E3 2013: Titanfall First Impressions Preview – Mech Porn!

47
Dan Webb

Ever since Jason West and Vince Zampella’s messy split from Infinity Ward and Activision, the duo’s new studio has been a hot topic. With a staff made up of the talent behind Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, one of the most defining and memorable shooter experiences this generation, we were intrigued about what they would come up with next. Enter Titanfall, Respawn’s debut title and EA’s latest world-beater.

Titanfall is another one of “those” titles that looks to blur the line between single-player, multiplayer and co-op, which in laymen’s terms means: there’s no single-player per se, just a team-based multiplayer arena with objectives to work towards, elements of which are said to tie into a loose story. Sure, it didn’t work when Brink tried it, and honestly, I’m not sure it’ll ever work, but we’ll at least give Respawn the benefit of the doubt and say: yeah, sure, give it a go. But we’re still apprehensive. There’s no disputing it though: Titanfall is a multiplayer shooter, and I don’t care what anyone says.

Built on the Source engine, likely for its ability to hit that sweet 60 frames per second sweet spot, Titanfall throws players into a battle between Pilots and Titans: Pilots being the agile characters that players find themselves spawn as; and Titans being the huge mechs that they constantly call into combat. 

Titans against human Pilots can’t be fair, right? Well, that’s what you think. The Pilots are supremely agile, with free-running skills and the ability to spurt forward with a kind of jetpack burst, meaning that buildings and high ground is their friend. The Titans on the other hand are available to all players, on a countdown timer, so you won’t be without one for long. The difference between mechs in Titanfall and most other mech games is their agility. With a smooth and quick transition players will be in their Titan in a matter of seconds and be moving as freely in their mech than they would do on ground. From an outsider looking in, the balance seems to be fairly spot on, which is impressive for such an early stage.

The map we went eyes-on with saw players tasked with protecting a ship called the Redeye while it docked – introduced by a short in-game cutscene from the back of a drop ship. Interestingly, this is how Respawn looks to deliver the story in Titanfall, with pre and post-match cutscenes, but like I said previously, we all know what happened to that “story” in Brink…

What ensued then was madness. Sheer madness. The objective at the heart of our look at Titanfall was simple, it was effectively Conquest, or Territories, depending on your FPS background. Sounds simple enough, but what makes Titanfall so special? Well, it’s its ability to deliver those “Battlefield-esque moments,” mainly down to the sheer amount of tools of the trade at your disposal. 

In the live demo we saw, we saw pilots eject out of Titans and get turned into red mist in mid-air and we saw Pilots stealth killing other Pilots by snapping their neck 180° so that they look them in the eye the second they die and see their life slip away from them. We saw parkour to jetpack jumps from the tops of buildings to jack enemy Titans and we saw two Titans fist sparring with one another – amusingly, the winner of that exchange pulled the Pilot out of the opposing Titan and just flung him across the map without a care in the world. We saw Pilots stomped by Titans, Pilots hitch a ride with Titan allies and a wide variety of different weapons get put through their paces, from assault rifles and heavy bullet rifles, to sidewinder rocket launchers and electric shock rifles. All in all, not bad for 20 minutes, huh? It was easily the most compelling and entertaining shooter demo at this year’s E3.

As a multiplayer shooter though, it has everything: insane kills, random moments of brilliance, and frenetic and jaw-dropping combat. It was a close call between this and Battlefield 4 for our best shooter at this year’s E3, but because Respawn are trying something new, and bringing a new IP to the market, it would have been rude not to give our Best Shooter of E3 2013 award to Respawn’s debut title. It’d not only be rude, but we’d be mad not to. Fingers crossed that Titanfall can do what Brink failed to do, and that’s deliver a single-player and multiplayer experience simultaneously.

Titanfall is scheduled for a spring 2014 release on Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.

Comments
47
  • That actually sounds really good. Colour me interested
  • This game is reason enough to own the X1!
  • Battlefield-esque moments iss all I needed to read, my interest in this sky rocketed. Anyone know how many players are in a match on the X1?
  • cant wait for this game simply for the fact that its being made by the main people who brought us cod4 which is one of if not the best shooter on this gen. titanfall has a great chance of doing the same bring on 2014. also not being harsh but gutted for ps4 who will not be able to play this :D
  • @2 Not when it's also available on the 360 it isn't.
  • I'll get a xb 1 when this releases :)
  • is this not coming to ps4
  • @5 Yea but another team is handling the port of the 360 game. This game was made for X1 in mind. Also it won't use the cloud so it will be pretty inferior to that of the X1.
  • @7 Nope its an exclusive. There have been rumors of it coming later on for PS4 but no one knows.
  • @5 how come everyone else knows that this is an xbone exclusive except you? ot I cannot wait for 2014 I'm only getting ghosts ki bf4 and ruse at the launch. :-( have to wait for destiny elder scrolls the crew the division titanfall halo 5 the evil within and I'm positive there's more in 2014 just can't think of them. hurry the he'll up new years
  • Mech Porn, indeed. I'm getting an Xbox One the day this game comes out, not before.
  • Easily the most impressive game I saw at E3. Destiny is a close second in the shooter department.
  • @9 Not a true exclusive as it's coming for PC as well.
  • I was really excited to play this game, but the lack of a single player component means that this game will only be playable if the community is there. I can't say without playing it whether or not it will be a good game, but it just sucks knowing that one day we may not be able to go back to this game and play if the community has moved on to a sequel or another title. I'll stay optimistic as I do want to play it. Only time will tell.
  • @#14 - From what I understand, and don't quote me on this, but I think they're populating the matches with both bots and real-life people, so that might not be an issue.
  • @14 Webb is right, I was reading the newest GI magazine and they said that the multiplayer will have both human players and bots.
  • Gameplay look lots of interests inside trailer. I enjoy watch some of it. Let hope Titanfall going be awesome game in 2014. This is one of my must-have titles in 2014 as well lots of hype over this game since graphics, gameplay and trailer look fantastic. :) I hopeful single-player story is great storytelling as well.
  • #15: Cool. Bots to fill out multiplayer should be mandatory to be honest.
  • To the people saying this is a reason to get a X1...no it isn't. This is not a true exclusive its a timed one and will be out on the 360 and PC, well since its timed it will probably come to the PS4 as well. Also most of the "exclusives" for X1 we know about are actually just timed or out on current gen.
  • While this looks good, the online-only aspect is what will be preventing me from getting this.
  • @19 And the 360 version will be inferior to the XBO version.
  • Game looks awesome. It's probably the single biggest reason I'd want an Xbox One, but I don't think that'll be enough. I have heard there's a good chance it'll come to PS4... So I'll just cross my fingers.
  • They might aswell cancel the Xbox One... It's a fluke
  • My god so many fantastic shooters I like the look of: Destiny, the Division, Titanfall. I might just give this a miss and focus on Destiny and Division though.
  • From the GI article I read it sounds like they will be doing 6v6 with numerous additional AI contributing to the battle to make the game large without requiring mass amounts of actual players to make the large levels work. This also gives way to why the lifespan is expected to be longer per life over your CoD, Halo, or Battlefield counterparts. If you get a chance to check out the GI article I would recommend it. It sheds some light on the idea and vision behind the game and the possibly hard to figure mechanics like mech vs pilot combat balancing.
  • This game will turn into War Hawk on PS3. 12-18 months after release, no one will be playing it. Apart from the select few hardcore that every game's multi has. People still play Kane & Lynch 1 and 2, everyday..
  • #28 Yeah I agreed with you buddy. I remember played War Hawk and it is quite good MP game. Many MP games came with rare players or no one played it unlike BF, Halo and other MP games. :)
  • @8 Am I the only one that doesn't laud the 'greatness' of the cloud? Storage is dirt cheap these days, why bother?
  • @10 Seeing as how it's coming to the 360 as well, that means it isn't a XBone exclusive..It's also dropping on the PC, and they said that they'd like to get it out to PS4 later in the game as well. Might want to read a little more before jumping at other people.
  • Amazon has it listed as June 10, 2014 release date. don't think that's set in stone yet though, however most games with unknown release dates say dec 31, 2013 so that may be official.
  • @30 Think to yourself for a moment why anyone would be excited about cloud storage, something we already have and something that doesn't add anything to a gameplay experience. Once you've decided that it in fact adds nothing and is stupid, you'll probably need to consider that you probably have no clue what you're talking about as it's not important at all.
  • this game is going to be a beast thats for sure
  • @30 You should really educate yourself before you talk. Look it up. Cloud technologies are capable of amazing things. Yes some companies use it for simples storage, but its capable of so much more. It can increase the processing power these current gen systems will have currently and up to the stage that most consoles get too eventually (Their deathbeds).
  • I was really interested in this but most of that interest died now that I know there isn't a single player campaign.
  • i know its a long way off still, but so far im very excited about this. looks like a good refresh of the fps
  • Yea I'll wait until the PC release to get this. Still not going to change my mind about the Xbone.
  • Bots are a problem. In Unreal Tournament, they were Godlike and headshotted you from across the map. In Brink they were cannon fodder and refused to complete objectives. They need to find a new solution.
  • Totally buying this the day it comes out.
  • Mech porn? Aw, yeah.
  • @36 If you want a campaign mech game... go back and play "MechAssault (1 or 2). Apparently... you never played "Chromehounds" on the 360. It had a single-player campaign... but it was mostly "training" missions, and had little to offer except a few parts you could use in the multiplayer (and achievements, of course - and only 8 of them, at that). The multiplayer was THE BEST THING about Chromehounds! It would be nice if Titanfall (or any other shooter, for that matter)... had a constant, on-going war that lasted for several days, until one side was victorious and the war/maps were reset, and the whole thing started all over again. These little deathmatches in shooters gets old pretty quick, but we'll see what Titanfall has to offer. I'm really looking forward to this game!!! :-)
  • this game looks mint, cant wait to get it
  • Unreal Tournament 3 came to mind soon as I seen this vid, wall jumps grav boots and diving in to vehicles. Online bots is a massive plus if the ai is as good as the ut3 godlikes. This is looking good imo
  • This game really caught my interest! Fast-paced online shooter with mechs and parkour, count me in!
  • @44 and 45 : I so totally agree.. UT3 was amazing, and probably a better MP game than Gears 3 or Judgment, which I love very much. But the maps were just amazing, and the bots never equalled. If they can make this game better than the first Lost Planet's MP and Colonies's, I'm 100% in. Well, I'm in anyway. 60 fps, mechs and cool pilots who look like ARC Troopers ? Really ??? Just please don't bring the Xbox One debate here, or anywhere else besides the related forum. You've destroyed the forum in question, dozens of people have been banned because people can't argue about a technical issue without getting mad, this is ridiculous. Let the ridiculous stay in the Xbox One forum, please. Pretty please ? :)
  • Loved this as soon as I saw it on the E3 reports. Shame it doesn't seem to have a clear campaign mode though.
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