Titanfall is a 2014 first-person shooter game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Windows and Xbox One on March 11, 2014; an Xbox 360 version ported by Bluepoint Games was released April 8, 2014. The game was anticipated as the debut title from developers formerly behind the Call of Duty franchise.
In Titanfall, players control "Pilots" and their mech-style Titans, and fight in six-on-six matches set in the war-torn outer space colonies of the Frontier. The game is optimized for fast-paced, continual action, aided by wall-running abilities and populations of computer-controlled soldiers. Up to 50 characters can be active in a single game, and non-player activity is offloaded to Microsoft's cloud computing services to optimize local graphical performance. The game's development team began work on the title in 2011, and their Titan concept grew from a human-sized suit into a battle tank exoskeleton. The team sought to bring "scale, verticality, and story" to its multiplayer genre through elements traditionally reserved for single-player campaigns. The 65-person project took inspiration from Blade Runner, Star Wars, Abrams Battle Tank, and Masamune Shirow of Ghost in the Shell.
Titanfall won over 60 awards at its E3 2013 reveal, including a record-breaking six E3 Critics Awards and "Best of Show" from several media outlets. It also won awards at Gamescom and the Tokyo Game Show. Titanfall received generally favorable reviews. Reviewers praised its balance, Smart Pistol weapon, player mobility, and overall accessibility for players of all skill sets, but criticized its thin campaign, disappointing artificial intelligence, and lack of community features and multiplayer modes. Critics considered the game a successful evolution for the first-person shooter genre but did not agree as to whether the game delivered on its anticipation. A sequel, Titanfall 2, was released for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2016.
Gameplay
Titanfall is a shooter game played from a first-person perspective. Players fight as free-running foot soldier "Pilots" who can command agile, mech-style robots"Titans"to complete team-based objectives. The game is set on derelict and war-torn colonies at the Frontier, the fringe of space exploration, as either the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation (IMC) or the Frontier Militia. Online multiplayer is the sole game mode, but contains single-player elements such as cutscenes, plot, character dialogue, and non-player characters (NPCs). Titanfall has no offline, single-player, or local splitscreen modes, and does not support system link over a local area network (LAN). Respawn founder Vince Zampella described the game as bringing "scale, verticality, and story" to the first-person shooter genre of multiplayer gaming.
Up to twelve human players choose their pilot types and are dropped on the map, beginning the game. Titans can be deployed periodically, based on an onscreen timer, which must complete its countdown to zero before a Titan can be summoned. Killing other players reduces the amount of time remaining. When summoned, players are told to "standby for Titanfall", whereupon a Titan drops from the sky, surrounded by a protective forcefield. Unlike player-characters in games like Call of Duty and Battlefield, pilots are agile and accumulate momentum while running (similar to Tribes). Players run on walls, double jump with a jet pack, vault over obstacles, glide across ziplines, and chain together combos. Pilot and Titan controls are identical except where the pilot's double jump becomes the Titan's dash, as Titans cannot jump. The Titans, somewhere between battle tanks and a mecha, are slower than the nimble pilots but are much better protected and have powerful weapons. Battles include artificial intelligence soldiers (human grunts and robotic spectres) that are designed as human player competition, support, and scenery. Games end with a race to the losing team's evacuation dropship.
The pilot's tactical abilities include x-ray vision, invisibility cloaking, and regenerating speed boosts. Pilots use ten traditional customizable weapons, including a semi-automatic shotgun, machine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and the Smart Pistol Mk5. The latter locks onto multiple targets before firing multiple shots in a burst. Players generally require three Smart Pistol shots to die. The pistol can shoot around corners. All pilots have anti-Titan weapons equipped. Pilots can hop on a Titan's back to "rodeo" and shoot its weak spot, or otherwise use four anti-Titan weapons to take them down. Player-pilots can eject from Titans that take too much damage, and the Titan replacement timer is reset upon the Titan's death.
There are three unique Titan classes, variants of light, medium, and heavy, with inversely related speed and armor: the all-rounder Atlas, the bulky Ogre, and the fleet-footed Stryder. The latter two chassis are unlocked upon finishing both faction campaigns and were later made unlockable by leveling up as well. Each chassis has a respective Core power that works on a cooldown timer: respectively, increased damage, increased shields, and unlimited dashes. Titan tactical ability options include stopping enemy ammunition in midair to throw back in their direction, emitting electrified smoke to hurt and repel pilots climbing the Titan's back, and deploying a defensive wall. Additionally, players can equip two perk kits to customize for their preferred strategy. Their primary weapons include rocket launchers, lightning cannons, and chainguns. Titans can act autonomously when put in guard and follow modes, which directs the Titan either to protect their vicinity or to tail their pilot, respectively.
There are 15 multiplayer maps and five multiplayer modes in the base game. In Attrition, a traditional Team Deathmatch, teams compete for the greatest kill count, and bot kills and Titan kills are counted. Pilot Hunter is similar to Attrition, but only counts pilot kills. In Hardpoint Domination, the object is to capture and defend areas of the map. In Last Titan Standing, players begin the match in Titans and have a single life. There is also a Capture the Flag mode. All modes are team-based and there are no free-for-alls. Completing challenges unlocks new abilities, weapons, customization opportunities, and burn cards: single-use, single-life power-ups that bestow a temporary gain, such as reduced Titan drop waits, unlimited grenades weapons, or disguise as a computer-controlled Spectre. Players can bring up to three cards into a match. Through multiplayer matches, players earn experience points that unlock new equipment and perks. Players who reach level 50 can "regenerate" to back to level 1, trading their rank and unlocks for faster experience gain and a prestige icon next to their names.
The game's "campaign multiplayer" is separate from the game's regular multiplayer (called classic internally), and serves as an extended tutorial. It plays as multiplayer with single-player elements, such as scripted cinematic sequences, non-playable character dialogue, an in-game soundtrack, and audio briefings. There are separate campaigns for the Militia and IMC factions, and the game randomly assigns the player to one for a series of nine maps. Each mission is paired with a specific game type and map, supplemented by minimal voiceover narration, which was later removed. The Militia are a paramilitary organization made up of disgruntled civilians, smugglers, pirates, and criminals of the Frontier and the resistance against IMC use of colony resources. They are led by former IMC officer and Titan Pilot James MacAllan, engineer and mission coordinator Cheng "Bish" Lorck, and covert operative Sarah Briggs who handles Titan deployment. The corporate conglomerate IMC specializes in natural resource extraction, and came to the resource-rich Frontier for business. Leading their mercenary forces are Frontier operations commander-in-chief Vice Admiral Marcus Graves, intel specialist Sergeant Kuben Blisk, and artificial intelligence companion Spyglass who handles Titan deployment.
Synopsis
Setting
Humanity lives in the deepest reaches of explored space in a vast region known as The Frontier. It contains inhabited star systems, but many more worlds remain uncharted. Most people will never travel this far away from normal civilization, but for pioneers, explorers, mercenaries, outlaws, and soldiers, the Frontier offers both adventure and opportunity.
Major interplanetary corporations such as Hammond Roboticsa major manufacturing, aerospace and defense contractoruse resources of the Frontier to make builds of mecha-combatants such as Titans and Spectres. Titans are descendants of present-day fledgling military exoskeletons. In addition to the obvious combat applications, unarmed forms of Titans are used in heavy industries like cargo transport and deep space ship salvage. They are also used in special applications such as deep space search and rescue, and are very effective in inhospitable environments. The use of Titans is widespread throughout the Frontier in both combat and civilian life. As with Titans, the Frontier contains Pilots of many different styles and experiences. Titan Pilots are rated by 'certifications', most of which apply to civilian applications, such as construction, shipping, and heavy salvage industries. The most prestigious of these is the Full Combat Certification - a widely published series of tests that grade a Titan Pilot's abilities. Because of the extreme physical and mental challenges of mastering both Titan combat and dismounted parkour movement, a fully combat certified Titan Pilot is a rare find, and the combat skills of active Pilots in the field varies widely throughout the Frontier.
The Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation (IMC) started out small, in natural resource extraction industries, under the name Hammond Engineering. Increasing demand for Titan manufacturing materials, combined with Hammond's market-cornering planetary survey technology and map database rights, contributed to explosive growth for the company. Over the course of a century, a series of acquisitions, mergers, and re-brandings lead to the transformation of Hammond Engineering into the ruthless commercial empire that is the IMC. With the Frontier's valuable shipping lanes and vast planetary resources ripe for exploitation, the IMC is dedicated to maximizing profits and shareholder wealth, using the legal application of force when necessary.
The Frontier Militia represents the military arm of the Frontier systems' territorial defense pact. The Militia is a loosely governed mishmash of homesteaders, bandits, mercenaries, and pirates, all rising up as 'citizen soldiers' when the need arises. Each brigade within the Militia is responsible for fighting in an assigned section of Frontier territory. Although some brigades are little more than vast pirate organizations, the Militia has enough resources to be a real obstacle to the IMC's ambitions on the Frontier. The Militia claims that direct action against the IMC is in the best interest of the homesteaders whom they allegedly represent, but not everyone on the Frontier sees it that way.
Eventually, a war breaks out on the Frontier between the IMC and the Militia, known as the Titan Wars. Hammond Robotics distributes many resources to these factionsmainly the IMCto use combatants such as Titans, Spectres and MRVN-created technology for advanced warfare. Militia commanders such as Sarah and Cheng "Bish" Lorck struggle against the IMC, led by Vice Admiral Marcus Graves. During the events of Titanfall, Pilots, Grunts, Spectres and Titans of the IMC and Militia go through stages of war in multiple locations.
Plot