Titanfall 2

My favorite game of all time. The gameplay is impeccable. I have more hours playing Titanfall 2 multiplayer than probably any other game. There is nothing finer in life than listening to music and playing Titanfall in PSVR. I have more hours outside of PSVR, but I've probably played at least 100 hours in.

It takes a lot to make a splash in today's climate of military shooters. I don't think people realise just how influential 2014's Titanfall was since it forced even Call of Duty to rethink it's player controls and movement. Wall running, grappling, floor sliding, mid-air jumping; zipping around as a pilot in this series feels awesome! And then there's the Titans, The giant mechs you team up with to pilot into battle! The design and interplay between the foot soldiers and Titans is REALLY impressive, and piloting mechs is cooler than ever as this game introduces a total of 6 different classes of Titans, doubling that of it's predecessor. Though the big story here is... Well the story mode lol, Respawn listened to the sharp criticism lodged at the first game for having a phoned in story mode. This time around you have a fairly thoughtful story with creative missions and level design.

Now in terms of the story we're not talking about Uncharted here, the plot stars a very by the books "white soldier guy" by the name of Jack Cooper (couldn't have a more generic name either...). He's a riflemen for the Militia troops fighting back the "IMC" who are an antagonistic force trying to capture land and resources. Cooper dreams of one day becoming pilot and admires their courageousness and skills in battle, making them the most crucial and respected forces on the battlefield. During the game's first battle sequence your mentor is defeated by a deadly mercenary group known as the Apex Predators, and on his death bed he promotes you to pilot ranking giving you control over his titan "BT". So the rest of the game's story essentially explores the relationship between the pilot and the titan as Cooper and BT have to learn to work together and stop the IMC and the ruthless Apex Predators from basically blowing up planets!

It's a competent plot as the relationship between Cooper and BT feels believable and the conversations they have can be pretty funny at times. Supplementing the story are the very well designed single-player missions each introducing creative new ideas. Like the awesome time travelling level, the "field testing lab" level, and the dope as f*** airship battle! The levels in the story mode make really great use of the game's solid platforming mechanics, the only two complaints I have with the story are that it's too short (at approximately 5 hours on normal) and that the bosses were pretty easy. The bosses themselves had really funny personalities, including one that was inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger XD! But they pretty much acted like dumber version of the Titans you face in the multiplayer. Otherwise this is a very solid single-player campaign with a rather touching ending.

So let's talk multiplayer cause that's probably what most of ya'll will be doing once you've cleared the single-player once or twice. You get a lot of what you're probably used to from most shooters like TDM, capture the flag, and free for all. Buuuut you've got some fun ones in here too like "Last Titan Standing:" where everyone's in a friggin titan and "Pilots Vs. Pilot" where there's no titans allowed!!! It's a nice variety, and mounting that notion are again the 6 titan classes. Each very unique and feeling like their own "hero". There's Scorch, a clunky titan who deals mostly in flame/thermite based attacks, you can actually dispense canisters of flammable gas and create fiery explosions if setup properly. The Ronin class is an inter-dimensional phase shifting mech that uses an f***ing sword to attack and block enemy fire! And there's Northstar, a mech carrying a rail gun sniper who can soar into the air and make it rain rockets down on everybody! Those are just half of the titans in this game, and there's even kits that augment their abilities further, meaning that there's quite a lot more depth to the titans this time around.

I've heard complaints that the titans feel more vulnerable or weak this time around and that's actually a misrepresentation of what Respawn went for this time around. There's way more strategy to piloting a titan this time around, you can't just run around mindlessly in "god mode" killing everybody without it's share of sacrifices. For instance if you're being rodeo'd by a pilot (i.e. when they jump onto your back to steal a battery and deal damage) there are ways to save yourself from harm. Like deploying a pool of electric smoke and standing in it so that pilot can't stay on your back, or standing out in the open so that when the pilot jacks a battery you can gun him/her down immediately. I actually thought it was neat that batteries can be stolen from enemy titans and used to heal titans on your own side. There's a lot of meta-game happening during each match and it's really fun learning it all. Nearly all of the maps in this game are really nice and expansive and you almost always spawn in really smart locations after you've died. Everything in the multiplayer is fully custimizable (with the exception of titan load outs but that's for balance's sake) and I can never seem to resist the urge to "play just one more match before bed!". x3

Really impressive game through and through. The single-player story is short yes, but it's very concise and charming, presenting some fairly bold design choices. The multiplayer is robust and heavily polished, not to mention addictive! The mechanics are fast and fluid and vertical and honestly some of the best I've seen in a shooter as of late. I think what Respawn did here is they took their heavily criticised license and turned it into something worth bragging about. It's a bit sad that so many folks are now avoiding this game because of the first's legacy, but I know that I will continue to support them. Bravo!