Titanfall Beta Hands On [Windows, Xbone]

There is a lot of buzz around Titanfall and when I was sent a free beta code to stress test it I couldn't resist. I do love the idea of giant mechs running around blowing each other and everyone up. Titanfall is by Respawn whose main claim to fame, (which the ads won't shut up about) is that it has people who once worked on Call of Duty.

It starts you off in a pretty in-depth training "simulation" where you learn how to run about as a pilot and as a titan. There is a lot to this game and the lengthy tutorial is very much needed. As a pilot you can parkour off walls, double jump, kill other pilots in a variety of ways and you even get an anti-titan weapon as part of your arsenal. Titans can do a swift dodge, fire their main gun, fire their powerful secondary weapon and even put up a shield that catches bullets and fires them back. Plus you can get out of your titan and have it follow you or guard itself. It's a lengthy list of abilities and something that you are going to forget instantly as you jump into your first multiplayer match but it shows the game has a lot of depth.

Running on my computer

I was surprised at how well the game ran on my computer which is starting to show it's age now. I turned everything to low but ran it at my native resolution of 2560x1440 and it still looked beautiful and ran smoothly. I had no issues with servers either, unlike some players, it was quick for me to find a match and get playing. I had a fairly high ping at times but I didn't really notice any major lag issues.

The full beauty according to EA

There are some odd things about this game and I'm not quite sure how I feel about them. Polygon called it the perfect game for people who are terrible at first person shooters and in a way I agree. There are only 6 people in a match but there are also minions that run around and mostly just wait to be blasted, sort of like in a MOBA. They can be fun and even put up a bit of resistance at times but many have complained that they'd rather have more actual live humans playing the game. Respawn have yet to announce how many gameplay modes there will be and currently in the beta there are 3 plus one that randomises all 3 together. As the game is going full multiplayer only, I really think they should add a mode with double the players to keep things interesting. We'll have to wait and see on that though. It's also weird that despite these hugely powerful titans you have at your disposal there, is basically no object destruction in game at all. I guess I have been a little spoiled with the Battlefield series but it seems odd that the world itself is so static.

I've had a lot of fun with beta so far and there are a lot of cool ideas in it. Things like evacuating to a dropship when you've lost the game for some bonus xp and jumping on a titan when you are a pilot and  blowing it's brains out are cool additions but I'm not convinced yet. For a full price game it's really gotta have some exciting modes and whilst I found Attrition and Last Titan Standing fun, the Hardpoint mode seemed a little lacklustre. I say go and give it a bash in the beta if you can but it hasn't made me want to preorder it. I want to wait and see what the full offering has in store.

Oh and if anyone has an Xbone, I have a beta code for it, just message me.