Titanfall 2: Technical Test

‘Get Hype! The Titanfall 2 Tech Test is coming!’

Unless you’re on PC, in which case you’re f**ked. After months of teasing the upcoming Beta, it was suddenly announced that the PC platform would not be supported. As someone who bought the original Titanfall on release purely on the strength of its Beta, this is extremely disappointing.

Titanfall 2 is one of the few games I am genuinely excited for this year. I loved the mechanics of the original, particularly in terms of movement. I was also impressed by the balance between infantry and Titan combat, and the inclusion of AI grunts which I felt added a degree of spectacle to the various maps and modes.

But the game lacked content on release. It lacked variety. It lacked customisation and personalisation options. It did address some of these issues post-release with new maps, modes and a new ranking system. But by the time these updates rolled out, the player base had already been split by the DLC map packs, and player numbers dwindled to the point where it was hard to find a fully populated match.

But the core of the game was great, which is why I had (have?) such high hopes for Titanfall 2. It was just a question of if they could refine the existing mechanics, whilst building upon everything the original did right.

The announcement of a full single player story campaign in TF2 was fantastic news. Titanfall suffered for its lacklustre ‘campaign’. I really hope the campaign of Titanfall 2 expands and delves into the Titanfall world in a way the original never did. Although I do hope it doesn’t reduce the Militia and the IMC to a simplistic ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ situation.

Of course, the bulk of our time with TF2 will be in multiplayer, and as soon as the sign up for beta announcements appeared, I was first in line. But instead, only days before the beta was due to go live, those of us playing on PC were unexpectedly shafted.

And that worries me. Perhaps it shouldn’t – Titanfall had a pretty decent release on PC in terms of performance, but still … it’s planted a seed of doubt in my mind. The ‘explanation’ of why they’ve excluded PC also seems a little odd –

‘We also haven’t done enough work to fully support our ‘Min Spec’ on PC yet. So, currently the PC game isn’t as easy to throw out for testing as the console is, because of the additional variables and configurations that we need to support.’

So … two months prior to release and the game isn’t even supported on a ‘min spec’ PC? Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I find that rather troubling. At least Origin has a decent refund policy, so if it does release in a shitty state, I can get my money back.

So I can’t play in this ‘Tech Test’ and that really f**king sucks. But I can watch a lot of videos of it and form various impressions which I can then rant about here!

It does appear that the core movement mechanics of the original have survived more or less intact, although it does appear slightly slower, but this may simply be an issue of the video. The new grappling hook ability seems like a nice addition to further boost map traversal, but I am concerned by the maps currently on show.

They don’t seem to offer the same complexity as those in the original game, and the more open layouts doesn’t lend itself to wall running. I loved bouncing from one wall to the next in TF and I’d go entire matches without ever touching the ground. But that doesn’t seem possible in any of the TF2 maps yet revealed.

I’m also concerned by the lack of AI. I don’t know if we’ll see a return of a traditional Attrition mode in TF2, but I hope we do. The new Bounty Hunt appears to be a neat twist on that formula, but I hope that’s not all there is in terms of AI inclusion. They were a part of what made TF unique and it would be a shame to see them relegated to a single mode. On that note, I hope Frontier Defence returns – a horde style co-op mode of Players versus bots.

Also of concern is the removal of the ‘burn card’ system in favour of skill based perks. These added various fun little twists to every match, that anyone could utilise. I’m not convinced this new, apparently more limited system will be half as much fun.

They’ve also removed the Titan timer, so not everyone is guaranteed to get a Titan during a match. Instead, like the perk system, it’s tied to player skill. My concern is that this will create a ‘rich get richer’ style system, whereby any initial lead will quickly compound and become unassailable.

My only other concern, based on what I’ve seen, is how streamlined the class and weapon customisation appears to have become. I’ve heard that Pilot abilities determine visual appearance, and this also applies to the new Titan models, which each pack their own unique weapons almost like a selection of ‘Hero’ classes.

I’d have much preferred a separate cosmetic, weapon and skill system that allowed me to fully customise both my Pilot and Titan without various abilities or weapons being tied to specific models.

Okay, so what did I see that I actually liked? The new weapons look pretty neat, and it seems that there’s a lot more to come. I liked the look of the new abilities, each of which seems like it would be very useful depending on the mode or map.

The new game modes seem to offer a diverse range of experiences, which is something the original lacked. And although I’m not entirely enamoured with what we’ve seen of player/class customisation it’s still better than what we had in the original.

The new rodeo mechanic looks interesting, as it’s not simply about dealing damage and can actually allow you to boost or repair friendly Titans – which may encourage a degree of team play. And, of course, there’s likely a lot more not yet revealed, so maybe I’m worrying for nothing.

Overall though, I do like what I’ve seen of Titanfall 2 and I still plan to pick it up on release. But I do hope we get a beta of some form on PC to put people’s minds at ease and to drum up interest in the title. I don’t want to see the PC version shat out with little concern for its long term player base. The fact they’re not doing map packs is a great sign, but whether we’ll see any kind of DLC or, dare I say it – microtransactions – remains to be seen. Hey, this is EA we’re talking about.