Note: This is only a review of the game's single-player campaign and associated modes. I've only played a handful of hours of T2's multiplayer and I didn't really form much of an impression. It's...fine.
If you spend any amount of time on Gaming Twitter, you'll probably come to the conclusion that Titanfall 2 is the Half-Life of the 2010's: a revolutionary campaign that changed the FPS genre forever. To me, it's more like the Crysis of the 2010's: a pretty, faintly innovative shooter that feels good but doesn't ultimately add up to much. Look, yes, Effect and Cause is one of the best FPS levels of all time - no argument from me there - but the rest of the game isn't even 1/10th as creative as that zenith. It's mostly a conveyor belt of corridors and stop and pop shooting that fails to take full advantage of the game's parkour mechanics, plus a handful of disconnected ideas that don't really go anywhere. I personally rather disliked the numerous Titan sections - the lack of mobility kills the campaign's momentum, and I didn't really find a build that I enjoyed. I also just found the narrative to be the kind of self-serious, lore-rich nonsense that seems to be the house style of all triple-A games of this era, and it didn't exactly impress me.
Overall, I definitely do feel that Titanfall 2 is the best Call of Duty-style campaign of all time, but that's not really high praise coming from me. As with a certain high-profile first-person puzzle game that became overhyped by its fans (I think you can guess the one), I think that Titanfall 2 was an amazing surprise if you played it at the time of release with no expectations. If you can somehow do that in the year 2021, I recommend it. Does it make my hypothetical top 25 FPS games of all time? Sure - but it's number 25, if that.
If you spend any amount of time on Gaming Twitter, you'll probably come to the conclusion that Titanfall 2 is the Half-Life of the 2010's: a revolutionary campaign that changed the FPS genre forever. To me, it's more like the Crysis of the 2010's: a pretty, faintly innovative shooter that feels good but doesn't ultimately add up to much. Look, yes, Effect and Cause is one of the best FPS levels of all time - no argument from me there - but the rest of the game isn't even 1/10th as creative as that zenith. It's mostly a conveyor belt of corridors and stop and pop shooting that fails to take full advantage of the game's parkour mechanics, plus a handful of disconnected ideas that don't really go anywhere. I personally rather disliked the numerous Titan sections - the lack of mobility kills the campaign's momentum, and I didn't really find a build that I enjoyed. I also just found the narrative to be the kind of self-serious, lore-rich nonsense that seems to be the house style of all triple-A games of this era, and it didn't exactly impress me.
Overall, I definitely do feel that Titanfall 2 is the best Call of Duty-style campaign of all time, but that's not really high praise coming from me. As with a certain high-profile first-person puzzle game that became overhyped by its fans (I think you can guess the one), I think that Titanfall 2 was an amazing surprise if you played it at the time of release with no expectations. If you can somehow do that in the year 2021, I recommend it. Does it make my hypothetical top 25 FPS games of all time? Sure - but it's number 25, if that.