruction. Once in them you can create quite a distressing situation for the enemy’s. If used well with their abilities you can do some serious damage.
The Game
The game itself has been on the top of a most anticipated games for a while now, ever since E3 and then playing it at Eurogamer I’ve been excited for this, with this beta I feel even more excited for this game to see how the end product turns out and if it will live up to expectations. People dubbed this as the COD killer but I wouldn’t call it this, one issue is that it isn’t across all platforms, its only on Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC so leaving the Playstation group in the dark is a bad move especially for a new game which could in a couple of months become a has been. I do hope this game excels and has a good life span with possible sequels.
Another issue is that it doesn’t have a campaign, the story is portrayed through the multiplayer though but I think establishing a good back-story first would have been a good idea to introduce the audience to the universe, although this is true I guess it means the development team has more time to improve the multiplayer which is what most people normally go after in a game.
Graphics wise this game looks great, the maps are awesome and everything runs well with on a few small bugs that I could find.
Overview
This beta has done what it set out to for me, created more hype for this already hyped up anticipated game. It gave a good overview of what the game has set out to be. For me it was a fun more relaxing game which I will put a lot of time into, the game looks great and with a goodish rig I was able to max the game out hitting 60FPS no problem.
Titanfall is set to come out on March 14th in the UK, you can pre-order from Amazon here.
