Titanfall Beta Thoughts - ODogg's Blog

ODogg's Blog

Titanfall Beta Thoughts

Posted on February 20, 2014 at 12:40 PM.

My thoughts on the Titanfall Beta:

Last night about 10:15pm I logged out of one of the most enjoyable gaming sessions I've had in as long as I can recall. The game? The Titanfall BETA on the Xbox One. I've played first person shooters (FPS) since Castle Wolfenstein, (the predecessor to Doom) which I recall purchasing at a local computer store for 25 cents on a 5 1/4" floppy. I have seen hundreds of games in those 30 some years that are hyped and probably 98% of them fail to match the hype.

Titanfall will not match the hype. It will lock onto it, obliterate it and then stomp all over it. Yes it's just that good.

The first day I played the Beta was Monday and I immediately took to the Titanfall forums to complain that I was disappointed in it because I was, as is typical for me, unable to survive for more than two seconds as I'm really not that great at FPS. I didn't like the matchmaking system which seemed unfair to me. I didn't like the fact I couldn't have any success at it and was hoping I would be matched with people who were, well kinda crappy at FPS like me, LOL.

The irony in that now I see... Titanfall is the first FPS that I think that I have ever played in which anyone, even people not great at aiming and traditionally get slaughtered in games like Call of Duty and Battlefield 4, are going to be able to succeed at. Yes if you're a wonderkid at those other FPS you'll do just fine as well, assuming you play smart.

And that's the key, what is best about Titanfall. It's not just a run-aim and gun game like most FPS. It's a thinking man's game. Yes that's right, you read it correctly, if you're smart but crappy on the joystick, like me, you will still find you have a lot of success quite frequently. I'll give you a couple of examples.
For starters there's an auto-aim pistol that you start with in the beta. You just aim in the general direction of an enemy and after about 2 full seconds it will lock on. Just shoot several times and POW! your enemy is dead! Of course the creators of Titanfall knew to balance the gun so that it's not all powerful as well though. It's weak in close quarters combat and it does take a couple of seconds to lock on. You will find you die quite often waiting for the lock on. But it does have it's upside if you're sneaky and can get lock ons for those of you out there who aren't quite a joystick jockey anymore (or ever were, LOL)

Secondly, just about every action has an alternate reaction that you can use to counter it. It's sort of the rock-paper-scissors concept. You're in a Titan with huge guns and missiles? Ok, I'll be a pilot who turns invisible, parkours onto a roof, hits you with a lock on Titan missile and then runs quickly before you knew where it came from and does the same thing again. But woe is me if you do spot me, one shot at me with those big guns and I'm dead...

Lastly, the game actually rewards you quite well for defending instead of just mindlessly attacking. My favorite game mode by far is the Hardpoint game mode which gives you three waypoints, A, B and C to capture and defend. It seems that about 90%-95% of FPS gamers only enjoy attacking. Not me, I enjoy defending. Defending is fun as hell. And guess what? I'm pretty damned good at it I found. I cloack myself invisible, jump up on a wall and crouch there, waiting for someone to come into my waypoint. As soon as they do I drop a frag grenade, if they don't hear it, and they usually don't, then two seconds later they're DEAD...and I get bigtime points. And all without having to run, aim and gun someone down like I would to get points in COD or other FPS.

Like I said, on Monday I was complaining about the game, wasn't enjoying it, finishing last every single time in my group of six. But by Wednesday night at the close of the Beta, because I learned HOW to play differently and I learned how to utilize all the tools and tricks at my disposal I was finishing 1st or 2nd nearly everytime on my team, despite the fact I was level 8 or 9 and all of my teammates were typically 13 or 14 (the max). This is why Titanfall is going to be HUGE, it's not just a shooter, it's a strategy game posing as a shooter.

So did I have fun? Hell yeah I did. But even more fun than Titanfall was, and will be when I buy it, and yes buying this game is a no-brainer, ESPECIALLY if you like and enjoy FPS but never play online because you constantly get wasted, knowing that it's still possible in this day and age for innovation to occur in a huge way in a typically crowded and tired and repetitive field as the first person shooter. That is, in and of itself, one of the best revelations that this 44 year old gamer has had in a long time...probably 20+ years in fact.

March 11th cannot come soon enough for this grandpa gamer.

Comments

# 1 Primal23 @ Feb 21

I'm a 34 year old gamer with kids and a job that take a lot of my free time and feel exactly the same way about Titanfall when I played it. First game in years where I felt like I did need to play it 30 hours a week to keep my fast twitch FPS musles up to speed to just compete like you do in COD and other FPS. Reminded me a lot of when i first played the very first Halo game, everyone could compete and just have fun rather then feel like your getting dominated the whole time just because you don't play all the time.

# 2 ODogg @ Feb 21

You summed it up great...that's why I just preordered it! Thanks for reading and commenting too.

# 3 doubledeuceR6 @ Feb 21

Great read that was ODogg, couldn't agree more!

# 4 JBH3 @ Feb 27

Nice post. I'm all in for this one. Seems action packed. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

# 5 allBthere @ Mar 4

you make me want to try it! ... but I've always, always hated mech games and don't think they are 'cool' - not to be a debbie downer, I'd just rather retro or old tech compared to new tech, or just take me to distant future like mass effect and so on.

# 6 ODogg @ Mar 4

Well to each his own! I'd try the demo though if there is one just to be sure it's not your cup of tea..