Titanfall - what do you think?

Post Reply New Topic

Have you played it yet and what do you think?

I have the PC version, I've had a lot of trouble connecting since I bought it on Friday. I can't get on now. When I can get to play it's quite good fun but I've noticed a lot of rather irritating technical issues. It doesn't seem to want to save the graphics options I set for instance and I have to reset them every time I restart. I'm restarting rather a lot because as mentioned above it times out a lot.

The gameplay options are rather limited too - there are two campaigns for instances and I've done one but I can't find a way to change sides to play the other one. A quick Google suggests that you are assigned randomly to a side.

There's a few nice ideas here like the burn cards and wall running but I don't know if they've been really well implemented - I'll need to play some more, I don't regret buying it but I expect that in a couple of weeks I'll have lost interest in it (I certainly will if the connection situation doesn't improve).

Any thoughts?

I got it myself as well, and.... well, me buying it at all IS pretty high praise, as I tend to very strongly dislike most modern FPS games. Grew up with all of the older ones... Doom and Quake and Hexen and so on.... and those are the style I've always liked, the run & gun sort, dashing around big complicated levels, with lotsa different stuff to shoot and lotsa things to dodge, and the whole thing at a very fast pace. Modern FPS games though have gotten into ALOT of trends that I strongly dislike. They end up being slower paced, with alot of worrying about cover and hiding and sniping and.... bleh.

THIS though, pretty much undoes every trend that I didnt like in the others. Very, very fast paced, rewards constant aggression, and probably the best possible tip any new player could get is "never stop moving". AND you've got the whole bit with leaping all over the place and wall-jumping and wall-running and double-jumps and all the stuff that adds the "verticality" to the gameplay, which is wonderful in and of itself. And that's just the start of it.

I like the customization (once you reach level 5 or so that is, you cant customize your pilot before then, and Titans at level 10), so that aspect is good.... the burn cards are a very interesting concept that ends up being pretty darn good in practice, and you get so many of them that you never hit a situation where it's like "Ok, all these OTHER players have like tons of these but I have hardly any". The game encourages you to use them often, because you get such a silly amount that you very often cant hold any more (and you bring a max of 3 into a match at a time). Alot of the cards do some pretty cool things, so those are fun to mess with. Some being more powerful than others, there appears to be different levels of rarity (and it's totally random as to what you get when it hands you new ones).

The Titans themselves are great fun. I love how the game uses them to reward constant aggression, since damaging hostile targets of any sort is how you shorten the timer until you can next summon yours. The things control very well, though the dash takes some getting used to.... I keep trying to do the style of dash that exists in Hawken (which is another FPS fulla mechs) which means I keep stupidly crashing into stuff. But they're lotsa fun and have lotsa potential to do tons of damage, yet they balance it out well with the fact that a single pilot on foot CAN still defeat one in a variety of ways. I like that aspect. And these guys are nicely customizable as well. And some of the burn cards that deal with the Titans are pretty entertaining, like the one that makes it go nuclear after you eject. And speaking of ejecting, I love how there's NO FALL DAMAGE. You dont have to worry about that aspect getting in the way of the whole leaping-around-like-a-madman bit. Even after ejecting from a doomed Titan, you're shot REALLY high up, but there's no parachute or anything, you just drop like a stone, but you're fine, and there's no dip in the pacing of the match as a result.


Honestly, there's no aspect of this game so far that I can really complain about. Everything is implemented wonderfully. And it's very damn rare that I ever say something like that, since normally I complain about basically everything.



Now, as for the technical stuff you mention.... I'm running the PC version, and I've experienced none of those issues. No connection problems, no lag.... no issues with graphics or anything either. I've got all the settings on mine all maxed out, and the game runs wonderfully, no problems. Any issues that are there with lag though, you can be sure they'll be dealt with soon enough. Dont forget, the game DID just come out, it IS pretty much a multiplayer-only online game, and it is one of those that was going to have 10 gazillion players on it right from the start.... people having lag or connection issues with this sort of thing is to be expected. It usually doesnt last long though, as it's typically the very first thing that the developers must tackle after release for any game of this sort.

You might want to look into possible outside influences that might be getting in the way of it though, both for the lag and the graphical/settings/whatever. That's always the problem with PC games.... you never know when something totally unrelated might find a way to be a snot and get in the way of the game you're trying to play.



Overall though, yeah, my opinion of this game is very high.

I purchased Titanfall for Xbox One last week. The Xbox Live servers were having sign-in problems and I couldn't log in at all the first night after I bought it. After the first day, all the problems were fixed and I have had no problems thus far. Of course, the PC servers are separate, but like the Xbox Live servers, the PC servers should get better with time.

I really dont understand all the excitement about it. I have watched many youtube video about it, but so far it seems to be nothing else like an standard FPS with the possibility to play in a mech. Which does not look that much different then the FPS, where you can play in a tank/helicopter as well.

Miserys experience seem to match my youtubes experiences, that its in general less about tactic, but more about constantly running weird around and shooting at everything you see.

So far I am disappointed, by what I have seen. When more then a year ago, the first descriptions and advertisements of the game were released, I had hoped it to be more of an tactical Battlemech-game and was excited about it.

Eh, considering that "tactics" in most shooters lately boils down to "find good spot, snipe for headshots for next 5 hours", it's fine by me. I mean, seriously, I cant even WATCH the damn things. And that was always my experience with them. Wander not-very-speedily around map, get headshotted, boring wait for respawn. Wander around again, get headshotted, still dont know where sniper is. Respawn wait. Wander again, get further, NEW sniper. Respawn. Wander ag- tired of snipers, done now. That pretty much summed up every multiplayer FPS I'd ever tried since..... since..... well, let's just say it's been a LONG time since I'd liked one, before this game and Hawken.

I've wanted a proper run & gun style FPS to appear for the longest time. Often when I fight against another player in this, ITS AN ACTUAL FIGHT. Like, okay, playing earlier.... Im near this building, right, and in the doorway I can see a teammate, and this enemy player in there, and I figure ok, I'll rush forward and help. I'm running at them, and as I approach and enter the doorway the enemy player kills my teammate. He turns and comes at me, firing, as I leap over him. I spin around to shoot him, and he jumps up over the doorway, and wall-runs to the left from there, avoiding my shots, and going around a corner that's right there. I charge forward, and knowing that he's probably expecting me to do that, I leap up onto the wall above the door, as his shots hit the area I jumped over, hang there for a second, and as he adjusted his aim, I dropped back down and spun and got him. And then leapt dramatically out of the way (and up another wall, rebounding off to get onto a higher floor) as someone from outside the building started lobbing grenades in and charging at the door. It's not as exciting when I type it out, but it sure as bloody hell was when it actually happened. In a different, more typical FPS, the entire fight here would have just been condensed into "come around corner-HEADSHOT DONE". But the more exciting and interesting stuff is more the norm for this game, and that's one of the reasons why I'm loving it so much. Because that sort of thing happens pretty often. And heck, even when just firing at a guy from a distance.... they're gonna be a MUCH more interesting and unpredictable target in this. They wont just run in a direct path, they'll be leaping and bouncing offa walls and wall-running and double-jumping and.... yeah.

And that's all just at MY low skill level. It'll get even more interesting at higher ones.

Really, I seriously cannot overstate how the differences in this from what the genre normally is affects the overall experience. I generally HAAAAAAAATE modern FPS games. Hate hate hate hate hate. But this simply lacks all of the bad trends that those had, and is bloody brilliant as a result.


As for "tactics" and such.... I think that depends on the mode and the players. Something like Capture the Flag is gonna be much better about that. Something like Attrition is more about "shoot all the dudes", and lends itself more to total chaos rather than... er.... somewhat ordered chaos.

Though, really, if you want a Battlemech sort of game.... that's what Mechwarrior Online is for. There isnt anything else that'll scratch THAT itch. Most games with mechs end up making them into the "Gundam" sort, the ones that zoom around at the speed of improbable-bulky-thing-moving-too-fast while waving around swords and guns that it actuallY CARRIES as opposed to, you know, having guns for arms. This one isnt any different, it's just that the focus isnt solely on the mechs.

One way or another though, it's an FPS at it's core.


It's one of those games though where you really do have to try it and give it some time to really "get" it. I *almost* didnt buy this, for alot of the same reasons as you. Looked like another typical FPS to me, after seeing some vids and whatnot on it. My cousin though kept pestering me about it, saying "Ok, seriously.... it does this and this and this, and I know you pretty well, and I'm telling you to go TRY it, because it's not what you think". So I did, and.... yeah. Glad I was wrong.

Actually, your problem with Multiplayer FPS could be, that you wander around and wait until you get shot ^^, instead of agreeing with your MULTIPLAYER teammates to an tactic, and then following to it as whole squad, giving single snipers no chance. ^^ And nope, simply seeking a single hiding squad and snipering is as well not much of an helpful grouptactic. You dont have much benefit as a team from one teammember doing that on his own, on an complete other area of the map. ^^

The way you describe the following situation, simply tells me that the game is not meant for me. I dont want teammembers running weirdly around and on accident see others teammate through doorways needing help, but I like to be in a team with teammates that do so, because of it being their task and being organized to do so, and because of not doing so = loosing. As example frontmen, one middlesupport, one backup. There is no "accidently" being at a spot where your frontmen get into an shooting with enemies, as middlesupport its actually your job to always have a watch on them and immediately join in and support them eliminating the greatest threat to them, while that is still focusing on the frontmen, while relying on that the backup cares for no enemy player joining in without warning.

Doing Saltis and jumps like Super Mario, wont help me get off the frustration of it being an "run around wildly and shoot at everything you can" shooter without much focus on group tactics.

Dont wanna denie your experiences, I simply wanted to say, that from the advertisiment and first announcements, I had expected a really different game, with organized group play, focused on the additional abilities of the Mechs. So focused not on funny, jumping 1 vs. 1 but about team 1 and their tactic against team 2 and their tactics. I´ll simply wait for Star Wars Battlefront, and hope that it will fit more to my expectations.

Actually that was more me just being sarcastic. The "watch and snipe" tactics are typically what I see others doing (ok, the ONLY thing I see others doing) when playing the normal sort of FPS.... It's exceedingly rare that I ever touch that type of game, ever. Way, WAY too boring for my anti-patience. It's the one and only sort of concept in all of gaming that I consider to be even worse than the concept of grinding in an RPG.... and that's as low of a blow as I can possibly deal, period. If I were to try one of those and attempt to play the "good" way, sure, I wouldnt necessarily get popped when wandering around..... because I'd get popped after falling asleep somewhere.

As it is, this game is just as much about skill as any other.... but like I said, it's not something you can "get" by just watching it. Or worse, by just listening to me yap about it. The overall difference, in terms of concept, is very very simple: This one is high speed, and chaotic; the sorts you speak of are low-speed, but more ordered.

Though, also understand: This is all going offa *my* experience.

In my case I dont deal with the concept of "slow" very well, and I dont like tactics (in any game) that arent "CHAAAAAAAAAARGE!! !! !! !!", so I need something fast that actually rewards constant aggression. Typical FPS games not only dont reward it, they tend to penalize it. Cant stand that. I want to ATTACK the enemy, not sit behind a rock and wait 30 eons for them to appear before me. As such, I dont have any SENSE of tactics. Considering that everyone and their grandma still plays this with a headset, and that people streaming are always also yelling into them (though I'm not really listening, just watching) I'm guessing that there's plenty of team tactics being done.... but I dont actually know about these. As with any team-based game, actual tactics are most likely going to actually happen when playing with friends. When with strangers, you've MUCH less chance of anything resembling tactics. That bit is something I've learned (the hard way) from the moba genre.

Again, you'd have to play it yourself though. There's no way you could get a sense of what the tactics are like from one who most of the time doesnt HAVE tactics. Anything I write is gonna be mostly just showing my general feelings towards the game, but definitely wont be accurate for those elements that I A: dont understand, or B: ignore.

My friends are talking about it a lot, wondering if I should buy it or no?