Titanfall is a bit of an overshadowed game due to 2 just being considered better in every way, even though I do think Titanfall 1 stands on its own in a lot of ways. Titanfall came out at a very poor time. It was a online only* (It still had offline modes but there was no solo campaign the same as other fps games or titanfall 2) it received pretty lukewarm reception due to the lack of a traditional campaign and lots of server issues. It also was a "launch title" (it came out a few months after but was advertised for it a lot) for the Xbox One which at the time was also very negatively received due to many reasons. Titanfall 1 though also released on the 360 in a very impressive port that largely is just the same game with the obvious frame rate and resolution downgrade.

Now let's get into the actual game. Titanfall 1 immediately strikes me as an extremely aesthetically pleasing game. Unlike its later sequel which chose a more bright colourful pallet, titanfall chooses a much more muted colour pallet with lots of hazy maps filled with industrial and utilitarian architecture. You could easily just say it's a boring brown grey 7th gen shooter but now it's all fancy on a new console generation, but I believe it's artstyle in a lot of ways is BETTER than 2. First off the design of pilots and titans and mechs is much more grounded and makes much more sense to the world that titanfall establishes. The militia and IMC have their own sets of armour for both male and female genders and change based on the type of weapons you're using (assault rifles/lmg, shotgun/smg, snipers/dmrs) which are much more visually interesting and varied compared to 2 which just uses a simple pilot look based on which pilot ability you pick. Titans are customisable rather than being classes and take on a more imposing look rather than the more humanoid look 2 chooses. Titan cockpits have more of a claustrophobic feeling to them and the screens within them look more like screens and less just a big clear planes of glass. Movement is less fluid than 2 which is to be expected but was still very interesting and fun to use.

The campaign of titanfall 1 if you can call it that is more like a series of multiplayer maps just in a chronological order. Which can make actually playing matches a little odd at times since you can be playing at different points in the story timeline. But the multiplayer campaign was a pretty novel concept and was decently interesting. Certain missions were quite cool but I don't wish to spoil them.

I've written quite a lot for a game that I do hold decently close but I don't really feel extremely strongly for it so I'll have to stop myself before I just start saying random stuff. Thanks for reading if you even did. Titanfall even today is still fun to play (if respawn ever fixed it)

Imagine going out to a trendy, new restaurant. You’re initially concerned that it’s all flash and no substance, but then they serve you an excellent appetizer, one that builds the expectations for a superb entree. But then that entree…it just never comes. You wait and wait, until someone finally informs you that your meal will only become available in two years, and that you’re going to have to pay an additional 60 bucks to actually get it. That’s the story of Titanfall for me. In 2014, Respawn gave us a game that has some of the most tactilely pleasing movement mechanics of any first-person shooter. They also gave us a game (at full price!) with a dire lack of substance beneath its surface gameplay mechanics.

The most obvious issue here is the lack of narrative content. This isn’t an intrinsic issue per se - a game like Overwatch does just fine operating with only a basic premise rather than a fully developed narrative. The multiplayer mechanics of Titanfall, though novel and enjoyable over a short period, just aren’t complex enough to allow this approach to work. Frustratingly, there are traces of narrative here - if you play on the campaign server, something resembling a story plays in the background as you proceed through a continuously looping series of multiplayer matches. Unfortunately, it’s mostly just background noise that doesn’t do much to provide the kind of context and detail that might have made the setting come alive.

Additionally, many of the features here feel like retreads from Call of Duty and its various imitators - the maps (functional but bland), the different modes (generic), the character progression. All of these systems are mailed in a way that precludes the kind of sustained interest that games like this thrive on.

Which is too bad, because the moment-to-moment gameplay in Titanfall never feels less than inspired. But it turns out that merely offering excellent traversal and shooting mechanics just isn’t enough when every other element of the game is so thoroughly humdrum. An appealing proof of concept, sure, but not much more.

Only real complaint you can have was the lack of single player. Which at the time of release I was fine with since I was tired of COD style campaigns (Obviously if I knew how good Titanfall 2's campaign would be, I would have complained).

Needless to say this games movement is nuts, it's super fluid and fun. Wall Jump and Double jumping just adds so much depth to combat it's unreal. Of course the shooting is fantastic as well. The mech combat also adds interesting variety especially since it changes how you move around but makes you so much stronger. Also I really enjoy the AI grunts in the game since it helps with making sure there's constant action and it always feels like your contributing to the objective, or at least helps get your mech out faster.

While I prefer the sequel the first one will always have a place in my heart.