So, got my Titanfall beta key a couple days ago. Went to put it in, thought twice. Look on random gaming forums, and they're selling for $50+. Well shit. I hop on eBay, same thing. Short story, I decide that ignoring eBay's "NO SELLING BETA KEYS" policy and doing it anyways (like the thousand other people are) is worth the risk. Put it up for $50, it sells within 30 minutes. Look up past sales, and the first ones sold for $100. Seriously, what the
?
So while I've been trying to wrap my head around why people would spend as much as a full game costs (or more) for a beta that is only going to be around for a few weeks, only has 2 maps, and a pitiful amount of guns and general other content that will be in the full version, the developers say "Hey, we're just gonna open up the beta." I wasn't sure whether to laugh my ass off, or feel bad for all the people (like the guy who bought my key) that bought the "closed" beta key, only to have it be rendered totally pointless 24 hours or so later.
I guess it just goes to show either how hyped this game is, or how stupid people are. I'm leaning towards the latter one.
Big ing long Titanfall review:
Anyways, I grabbed an Xbox One two days ago and have just been playing Titanfall on it (don't feel like clearing God knows how much space on my PC to install a temporary beta). I'm really enjoying it. As people have said and will continue to say, it's basically CoD with parkour and mechs. Both of those things are pretty badass, so that's not really a bad thing.
You're still going to get killed in the blink of an eye and get frustrated. You're still going to fill a guy with bullets while he just runs at you and hits you with a OHKO jump-kick (which is equal parts badass, hilarious, and ridiculous, and is just CoD's knife with a different animation and name). You're still going to run into asshats who insist on hiding in corners, going back to same camping spot, etc. That aside though, it's not a CoD clone and the differences turn the similarities upside down.
First, the movement is wild. You jump much higher than you do in CoD, and you can actually hit a ledge and climb up onto it all in one smooth motion. This exists in CoD games too, but it's always been a
ing joke. Then you've got a boost pack that allows you a double jump midair. The enhanced standard jump and boost give you a lot of freedom to go wherever the
you want, quickly. Add sprint onto those and you can clear pretty damn big gaps (jumping between buildings, for example), relatively speaking. All of this movement means that--even though you still have very low health and can die quickly like in CoD--escape is a feasible option in tons of situations, and they make you much more elusive even if you can't escape. In CoD, you're relatively slow and grounded unless you're using Lightweight+Marathon to give you that quickness and long sprint times. Having those perks can really help you stay elusive, make knives less useful for people going after you, etc. EVERYONE in Titfall has that speed, plus verticality, and that's what not only makes the CoD random instadeaths not as big of a deal. but also makes jump-kicking not as useful as the knife is in CoD, unless you're boxed up in a small area.
Now for the camping and whatnot, the titans are what pretty much turn that upside down. Gone are the days where you can just find a good spot and pick people off till they get keen to your strategy, before moving on, rinse and repeat. Everyone is going to get a couple Titans a game (more if they play very well), and simply put, you can't camp and kill a titan. The titans really make this game, and combat between them is pretty impressive for what's really just an FPS. They're slower, they can't jump, their "quickness" comes from 2 boost charges that give you quick thrusts in whatever direction you like. They can soak up quite a few hits, and have "Vortex Shields", which is basically a rechargeable magnetic shield that stops all the bullets and rockets that come at you, then FIRES them back where you're aiming once you drop your shield. This makes battles between titans pretty
ing intense, guessing when your opponent is going to let loose on you, or whether he's going to put up his own shield, charge you for unblockable melee attacks, etc. Snagging a bunch of projectiles in your shield (especially when you have multiple enemies shooting at you), can utterly turn the tide of the battle, since it means zero damage to you and possibly a huge chunk of damage to your opponent.
All these titans running around means that at many points of the game, all the focus is on them. Have fun sitting in your hole and hoping someone walks by for you to ambush (which is less likely, since the maps are pretty large, since they need to accommodate big ol' titans), because all the action will be going on elsewhere and your CoD camping strategy has become outdated and flimsy. Honestly, the game is impressive because of how seamlessly it integrates vehicular and on-foot combat into a system where the "vehicle" can be a powerhouse or hopelessly doomed depending on the situation. There's a lot of balance going on there. You can parkour up to a rooftop and rain down rockets from afoot at a titan below, and totally light him up if you're careful about it (especially if he's busy with another titan)... or he can look up, see you, and turn you to a red smudge on the concrete. I've been in a titan and utterly dominated, and I've also gotten in one, jumped in to battle, and gotten decimated. It's a great system.
In the end, it's just CoD in a wilder package with so many changes that it honestly has transformed it into something entirely new and exciting. There's so much to the game and so much finesse to the movement system combined with combat and titan warfare that it will be a much more diverse, easy to learn/impossible to master system than CoD ever could have been. In one match I hopped on a friendly titan's back, nestled up and mounted on the back of his shoulder (great cover) while I assisted him by firing rockets at the titans he engaged. In another I stuck to cover, rooftops, and made heavy use of my cloaking ability coupled with a "smart" pistol that can lock onto a short range target in your sights, firing homing bullets to pull off stealth kills. For there being a pitiful amount of guns, made modes, perks, etc in this beta, there's a
ing lot of depth to this game.
TL;DR, even if you hate CoD, you could fall in love with Titanfall. It's fresh, and it's going to be hard not buying it at launch (especially considering I made $50 off of the pointless beta key).
