Titanfall 2 Final Campaign Thoughts...

I have now completed the Titanfall 2 Campaign, and my initial thoughts of the campaign have massively changed, oh my giddy aunt is there some intense fricken missions, I'll go through my experience, my likes and dislikes. Because why the hell not? If nobody else reads this or cares, at least I do and it's wasted some time so hey ho!

Titanfall 2 has 9 main campaign missions, the game is still not that old, so there's a possibility of some single player expansion (Here's to hoping).

The main storyline is mediocre in my opinion, and similar to recent Call of Duty storylines, there are typically 2 factions/nations/clans (or whatever) that are enemies, and the goal is to simply destroy the faction and stop them from trying to take over the world. *Spoiler* Or destroy a planet, or stop them trying to create a superweapon in this case, which would ultimately lead to them destroying a Planet aptly named 'Harmony'. It's not surprising that they've adopted this samey approach, I get the feeling that they didn't particularly want to put much development time into the campaign, and the same Devs have worked on the Modern Warfare campaign previously as well, so they've obviously stuck with a format that works.

In total it took me around 5-6 hours to complete the campaign, though It's possible that this could take around 4-6 hours, as it depends on how many times you fall off the map, or get crushed, or miss a wall jump if you're anything like me it will take you longer because I'm constantly dying and misjudging moving objects and god awful skinny platforms.

*More spoilers ahead* 

If you are an achievement hunter then you're in for a massive treat, because you can quite easily pick up around 600G (gamerscore) without even having to try, you can even do this on 'Easy' mode, but if you want to go for the full 1000, you'll need to complete the campaign on every difficulty, and go hunting a little bit to find some in-mission collectables (Pilot helmets) you get a rare achievement and 90G if you're an Xbox One player, and I guess this would be similar in terms of trophies on PS4 too. In order to maximise the amount of gamerscore you get in your first playthrough, I would recommend trying every Titan Loadout, and killing other Titans with your core ability, you can quite easily pick up 15G's a piece for using Sword Core, Laser Core and for killing 3 Titans in a row using one of your core abilities. If you're wondering what a Core ability is, it's basically your super weapon which charges over time, it's vital for you to use it at the right times. There is so much more I could say but I'll leave it there for you.

When I wrote my initial thoughts and review on the game, I had played 3 campaign missions, this was far too early for me to have a decent opinion on the campaign, and I was reluctant to complete it, but I'm so glad I did. Mission number 5 is where the game changes for me and becomes a unique game that I have been dying to get stuck into for some time. This mission is called 'Effect and Cause' (yes I have that the right way around). This mission is a real game changer for me and it's at this point in the game that I can really see the Titanfall 2 Campaign shine and is the whole reason I continued to play this game through to the end. The mission puts you at a research facility, which has been destroyed, there are fires and debris everywhere, it's impossible for there to be any sign of life here. Your primary objective is to locate a pilot and gather intel from him. As you progress through the facility you start to see distortions, and you start seeing flashbacks to previous points in time when the Research Facility was still standing and was populated.

As you continue you collect a wrist watch/device and you use it to alternate through different realities, you use this device to travel through time, you can use this as many times as you like to manoeuvre yourself around the facility and try and find your exit. When you go back to the past, the research facility is still standing, there is a professor lecturing some students, there are guards patrolling the hallways, everything is as clear as day and all is well with the world. It is crucial you use this wrist device as you need to activate control panels in the past to open your exits in the present day, and there's a pretty tricky bit where you have to fall down a shaft with fast moving propellers, and you have to time travel perfectly to avoid you getting all squished. You get unlimited use of this device, and this is something that sets this game apart from similar single player campaigns in its genre. You come across a fire, or you're being attacked by guards or robots, no problem switch between past and present and avoid your death, it is that simple and it is that awesome. - Please continue to develop stuff like this Respawn (we love you).

Now one of my main gripes throughout the campaign though is that there are some really tricky areas where you need to get to without falling off the map or plunging to your death, there are electric walls and floors you have to avoid, long jumps which you have to make perfectly, and multiple wall-runs between multiple walls, all of which causes a great deal of frustration when you a just a noob gamer, I mean come on give us guys a break.

As the story progresses you start to prepare for all out warfare, and there is one particular mission where you get to work with your faction, complete a Titanfall exercise (basically multiple Titans deployed to a location, and you get to kick the living daylights out of other Titans and IMC Guards (The enemy faction). The story is suspenseful and full of action-packed cutscenes and major on the edge of your seat type stuff, you get to defeat around 5 Bosses which are different variations of Titans and look awesome (but look even more awesome when you defeat them) and each one you defeat you pick up some nice G's for it, pretty sure it is 30G a piece.

I am overall quite impressed with the Campaign, and if it wasn't for a few mundane and time-consuming missions, where you have to search for certain items or find someone, then this would be a perfect 5, but just misses out due to earlier missions, but we can't have our cake and eat it, now can we?

So I have to give a rating based on my experience of the full campaign, and the Effect and Cause mission, the cutscenes, the epic suspense, the unique weapons based interface, and the smooth controls and battle movements strongly outweigh the negatives, the only thing that lets it down is the same old same old mundane storyline, but hey they executed it awesomely!

Titanfall 2 Review...

So I know I'm a little late to the party, and I know that this game came out the back of end of last year, but I've only just picked this up today. I got the Deluxe Edition for £28.00, absolute bargain! Oh and by the way you can pick up the PC version of the original Titanfall for £6.67 or £7.99 for the Xbox One version... I'm too good to you!

EA are having a massive publisher sale at the moment on Xbox, and maybe even other platforms, but I can't really confirm that. Pretty much all of their mainstream games are on sale, you can pick up Fifa 17 for £27.00 (Standard edition) and there's a double pack of Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 Deluxe for just under £40.00. Mahoosive bargain and money saving potential right there.

*Warning Potential Spoilers* 

So now down to the nitty gritty and my thoughts about this game. I never got the opportunity to play the Beta/Mech Tests, so it is solely based on the completed game. The first major difference between this one and its predecessor is that it has a single-player campaign. A long overdue one might I add. You start the game by doing a calibration inside a Titan, like in the first one, then carry out a training exercise. You have to complete this within 2 minutes and the time it takes you determines your recommended skill level for continuing the game (It recommended that I play mine on Hard - fook that). Once you have completed your induction if you like, and battle through a couple of scenarios, you get your very own Titan called BT. You can develop a relationship with BT, by picking your own answer to the questions he asks you, and your responses are tailored to the environment. I haven't played far enough through yet, so I'm not too sure if the choices you make and answers you provide will have that much of a massive impact on the game, but I'll let you know as I play through it.

I am instantly attached to BT, and rather than just being a 'Mech suit' it actually has a personality of its own, and its sole job is to follow the mission and protect the pilot (you). I can see the relationship developing quite nicely, and the humour and sassiness the developers have added to BT's dialogue, has made me giggle a couple of times, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.

Now there doesn't appear to many main story missions, though further expansion may be available for this. The missions that I have played through seem at best a little mediocre, and a some a little bit tedious. I found myself falling off certain parts of the map a few times, trying to reach the destination. There is a cool new feature which is a 'Ghost Route' this is basically a tutorial which shows you the route you need to take to reach your destination, and then you replicate it, not as easy as it sounds, and can become frustrating especially considering you don't get your double jump ability immediately.

I have played a handful of missions and noticed that you come across a boss battle in the early stages of the game (mission 3), you come across a boss named Kane, who of course has a stronger Titan than you, and has a little titan buddy that fights alongside him. This frustrated the hell out of me, and I just couldn't do it on 'Regular' difficulty, so switched this up to Easy just for that mission (I know I'm a noob, I'm so sorry) and completed it in like 5 seconds, nice 30G achievement for that though as well (it's all about those G's). There are also these really annoying exploding spiders that cause absolute chaos... you barely manage to get away from one, but there were 6 that came at me... like come on, chill pal.

I think the game seems to flow better, there has obviously not been much change in the core development of the game, the controls seem much more fluid, and it's a lot easier to combine skills such as a double jump with a wall jump, I don't now there's just something about it that just seems to flow a little bit better, the core gameplay has not changed, but it somehow just feels like a brand new game, albeit a little mediocre, I feel there could have been more development time spent in campaign, but hey I get why not, there's only about 5% of people who actually bother to complete the whole thing.

The Exploding Spider Bombs!

It is clear to me that most of the development of this game has been focussed around Multiplayer. I found Multiplayer a really pleasurable experience, with quick loading screens and pretty decent matchmaking, there weren't any players who were hundreds of levels above you killing everyone and everything in site, it all seemed to flow well. There's a nice option to also choose your own server, it has a handy stat telling you what the ping is, making your online games flow better.

There are a few cool new titans and load outs that have come with the Deluxe edition of the game, one with an awesome plasma rifle! There is a store option where you can buy premium load outs and titans to use in-game, they're about £4.00 each, not really sure how much of an advantage they give you, because I haven't bought them.

There are a couple of new game modes that have been added online, 'Live Fire' which is kind of like Capture the Flag mixed with Hardpoint and a bit of Search and Destroy, the aim of the game is to either kill the entire opposing team, or be holding the flag when the time runs out, it's very fast paced, wham bam thank you mam action, something I like and it flows beautifully in Titanfall 2. You now also have the option of searching for games that you only want to play, and all the classics are back, Capture the Flag, Hardpoint, Free-for-all, Team Deatmatch (although not called that). It is nice to see some nice large maps, suited to all player types, whether you're the run and gun type, or the sniper or the medium range fighther, there is plenty for everyone. It is also nice to see the return of some familiar maps, and the return of AI as well, everytime I kill loads of Ai I always feel like an absolute champion haha. The last titan standing is an awesome game mode as well, whoever holds on for 3 rounds is the winner, or literally until the last titan stands, that'll never be me! :D

Overall I would highly reccomend this game to people who enjoy games such as COD, or Destiny, or any other similar shooter game, the single player campaign is slighlty lacking, but I think it more than makes up for it in mutliplayer, and there's no better time to buy it, with how cheap it is.

Dweelan's Game Rating: