"Trust me"

Been a long time since I played a great first-person shooter(FPS). And to my delight, Titanfall 2 exceeded my expectations beyond ‘great’. To the point, it has solidified into one of my favorite FPS games. Trust me, It’s a titanic achievement and one I feel deserves a review. So here it is.

You play as Jack Cooper. A run-of-the-mill rifleman in the distant future. Where humanity somehow has colonized other worlds and where titans, big hulking mechs you can pilot dominate the battlefield. He has been assigned to learn under a mentor who pilots a titan. However, after training, events spiral out of control and he must now stop a corporation called Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation(IMC) from launching a super weapon that threatens a militia planet called Harmony.

Outgunned, outmatched, and without any nearby allies it’s up to him to turn the tide. And boy does the game detail his journey throughout and whether or not he will succeed. Jack doesn’t start with much, but soon enough he can pilot a titan. A titan with personality and artificial intelligence. And one who can converse with Jack. This is an interesting mix to the FPS formula where usually I’m alone in combating many baddies with some occasional support from my allies. Here we see the bond between Jack and his titan called BT-7274(or BT for short) emerge and man it is one of the strongest points the game has to offer. Jack is young, inexperienced, and most of all doesn’t know how to pilot a Titan. And yet BT has no problem showing him the ropes. Awesome to see and integrated, not half-baked either since there are plenty of moments where BT will mentor and guide Jack as they go up against the IMC. Providing a fascinating buddy companion who can think for themselves while allowing you to pilot them and work together to eliminate hostiles.

Super thumbs up on the gameplay. Providing a mirror's edge-esque ability to wall run and jump innately. Keeping the momentum fresh and not awkward. It feels good to go between walls again and again while evading enemy fire. And the checkpoint system here is very balanced, so you don’t lose a lot of progress going from one area to the next upon death. Level-wise it's linear, With areas to explore. Not always corridors either. There’s plenty of open space to explore here. And even better when the game will throw a puzzle here and there to keep the pace ongoing. I can hide using an innate stealth camo. And kill any enemies from behind. Jump into my titan and mow down enemies and seamlessly jump out and fight baddies without my Titan. Level design is very varied and I didn’t see much copy-paste design. Interesting biomes to see, fight and traverse, and enough to tinker your brain with puzzle segments and more. It doesn’t bedazzle us with explosions and more explosions without context. There is motive and purpose here as you progress through the plot to stopping the IMC.

Frenetic, yet balanced. This is how I’d describe the gameplay formula as you blaze your way through new areas. There are plenty of weapons scattered throughout the levels and I feel the game structures the weapon placement pretty well. There’s enough to be varied and quite a lot of grenades to choose from as well. So I didn’t have trouble picking new weaponry or looting ammo. If anything, the weapon diversity is included when you pilot a titan. With their own unique abilities equipped. Some can project a shield to reflect enemy fire. Launch multiple rockets. Place mines on a grid, launch a fire salvo or lay pound the ground and set the ground on fire in a vertical direction to burn soldiers. Each time you pick up a new weapon for BT, you can choose from more than five different weapon load-outs. Each with their own abilities attached and unique ultimate abilities too. Of course, you don’t unlock them all early on. You have to progress through the game to earn it.

I constantly used different titan weaponry load-outs as I fought baddies. You’ll use them extensively since you can’t just mow down enemies inside a titan all day. And its incredibly boring using the same old weapon again and again. So I really love the fact you can switch to different load-outs you have available. There are fights with other larger enemies… So I made good use of which weapon and abilities I needed to combat them. I found those battles to be cool and enjoyed them thoroughly since each one offers a different combat advantage from the other enemies. Not going to say any more on that though. Best to experience it blind in my opinion. One last thing before I delve into my critique.

There is an aspect introduced part way, which elevated the game further in my eyes. It’s done in a way that feels natural and became one of my favorite moments. I want to gush about it more, but I don’t want to keep this review longer than intended.

Now, my mixed feelings.

I kind of wish the campaign was longer. I clocked in at just a little over five hours and every moment was savored throughout the game. I feel just a bit more length could’ve propelled the stronger points to greater heights and explored a deeper sense of world-building in the sense of who and what kind of military are we siding with at the beginning of the game and throughout. Titans history. How they function, how they came to be, their combat effectiveness, and any historical significance regarding major/minor battles in history. Jack Cooper’s background and more. We don’t learn much about him really in his past, his relationships with anyone he knows from familial to friends he made in the past. There are audio logs throughout the game, and I did listen to them. They provide extra detail in the world and characters which I appreciate, but still not enough. I think a codex would be a nice addition to learning more about the world and characters here.

While I did appreciate the short campaign nature. The additional missions could've helped let the game breathe so to speak. Granted there are moments, where the pace will let you slow down and breathe, but these moments are few and far in between to truly grasp the world here and the main plot. I feel Titanfall 2 fails in this aspect to immerse me further. I would've included cutscenes, to flesh out the main character and BT more. Along with the villains and side-cast as well. Moreover, briefings could be longer to let the player ask questions and delve more into the tactical, and strategic side of things. Thereby, allowing Jack and BT to have more moments to shine throughout the game and show more moments where it's not just fighting.

Additionally, this may be a hot take, but I would like a health bar to see when I'm fighting on foot. I died more on foot than my time piloting a titan. Since I could adjust and know when to retreat. Here the health bar is when the screen would darken with blood on all corners of my screen and would become larger the more Jack is hit. I feel this isn’t a good way to implement a health system. And while I appreciate the immersiveness of it, I think players would be better off with a visible health bar so they can know when to retreat and recover health naturally.

It's weird having these mixed feelings since there were plenty of moments that stood out to me. In areas where it does have strengths and lows where it needs improvement to go from excellent to truly masterful. There is potential here. And I am here for it. If the developers at Respawn Entertainment ever come back to making another Titanfall campaign.

And that’s it! I don't play a lot of FPS. But this one exceeded my expectations a lot. It doesn't boast the sheer scale of Halo. Nor does it reach the banter I love from the Bad Company games. Doesn't even touch the powerful abilities like Crysis. Nor delving deep into psychological themes like Spec Ops: The Line. Instead, Titanfall 2 shines in the sheer mobility of run and gun here. Interesting level design and transitions kept my interest afloat and I haven’t personally seen it done in other FPS games. Even going above and beyond by introducing an aspect I love and the developers deciding “Let’s go wack” only adds to the sheer balls of them to do so. And it just works. Fluidly and organically without throwing my suspense of disbelief and destroying it with a meteor strike. The fact you can pilot a mech and they can talk to you adds so much to the gameplay and level structure. Great bonding moments between man and machine. Easily a must-play for any FPS fan and even those curious to try an first person shooter for the first time.

8/10

Short and sweet for this one - much like the game itself. The movement and gunplay are excellent, I personally wasn't a fan of most of the scopes/iron sights but they weren't unusable. I played on Master so I wasn't consistently zipping around doing tricks like I maybe should've been, but when I was able to pull off cool shit in one of my many attempts of a firefight it felt amazing.

The story is forgettable but the relationship between Pilot Cooper and BT, his Titan, was the highlight of the game for me. Did a great job of making us feel like a duo rather than just a mechsuit which I wasn't expecting at all. I'm not normally into mechs to be honest but humanising one definitely appealed to me a lot more (even if they don't give the same treatment to any of the other Titan's you destroy throughout the game... :p)

Anyway overall this was a really good time, glad I played it, my only regret is that - as with Cod 4 MWR - the training course trophy is going to be a huge pain in the dick and - unlike Cod 4 MWR - I really don't think I have this one in me... It's so much harder, at least twice as input heavy and it's twice as long to boot, fuck (:

Update: I did it... Somehow .-.

Thanks Azumarrill for the recommendation.

Titanfall 2 is one of the best shooters that I have played in recent years. I have always heard good things about it but I did not expect to enjoy it this much.

The campaign is short and can be completed in an afternoon. However, they still managed to cram so much in it. There are so many interesting mechanics introduced throughout the game that help keep the gameplay fresh. I do not want to spoil anything but one level genuinely shocked me with how crazy it was.

I can see now how Titanfall had such an impact on shooters at the time. I can't believe it's taken me this long to play it. Hopefully we will see more Titanfall games in the future.

Clash of the Titans.

So I never played the original Titanfall which was a multiplayer only first person shooter on the Xbox One. When the sequel was announced with a campaign included I was certainly interested and when I finally got a chance to play it, by all accounts Titanfall 2 is an excellent game I would highly recommend people try.

In the campaign you play the role of Jack Cooper a rifleman for the Frontier Militia who are at war with the Core systems, more specifically the IMC who wish to exploit the frontier systems resources and control them. Though a Titan pilot in training Cooper is suddenly given a practical quicker than he expects when during an attack on an IMC controlled planet called Typhon he ends up in control of the Titan BT and must finish the former pilots mission to save both the Militia still on the planet as well as Frontier forces at large.

The story is actually pretty good, the game eases players in very well with a VR training sequence as well as the prologue mission. The main campaign sees a mixture of running around on foot as well as piloting BT fighting both normal soldiers and other Titans. Cooper and BT have a surprisingly good relationship that works well with your character being able to choose dialogue responses at times in which BT will respond differently and it's often pretty amusing as BT doesn't understand slang all to well. Though the campaign is short at around 5-6 hours it has some nice variety in both it's locations and goals, one of my favorite levels I can't say for spoilers but it was a real surprise, I liked the campaign quite a lot.

The game plays extremely well, it's really fast paced and incredibly smooth. Cooper has a harness that allows him to double jump as well as run along walls and it's implemented brilliantly with changing direction in mid air and firing while wall running and sliding. The controls just feel so right and this is especially noticeable in the multiplayer which is one of the smoothest feeling fast paced first person shooters I've ever played. The multiplayer has extensive modes from "Attrition" which features a mixture of players and AI controlled bots fighting against each other and players can call in their own Titans to pilot. It's a crazy mode where multiple Titans can be fighting it out with other players firing grenades and lasers to try and take them down. The game also features more traditional pilot vs pilot deathmatch modes, one on one Titan battles among others so there are a lot of options. Like most multiplayer shooters it has it's own progression system where you level up unlocking new guns, skins and tags. Weapons themselves each have their own level system as you use them which unlock their own skins. Nothing feels anything more powerful than anything else, I ran round with some of the start weapons and never really changed and found it easy to compete with people 30 levels higher than me, it seems well balanced. There are also a variety of classes to choose from that have abilities such as a grappling hook to get up to areas quickly, a shield to fire through, a radar etc.

Presentation wise Titanfall 2 is excellent. The graphics are really nice not just technically but also artistically, some of the levels are really nicely coloured with skyboxes, jungles and lights. (Nice to play a shooter whose primary colour isn't solely brown) The Titan's all look great and it run almost flawlessly at 60fps which you can really feel while playing. I also really loved the voice acting and music.

All in all I had a great time with Titanfall 2, it looks great, plays incredibly smoothly and the campaign was surprisingly good. I do wish the campaign had been longer or there was some kind of co-op mode but that's just wishful thinking and can't take away that Titanfall 2 is a great game.

+ Campaign is surprisingly good.
+ Multiplayer is fast paced with lots of options.
+ Great visuals and presentation.
+ Smooth controls and frame rate.

- I wish the campaign was longer.

Its the best FPS ive ever played. The movement in this game is so godlike, flying around the multiplayer maps and gunning down the enemies while your flying is so satisfying. The multiplayer is so fun and my favorite part is the titans. Each titan in multiplayer fits a play style and makes each titan unique to play. Monarch and Scorch are my favorite titans to run. The campaign is my favorite of all time. BT and Jack have such a great friendship and going through the journey is so fun. The levels in the campaign are also so fun and makes the game so replayable. This game is just so awesome and one of my favorite FPS games ever

With an immaculately paced campaign that knows when to pack in it's gimmicks before you get sick of them, Titanfall 2 is what I wanted out of Doom 2016, all fluid motion and hyperviolence. With a vaguely anti-colonialist plot that is touched upon in the opening minutes and then eschewed for a rather vanilla tale of friendship between a man and his mech, Titanfall doesn't really give you time to think about its flimsy story in between truly jaw dropping set pieces. Mechanically this is the most entertaining movement system I've ever played in a shooter, despite the wall runs occasionally feeling a bit wonky. It's run time is rather short (I beat it in about 4 hours), but Titanfall 2 knows not to overstay its welcome in one of the tightest FPS campaigns I've played in years, if not ever. Level design as spectacle. The Doom we deserve.

The best FPS I've ever played and I doubt anything will top it.

I think some of the disappointment I see comes from having expectations that are impossible to meet. This game got something of a mythical reputation based on its "underrated" status from its release being overshadowed by more popular FPS franchises. But now everyone knows it's good and it's no longer underrated; it's appropriately rated but the hype levels got too high and now some players go in expecting something different. Don't go in expecting to have your mind blown, and you'll get a tight punchy FPS campaign that's just the right length.

I love this game so much because it's just plain fun. I wish more shooters would have Mirror's Edge style movement abilities. The movement really makes this game stand out from other shooters and is the main reason I find this game infinitely replayable. Titans feel exactly as gigantic and destructive as you'd expect and the slow but powerful titan combat works surprisingly well alongside zipping around as a pilot. The different styles seem disparate but complement each other perfectly.

The story is simple but competently executed. The bond I formed with BT was touching and it's all this game really needed. I think some people's expectations for the story get out of hand.

I think the game's length is perfect. There's no filler and it goes out with a bang. A more typical length doesn't benefit every game.

The multiplayer is also a ton of fun, but sadly the Oceanic servers are rarely busy anymore.

Simplesmente um dos melhores FPS já feitos, tudo nele é bom, TUDO.
Começando pela sua gameplay, minha nossa, o que dizer, é impecável, é extremamente fluída e satisfatória, além de com o tempo vai se ganhando upgrades que a deixam ainda mais incrível (a fase de utilizar viagem no tempo é algo quase divino).
A história também é muito emocionante, tem bons personagens e a parceria de Cooper e BT faz você amar esses dois.
As músicas do jogo são muito boas e te fazem sentir o clima do momento, tanto em partes de animação, quanto em momentos mais sérios e sentimentais.
Eu só gostaria que o jogo fosse mais longo e aproveitasse mais esse sistema de jogabilidade impecável dele, tudo bem que é um jogo com maior foco no multiplayer, mas 2 horinhas a mais de campanha não faria mal nenhum, principalmente porque poderiam ter mais tempo para trabalhar e explicar algumas coisas que deixaram em aberto, o que me incomodou um pouco

The little (big) engine that could. It's been said but it bears repeating; this game eats the Call of Duty formula, chews its up, and spits out what that entire franchise could only dream of being. What Respawn does here is insane because it is aware of the surface level comparisons that would inevitably be made and actively subverts every one of the typical tropes found in those games- the corny camaraderie and cringe-worthy banter, the swelling booms and sweeping heroism of the soundtrack, the banal linearity of the level design and bacon crisp gunplay. It's all here sure, but Respawn injects gorgeous attention to detail into the visual atmosphere, boundless creativity in each and every level of its five-six hour campaign, propulsive pacing that pushes this roller-coaster narrative, brutally diverse mech combat, and most importantly, a warm earnestness that permeates every facet of its creation. The game balances a serene and almost ethereal natural landscape with a heavily industrial aesthetic that wouldn't be far off from a James Cameron film. And such as the likes of Aliens and Judgement Day, Titanfall II is as much a story about surfacing imperialist forces weaponizing extraterrestrial technology for further bloodshed as it is a tale of ardent brotherhood; no matter how artificial the links between them are. The first half introduces a couple outlandish gameplay mechanics and gimmicks that keeps things consistently fresh as the relationship between BT and Cooper builds but it's the barreling second half where the weight of cosmic stakes take both literal and metaphorical flight. Cumulatively, it never skips a beat and is just constantly satisfying. It remains silly enough to have fun and not take it too seriously but I won't lie when I say some parts gave me flutters in my heart from the utter immensity of the spectacle (shit looks amazing for 2016 and runs like a dream) and the handling of the dynamic between the two protagonists. For something that was so prone to failure at launch, I was pleasantly surprised by how much returning to this bolstered my previous playthrough and will probably continue to stand the test of time from here on out. Simply put, the apex of blockbuster gaming.

Titanfall 2's singleplayer campaign had no right being as fun as it is. I was supposed to slog my way through this and whine about the stagnant and sleep inducing state of blockbuster First Person Shooters, and not have to come here and tell you to play Titanfall 2 cause it's one of the handful of recent ones that is actually worth a damn.

Instead of having you excruciatingly peeking and ducking in and out of cover as your screen is filled with blood each time you get hit with a single bullet, Titanfall 2 forces you to get close and personal with enemies while you dash and jump around the walls like an annoying Looney Toon and waste away rows of enemies with a very generous slide that seems to go on until the cool points run off, complemented by the ability to turn invisible for a short period of time which incentivizes you to suicide yourself into the line of fire and keep the pace going.

Getting inside the titan would have felt like cutting the legs off the player, but Titanfall 2 prevents that from ever happening by contrasting the fragility of the pilot with the absurd military power the titan displays everytime you get inside it and just annihilate everything on sight, feeling which is further exponentiated by a surprisingly effective bond between the player and the talking giant anime robot.

Short and sweet and only sparing 6 hours, Titanfall 2 presents a core idea each mission only to discard it for something new the next one, like the one mission everyone already knows about where you have to shift between past and present every 5 seconds to sequence your way through, or the factory one where you have to parkour through a vast assembly line of moving platforms, never letting things get dull and uninteresting.

It's unfortunate then that Titanfall 2 is dragged down by its "westernisms" and doesn't achieve peak uncompromised unashamed dopamine release. The needless constant reloading greatly contrasts with the main appeal of the game, deflating every single offensive lunge every time you have to stop and wait for the gun to go back to game mode, and the weapons are all incredibly boring and safe, giving you around 4 assault rifles that I honestly couldn't tell you the difference between them right now. The story is a bunch of serious space marine nonsense, saved only by the banter between the pilot and the titan, and would have enormously benefited from a Platinum style plot.

Nonetheless, Titanfall 2 is awesome, and as usual the videogame zeitgeist disagrees with me cause this game sold like shit and you will play Call of Duty for the rest of your life because of it :^)

Oh, and there's also online multiplayer, i'm sure it's good or w/e.

it is so fucked up how good this game is in every regard. i remember dismissing Titanfall when it originally came out as a mecha call of duty and that was the dumbest shit i ever did and i have an account here. the pacing of its story is absolutely fucking sublime - lots of bigger games these days make a big deal out of cinematic elements and try to basically just be movies (most of Sony's big titles) but none of those games feel like playing through a movie the way Titanfall 2 does. it's one of the most purely fun games that has ever existed. i enjoy Apex Legends but it absolutely does not fill this series' hole in my life. this shit's so good it got me to install origin.

In life, we rarely get a chance to follow an art from its genesis to its conclusion. At the arse-end of history, we're often doomed to look at such things retrospectively - surrealism, rock & roll, postmodernism, the New York School of Poets, wild west movies, whatever - and wonder what it was like to evolve and ultimately ascend to atrophia in tandem with a creative movement.

Titanfall 2 is, therefore, a rare privilege. A game that has, with the retrospective power of its seven-year existence, definitively marked the end of an era that was carved out by Call of Duty thirteen years prior. Halo, Modern Warfare, Bioshock, Borderlands, Wolfenstein, the lot - I feel like it's fair to say that Titanfall 2 encompasses its own movement, the nature of its existence, and all the reasons it could not continue - where do you go beyond time? If you'll forgive the incredibly fucking pretentious analogy, Titanfall 2 is not unlike Let It Be, the final Beatles album that put the cap on a half-century of rock. (You could probably extrapolate this complete nonsense further and suggest that the corporate self-awareness of popstars popping up in Warzone and Fortnite mirrors the ironic MTV garage grunge of Kurt Cobain, but hey! - that would probably sustain an equally stupid Backloggd essay of its own.)

What makes Titanfall 2 rarer still is that it’s an ending to a now-lost artform that began with the same creator years prior. Infinity Ward may have respawned, but they were, at this conclusive point in time, the same unit of creation from 2003. Impressionism was started by guys like Claude Monet, but was drawn (painted?) to a close by Van Gogh, a conscious will that passed down a century, their art thankfully/tragically unaccelerated by lack of commercial interest. They say an artwork is never finished, but fortunately for us the future is far more financial than we originally projected - artistic movements can now be efficiently condensed into a decade of fiscal quarters. We can watch an artform rise and fall upon the plateau in the time it takes to finish a high school diploma, and that's neither a good thing nor a bad thing; just a thing that happens now. Let it be.

Sure, other militaristic first-person dual-weapon wall-running action shooters with automatic health recovery have come after Titanfall 2, but they're essentially invalid imitations, impressionist postcards that we pick up in the lobby of the Van Gogh Museum. They're the consequences of something that's gone for good. Never to return, for better and for worse.

It feels like whoever came up with this wrote the full production plan when they were 8. Titanfall 2 is about running across walls, doing slides and being best friends with a giant robot. There are hallmarks of linear, cinematic American action games that I don't typically have much taste for, but the game is so robust that you're typically doing the wildest stuff entirely of your own volition. The creativity and vision behind each new setpiece really justifies the instances where the campaign needs to limit your freedom, too. It's a bit of a buzz to see a game so clever being so riotously dumb.

It's also worth bearing in mind that the single-player campaign is only really an extra. Titanfall's primary focus is on its online multiplayer. There wasn't even an offline mode in the original game, which audiences had a strong distaste for at the height of Xbox's yuckiness in the early 2010s. Its mechanics weren't established with a story mode in mind, but you'd never guess that from playing it. Respawn Entertainment was founded by ex-Infinity Ward staff, who had plenty of experience with elaborate, cutting-edge setpieces through the Modern Warfare games. Titanfall 2 is them challenging themselves to show what they can accomplish without the restraints of the Call of Duty franchise or Activision's investor-focused release schedule. They show they can make Valve-quality games. This is the kind of campaign I'm still dreaming Nintendo will make for Splatoon someday.

Titanfall 2's ideas are wild. One level takes place on an elaborate manufacturing line, constructing houses that you take cover in, as they're carried down the track, turning on their sides and upside-down as they have new walls and objects welded on by giant machines. Another has you explore a ruined facility, shifting between two different time states at will, using either the past or present version to open secured areas or erase wrecked debris in your path. It does these things so slickly, you can't begin to imagine what's going on under the hood, and the campaign never takes a break to do a sensible idea.

My main reason for replaying this was as a spectacle piece for my Steam Deck. I've had the thing for over a year now, and Titanfall 2's just been a thing I've come back to every now and then when I've felt like an FPS. It's very silly that handhelds have gone from the 3DS to something like this in such a short space of time. I can't imagine myself ever going back to a console version either. Not unless they patch-in gyro controls, anyway. How did I ever play this with analogue sticks alone? There's so much movement and distant enemies all around you, it's impossible to keep track of targets without intricate, instinctive control over your subtlest actions.

I haven't dabbled with the multiplayer since the PS4 version. I'm aware it's just as good as the single-player. I just don't feel it would be respectful to come into PC FPS servers on a handheld. Certainly not years after launch, where it's just the hardcore fans still trucking on. Like attending a funeral dressed in an inflatable duck costume.

Titanfall 2 is frequently very, very cheap, and even cheaper if you're not someone who thinks Star Fox Zero has pretty good controls, actually, and you're happy with a gyroless PS4 copy. Even if it really doesn't look like your thing, you probably ought to give it a try. You don't want to look like the guy who was too clever to have ever seen Terminator 2.

The shooting and the movement/platforming mechanics are some of the most fluid and responsive in the medium. The campaign is surprisingly great, the set pieces are inventive, there’s a good variety of enemies, a good variety of weapons each with their own learning curve, the story, while fairly generic plot-wise, offers up some fun and memorable characters. The levels are very well thought out in the context of the game’s mechanics, it’s much much more than your standard corridor shooter.

The multiplayer as well is a ton of fun, the movement mechanics and the Titans really give the game it’s own unique flavour. The loadout items are all remarkably well balanced, the game heavily rewards skill, it rewards creativity, improvisation, knowledge of the maps and traversal mechanics, but at the same time, certain modes have A.I. controlled grunts roaming around for you to mow down, so even lesser players can still feel like they’re contributing. One of the most fun stunts I liked to pull off was to call my Titan to drop down on top of an enemy player Titan, killing them instantly. It’s easily some of the most fun I’ve had with a multiplayer shooter at it’s peak, though it’s tough to find full matches nowadays. The player count is fine, last time I played there were around 1200 active on PSN, but the servers and the matchmaking are busted, it takes some patience to get playing. If only the game had bot support (like, in the place of players I mean). It’s something I think more PVP games could benefit from, so their longevity isn’t entirely at the mercy of the servers and player count.

At time of writing, I hadn't given any game a rating of 5 stars for nearly a year until Batman: Arkham City about a week ago. I've logged over 400 games on this site and until Arkham City, had only given 5 stars to...9? 10? What I'm saying is a 5 star rating doesn't come easily, and it's something I think carefully about.

I'd heard whispers of Titanfall 2's supposed greatness for a long time now from a lot of different people whose opinions I respect. I know now that it's widely considered one of the most underrated games of the last decade. So, yeah! I went into this game thinking it'd be good! What I wasn't expecting was for it to be (as far as its campaign is concerned) the best single-player shooter I've ever played. It's better than any Half-Life, it's better than any DOOM, fuck, it's better than Ultrakill. I'm serious. I really feel that way. And this campaign is barely like 6 hours long! Yet they pack so much amazing shit into it.

Finding out that the team behind this was comprised of some of the key minds behind the rise of Call of Duty is like finding out Macklemore ghostwrote a Kendrick Lamar album. This talent, this creativity has been there the whole time and we've had them fucking slaving away on COD? For shame, man. For shame. Titanfall 2 is a fucking marvel. Okay, yeah. Gameplay is amazing. This, most people talk about. Sliding, wall-running, wall-jumping, DOUBLE JUMPING all feels so good and the level design constantly encourages you to use all those platforming abilities, hopping around combat puzzles like a fuckin' jungle gym. The Titan itself also feels incredible. Hulking, clunky, unable to jump! Restricted in movement but overwhelming in firepower, they really commit to you piloting a giant mech in the game design. It'd be so easy to just give the Titan a jump or a hover or something for "convenience" but they don't and the game's vision is purer for it. The restriction of the Titan not being able to jump also aids the game's level design when you as Jack have to split up from your Titan! That, and your size difference makes for an interesting dichotomy between the two characters, which makes sections revolving mostly around either one feel consistently fresh.

But let's go back to level design for a second, shall we? How is a first-person shooter that's - as of writing, over 7 years old and made by a bunch of fuckin' COD heads consistently pulling out some of the most imaginative, artistic and straight-up mind-blowing level design I've ever seen? Parkouring through prefab houses mid-construction on an assembly line, time-travelling between the past and the present to navigate the ruins of a research facility, hopping across military spacecraft in the midst of a high-speed chase and literally fucking wall-jumping between ships hundreds of feet above the ground to catch up to our target. Oh my god man, it's unreal. This game made me chuckle to myself in disbelief, made my jaw drop in awe at some of its setpieces more in 6 hours than most games do across 50.

And would you believe it, I am about to praise of all things - the ART DIRECTION and ENVIRONMENT DESIGN of a game made by Call of Duty figureheads. It's incredible, and I worry that maybe not enough people give it the credit it deserves whilst distracted by everything else but holy shit! The planets are so lush and colourful! The lighting is so futuristic and evocative! All these neon blues and reds absolutely drench the game's various hangars and skylines in this atmosphere the balls of which a COD game couldn't even fucking tickle. I couldn't believe how good this game looked, how consistently, visually interesting it was. A bit of Far Cry 3, a bit of Crysis, a bit of Transformers. This is the artistry Western AAA game developers are so often lacking. This is the rare, military-inspired FPS you could show to a Japanese video game enjoyer and not be embarrassed about. You could say "this is Western engineering, bitch" and then you find his nearest Gundam, knock it over, take a piss on it and watch his fuckin' head explode. What the fuck even is Dragon Quest? We don't even need it over here motherfucker. Giant robot wall-running game

Even the story is decent. It's nothing to write home about and the villains are very generic and uninteresting, but there's some nifty little bits of worldbuilding here and as bland as he may be (and he is VERY bland, and a bit Marvel-ish for my tastes) - protagonist Jack's relationship with BT is really charming. It genuinely evolves throughout the game to the point where some of their late-game interactions actually forced a wry smile out of me. Story-wise, it has all the American military lingo and infallible heroes saluting eachother that I usually fucking hate, and yet this is the easiest 5 star rating I've ever given. That should tell you everything you need to know.

Pretty cool, short and sweet campaign! It's the sort of game that comes up with a new gimmick in each level, whether in level design or full-blown mechanics you could design an entire game around and then discards them after doing most things you can think of with them. Surprsingly, they never use the grappling hook from the multiplayer, which is probably the most fun gadget to use in the game.
The story ain't much to write about but the emotional core works and thank god the protag isn't a mute. It wants to have a cool Metal Gear-esque squad of villains to take out REALLY badly and starts off well by having them talk through their levels, taunting you and building up to the boss fights, but they stop doing this after like 2 chapters, there's not really all that much to their personalities, and then the fights are just like any mech fight on multiplayer, except for maybe Viper, though he's still pretty easy to cheese once you figure out you can charge the sniper rifle. They really missed out on doing a Pilot VS Pilot boss fight. All this cool movement and showing-off of how cool veteran Pilots are and you don't get to have a rival boss fight?

You get a pretty cool setpiece near the end, classic videogame stuff where something really emotional happens and your skills become godlike, hampered a little by the fact it's canon tech doing the work. It's followed up by what may be the funniest, most ironic sequel tease ever. You don't get to fight the main villain, who verbally says this to you and literally hands you an Apex Legends ad. Oh, btw, Titanfall 3 never happens.