When looking at some of the similarities with modern shooters, one is the ability to pick a loadout type before the match, but for this unique game, you get to choose both a Pilot and Titan loadout. A pilot is your usual on the ground soldier from most FPS games with the weapons depending on your loadout. For example, the first option is the Rifleman which provides a Carbine assault weapon as your primary, with a semi-automatic pistol as your sidearm. However, that is not all as you also have what is known as a “Anti-Titan Weapon,” which can be easily accessed in battle. This allows you to actually have a chance against enemy Titans on the battlefield, as it is very difficult to do so with merely your primary or sidearm weapons. Needless to say, this is something that you must learn quickly to use in battle.
Each loadout also has its fair share of extras at your disposal. These fall under the Tactical Ability, Ordnance, and Kit sections. Tactical Ability holds the Cloak ability, which is vital for your battles against the Titans, while Ordnance provides you with frag grenades. Your kit holds a couple special abilities, which are very dependent on your player type. For example, the Rifleman has an Explosives Pack, which allows you to carry extra pilot ordnances, and a Dome-Shield Battery, which makes you Titanfall Dome-Shield last longer. The CQB loadout adds in something completely different with the Enhanced Parkour Kit, which is pretty self explanatory.
Speaking of parkour, one of Titanfall’s most unique elements is the way that you can move around the map. Typically in this genre, you are moving from one point to the next on a map, with minimal jumping skills and the ability to go up stairs. However, Titanfall completely revamps this system by adding the aforementioned parkour elements. You can of course sprint as usual, but also have the ability to wall-run and double jump, as well as the ability to use these in tandem to reach high ledges and grab hold. I will admit that I did not use these abilities as much when starting out, as I was getting used to the stages themselves and the combat, but it is something that will be necessary if you want to be truly successful in this game’s multiplayer.
The Titans themselves are the biggest selling point of this game, which is pretty evident by the game’s title. Throughout battle, you will have the ability to call upon your own Atlas Titan, that you choose in the loadout screen prior. There are some changes between each loadout, but not quite as much as seen with the Pilots. Each has a different weapons, which vary from chainguns, cannons, and even rockets. Then you have some different Kit options depending on your loadout, such as Auto-Eject, which ejects your pilot and cloaks him automatically when being destroyed. There are also some cool ones like Nuclear Ejection, which make your Titan go nuclear when you eject, allowing you to damage surrounding enemies.
I was personally concerned with how the controls of the Titans would feel in a somewhat traditional shooter environment, but Titanfall quickly destroyed any worries I had with excellent controls and just general fluid nature of the Titans. Your Titan has a shield that takes a little while to go down, followed by a health bar. As seen in games like Halo, you can hide and recover your shield, but your health bar itself will not replenish by itself.
In my time with Titanfall so far, I’ve had an absolute blast. There are not many first-person shooters that instantly grab me like this game did and I can easily see myself putting a lot of time into this title upon its official release. It will be quite interesting to see the full multiplayer experience upon getting to use all of the different Titans and stages. The online servers worked very well and I expect a smooth ride when Titanfall launches on March 11 for Xbox One and PC. Stay tuned next month for when we will have our full review on Titanfall.