Zero Punctuation: Titanfall - It's Got Big Stompy Robots

[lukesparow]

Well that's if you speedrun it. The same can be said for Titanfall.
You can play that game for 10 minutes just as well, but that doesn't mean there isn't more content there.
I never said Kojima should get away with Ground Zeroes, as I think this practice is despicable. 4

I'd argue that, given the nature of online multiplayer[footnote]As in, the randomness and uncertainty present in any given match.[/footnote], something like Titanfall has a greater level of inherent replayability than a purely solo, primarily linear game like Ground Zeroes.

This is not to speak on any given players preference for multi or solo gameplay, of course. And yes, granted, the ten minute run is a "speed run", but only in so far as the person doing the play-through only did everything needed for story completion.

With the side missions, and perhaps a bit of faffing about, the play time can be extended to something as long as two or three hours (so I've heard from friends who've played). But even so we're still talking about $30 for what amounts to a long movie.

Regardless, if Ground Zeroes is a(overpriced) taste of what's to come, MGS fans are in for a treat. That, I believe, is not debatable.

What I am saying however, is that Titanfall is basically doing the same thing.

In a general sense, I agree. Absolutely. However, it really all depends on what new features, content, and other additions Respawn brings to the game down the road.

The more free content that's added, the more the price tag is justified. The more premium DLC that's added, the less justified.

I completely agree. The way Titanfall stands as of right now, it's not worth $60 at all though.
Maybe later down the line when, like you say might happen, more content is added.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Yea, I have a bad feeling that we're going to see a lot more multiplayer only games now that both the ps4 and xbone charge monthly for playing online. That's why everyone wants it to be a success. Then they can point at it and say 'look all the next gen players want multiplayer only games. Make more.'

any next gen game that charges monthly for playing online I'm not playing online and if its online only I'm not buying it pure and simple.

I hear ya but it's not just the games, all the consoles (except the wiiu) themselves require a monthly charge to play online now. I understand Sony has a lot more interesting features integrated into the online experience (like video capture, which is pretty cool) but they should lock all that behind a paywall instead of online play. If they did that, I might actually consider buying a ps4. Hell, I might even consider subscribing to plus if I don't feel like I'm being bullied into it.

I thought that PS4 had free online access someone at gamestop told me that.

Yea? That would be cool if they paid my cable bill but no.
Seriously though, it's only the online play that you need to subscribe to plus for. So it seems odd to me that the only thing that they lock up is half (or sometimes all) the content of the game you just bought separately. Did I say odd, I meant that it seems like a dick move.

Like I said before, I wouldn't be so pissed about it if they weren't also phasing local multiplayer out.

 

[dystopiaINC]

I almost never play FPS and was going to avoid this game when I heard it was only multiplayer, but my roommate wound up buying it and I found it to easily be the best multiplayer FPS game I have ever played.

The balance between titan and pilot in combat is great, the freedom of movement you have as a pilot rivals that of parkour titles like Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed, and piloting a titan is extremely satisfying. It's well-executed and very fun-centric multiplayer, and that's it.

Knowing what I know now, I would have been willing to pay full price for it.

I'd even say the parkour is even more fluid than Assassins Creed. I Just picked up Black Flag during a 50% off sale and have been playing that after several weeks of Titanfall and I keep getting screwed over by the different parkour. In TF you can scale any wall and one jump will scale most ledges that you can't AC, not to mention you have to look for specific sections of wall or tree to climb in AC. Both are great it's just TitanFall's free, fast, and unrestricted parkour takes time to unlearn and make other games feel slow and clunky.

On another note... Every new battlefield and COD game gets shit on by this same website for even HAVING a single player mode at all. people complain about them wasting time and money on a game that people only want for the multilayer... then we get Titanfall Multi only and people shit on it for doing what people shit on COD and battlefield for not doing. personally I dump more time into my multiplayer games than I do in single player only exception being Mass Effect. with most single player games I beat the story once and then go back to what ever multiplayer game I was playing before. If I wasn't playing COD, Battlefield, or Titanfall online I would be playing games once every few weeks instead of every day like I do now.

One more thing, the best gun in the game is available from lv 1 and that's the carbine. Level ups help with Titan load outs and some player perks but if your talking about people getting a gun that better than yours it's really not. the weapons are pretty well balanced. not perfect, but the most unbalanced guns are unlocked early. your team in campaign mode is selected randomly your first match can be on either side plenty of lv 1 players on both sides. And people need to remember this is the first game from a new studio and is a brand new IP there are going to be things not in it that you will find in a franchise that has been pumping out yearly games for 10 years. More Customization will probably be in the next game, and new game modes has been confirmed already and will be out when ever they think it's a good to to launch them, and yes they were announced to be free.

 

[SethAbercromby]

Nice review, totally agree on most parts. It's cool, it's fun and it's an overall solid multiplayer game. Reducing the total number of players per server was a pretty good desicion because even more experience players can't make much of a difference and gives new players enough freedom to experiment with and learn the mechanics of the game. The most important tools are given to you on a basic level so you don't feel left out for the early games because you lack all the fun tools (which is why I'm not too fond of Battlefield's unlock system). I'll probably pick it up for PC once it gets less expensive but until them, I've still got a few other games on my plate that need to be played. This game also reminded me that I still have to pick up a copy of KillZone Mercenary which I had a lot of fun playing during the pre-release multiplayer demo.

 

[Ferisar]

Meanwhile all the other internet reviewers are saying MGS Ground Zeroes, being a reasonable 20 bucks (if you're smart and buying it digitally on the reasonable consoles), is the one that's got too high an asking price for the 10+ hours of content in it, while in the same breath vomiting out perfect scores to Titanfall.

Used to be the days when people would say "Oh I do giggle at that Yahtzee fellow, but I would never take his videos seriously as a review." How naive and unsuspecting we all were back in those quaint days now that it seems like he's the only one who hasn't been bought and sold by the AAA publishers or brainwashed by the hype machine.

I really don't see how a 5~ minute comedy bit on the escapist equates to an adequate review, but I'll take your word for it. Yahtzee is funny, and he gets some things when it comes to games (often better when he actually understands what's going on in the game), but he's not some end-all be-all to video game criticism. Doesn't mean he's bad at it, but there's only so much he can do being an entertainer that relies on cynicism and talking really fast 9 out of 10 times while making the videos. Making purchasing decisions solely based on these reviews would either leave you rather short on games, or disappointed by the realization that his tastes are actually not the most equitable when it comes to the average person. I'll still stick to legit critics and personal research. It hasn't let me down anytime recently, and I doubt it's going to unless all of the major sites get acquired by EA and sold off to India for outsourced reviews.

Also, Ground Zeroes, 10+ hours? Really? If you treat it like a particularly wet sponge, maybe, but even then that's pushing it.

 

[Magmarock]

Typical Escapist members will complain. Anyone who actually wants to play a multiplayer shooter would applaud the decision though.

Too bad few people here are likely to accept that there's any hypocrisy in calling Titanfall "half a game" since it's multiplayer only when they'd never even dream of saying the same of a game because it's singleplayer only.

That's because a single player games only needs one play to be enjoyed. This is kind of a no brainier. One player buys one game and gets enjoyment out of it. For TitanFall multiple players have to buy it and play together. Even MP focused games such as UT had bots which made for some good single player fun.

$80 for a g same that can't even be enjoyed on it's own, are you serious. Developers are taking the piss.

That argument makes no sense. You can buy the game on your own and enjoy it because plenty of other people have bought the game and are playing it without you.

Also from a technical standpoint the sort of pathing players are expected to do as Pilots is basically the antithesis of AI pathfinding. It would truly be a programming marvel if Respawn managed to make serviceable bots for them.

"You can buy the game on your own and enjoy it because plenty of other people have bought the game and are playing it without you."

This confuses me, you buy a game and enjoy it because others are playing it without you?

 

[mister R]

i'll get the game if they give me a kitten mech xD

 

[truckspond]

Yeah... I am skipping this one because of the lack of an offline single-player mode and the fact that by the time it hits the price I am willing to buy it at everyone will have stopped playing it anyway!

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

"You can buy the game on your own and enjoy it because plenty of other people have bought the game and are playing it without you."

This confuses me, you buy a game and enjoy it because others are playing it without you?

It's quite straightforward.

There are currently many people playing Titanfall without you, therefore you can buy it yourself and play it. From your perspective as a buyer there's really no difference that the game is multiplayer only.

 

[latenightapplepie]

Wow, full price for a multiplayer-only title that's in match format, not free-roaming/sandbox? Weak.
Wait, what? 80 bucks?! That's not full price! 60 bucks is full price, 80 bucks is full price XL!
I have little inclination to try this game. Sounds like it was mostly hype, as expected.

That could be an currency conversion thing going on there. I'm pretty sure I've seen Titanfall for AU$80 (where Yahtzee lives), whereas it could be more like US$60. Not certain on that one though.

On topic: Yeah I'm a little disappointed to let this one go, because it looks like a lot of fun. But I can't afford that much for a multiplayer only title, plus the Xbox Live subscription.

 

[Metalrocks]

good points. i guess it has also to do that the maps are smaller just like in COD so thats what sticks out for everyone.

Admittedly the gun mechanics are very similar to cod, this is probably what ticks people of. I myself was skeptic since I hate cod with a passion, but I never outright dismissed the game based on that.

i hate COD as well. the gun mechanic otherwise doesnt bother me really. i hate COD for other reasons. but yes, i also never thought that titanfall is similar to COD. more a like a little breeze of fresh air with its gameplay as such. i have played the beta version and i just had a blast with it. dint even think i was playing COD.

 

[The Lunatic]

$20 of content, marketed at $60, From EA of all people?

Gosh, what is the world coming to.

 

[cmdrmonkey]

Titanfall is actually fun, and a refreshing change of pace from the endless Call of Duty and Battlefield sequels and clones. And nitpicking about the tacked on story no one pays attention to anyway is kind of missing the whole point.

And they ditched the single player because no one plays the single player in these kinds of games.

It also sounds like he just played the campaign and never played any of the multiplayer modes, which is again kind of missing the whole point. Last titan standing especially is a blast.

Titanfall is the first multiplayer shooter I've had fun with in the better part of a decade. So it must be doing something right. I kind of thought having fun was the whole point of playing games in the first place. Even Yahtzee despite all of his angst says the game is very fun.

 

[Magmarock]

$20 of content, marketed at $60, From EA of all people?

Gosh, what is the world coming to.

Pay as much as possible for as little as possible. One day they'll be charging for the levels. Also awesome icon it looks familiar some how.

"You can buy the game on your own and enjoy it because plenty of other people have bought the game and are playing it without you."

This confuses me, you buy a game and enjoy it because others are playing it without you?

It's quite straightforward.

There are currently many people playing Titanfall without you, therefore you can buy it yourself and play it. From your perspective as a buyer there's really no difference that the game is multiplayer only.

False logic, I can't just play it I need to play it with other people. So I'll need more then just internet I'll need good internet and a proximity to others who also have good internet. On top of that they too have to be playing the game. The reason that MP only games are called half games is because it's the other human players that are doing half the work, because the game can't do anything by itself. Which is fine as $15 with added bots.

 

[Something Amyss]

Yeah, while the game looks fun, the amount of fun seems awful stretched out for the asking price. It's interesting to see Yahtzee coming to that same conclusion.

 

[Zydrate]

I watch Achievement Hunter and their few Let's Plays are rife with "Jesus fuck this is so GODDAMN FUN." It got kind of obnoxious to hear them get wrapped up in the hype as well.

I might get it on a sale some day (And likely get stomped by all those 40's and shit) but I already knew what Yahtzee said. I don't think it's worth it, and feels like there's little content. (Same reason I haven't tried ESO yet) Even AH's third video got a bit samey. If I got tired of just watching it, I don't think playing it would be much different.

 

[Therumancer]

I watch Achievement Hunter and their few Let's Plays are rife with "Jesus fuck this is so GODDAMN FUN." It got kind of obnoxious to hear them get wrapped up in the hype as well.

I might get it on a sale some day (And likely get stomped by all those 40's and shit) but I already knew what Yahtzee said. I don't think it's worth it, and feels like there's little content. (Same reason I haven't tried ESO yet) Even AH's third video got a bit samey. If I got tired of just watching it, I don't think playing it would be much different.

Well, I guess it all depends on how much you like deathmatch shooters. If your someone who sits down for dozens of hours on end simply playing match after match this is probably worth it. To me for example it would never be, but I imagine it's success is because it's a very high quality product for the type of audience it's going for. That said with the way things are going I do not expect "Titanfall" to be hitting budget bins anytime in the near future.

As far as ESO goes, it's okay, but nothing special. To be honest the amount of content is decent, and the game has a lot of potential, though like most MMOs I imagine it will never be met. I half expect it will be replaced by "Wildstar" for me in a couple of months but that remains to be seen, after all we don't know what that MMO is going to shape up like either.

But yes, unless you PVP ESO is a bit content-lite despite the usual promises of frequent expansions, we had people approaching top level before the 5 day head start was even done... and the gold spammers being right there alongside them (I mean seriously, we had gold spamming before release yet again).

One day someone will get an MMO release right, have enough content to make people happy, and find a way to solve these annoying spammer problems. It hasn't happened yet though. It will be the height of irony if despite all the attempts to steal Blizzard's thunder, the game that finally does it is this "Project Titan" thing they have been sitting on.

 

[porous_shield]

It´s because some people just see a shooter and immediatly go "well it´s just halo/cod/gears with just one little thing added". They will basically ignore any changes made to a formular, even if those changes are freaking massive, if they did not like the original formular and denie that any actual innovation or progress was done.

It´s probably the same kind of people who actually believe that all 2D and 3D fighers are the same thing, but then praise stuff like Spec obs: the line(litterally COD with a better story) or gone home(the amazing experience of walking around in someones house) for theyr enormous achievements of pushing games further.

You're dismissing other people's opinions, and the things they enjoy, while simultaneously saying how wrong it is that other people are dismissive of your own. Spec-Ops isn't literally, or for that matter, figuratively COD with a better storyline and if you didn't find Gone Home an amazing experience that's fine but you just did the same thing the people you talked about did by completely ignorantly dismissing games you aren't into.

To someone who has never been into modern military shooters like COD, like myself, Titan Fall looks similar to, and plays like, other games of that ilk. The very reason I tried it was because people were saying it is a very different game compared to COD. It's great that they are changing up the formula a bit but, to me, it's COD with a few new bells and whistles and a new coat of paint and still not something I enjoy. To someone who already enjoys the formula and played tons of those games of course the changes will be massive in the same way that someone who frequently uses a website will notice the changes while someone who infrequently does might not notice the changes or the effect on the website those changes cause. To you they are massive, but to someone else, it's a site they're on for 5 minutes one a week.

 

[DaViller]

You're dismissing other people's opinions, and the things they enjoy, while simultaneously saying how wrong it is that other people are dismissive of your own. Spec-Ops isn't literally, or for that matter, figuratively COD with a better storyline and if you didn't find Gone Home an amazing experience that's fine but you just did the same thing the people you talked about did by completely ignorantly dismissing games you aren't into.

To someone who has never been into modern military shooters like COD, like myself, Titan Fall looks similar to, and plays like, other games of that ilk. The very reason I tried it was because people were saying it is a very different game compared to COD. It's great that they are changing up the formula a bit but, to me, it's COD with a few new bells and whistles and a new coat of paint and still not something I enjoy. To someone who already enjoys the formula and played tons of those games of course the changes will be massive in the same way that someone who frequently uses a website will notice the changes while someone who infrequently does might not notice the changes or the effect on the website those changes cause. To you they are massive, but to someone else, it's a site they're on for 5 minutes one a week.

Firstly I dont actually hate the games I mentioned nor the people who like to play them. I just noticed a certain snob additude some of these people seem to have and applied it to my point of view. By that I mean argueing that your (in this case gone home or Spec Obs) game is the savior of videogames even though they dont actually do anything new from a gameplay perspective. To smugly dismiss any and all innovation or change if it´s not your type of innovation or change. In this case that would be changes gameplay mechanics being looked down upon, while some other game is being praised despite not having anything new to offer outside of a well written story.

I also am not a fan of modern military shooters as I have mentioned before. I have played COD, battlefield and Spec obs and I consider them shit games with the depth of a teaspoon(though admittedly Spec obs campaign is pretty good). Titanfall does not fall into this category. It has, as I have mentioned before, very similar gun mechanics as COD (comparatively accurate rapid fire weapons with high lethality) but thats just about it. The freedom of movement combined with the Titan pilot interactions gives this game a level of dynamic that no MMS I know can even dream of. When you see how the game is actually played by better players, it resembles something like unreal or painkiller more then it resembles COD and that was pretty much apperent to me from the first time I played it (even though I kinda suck at it).

I can´s see how Spec obs is not just COD with a better story but titanfall is just COD with a new paintjob. Changing from an Ogre type titan to a Strider type in Titanfall is a greater gameplay variation then changing from COD to Spec Obs.

 

[KungFuJazzHands]

I can´s see how Spec obs is not just COD with a better story but titanfall is just COD with a new paintjob. Changing from an Ogre type titan to a Strider type in Titanfall is a greater gameplay variation then changing from COD to Spec Obs.

Maybe I can clarify why many people who haven't played Titanfall (myself included) hold the view that it's not as innovative as a lot of others are claiming it is:

*The maps look like nothing but vertically expanded versions of the countless samey-same ones we've encountered time and time again in CoD. There's little to no appreciable variety in terrain, environment, or tactical possibilities when Titanfall's maps are compared on a one-to-one basis, much like CoD.

*The mechanics and effects behind the weapons in Titanfall seem to be copied and pasted directly from CoD. They lack the same "real world" oomph as all the pea-shooters in CoD.

*Titans are nothing new. They've been seen countless times in countless other video games. Parkour isn't exactly fresh either. Also, Titanfall is a multiplayer FPS with guns, explosions, and a greybrown vomit color scheme, so you'll have to forgive people for thinking it's not that different from any of the other hundreds of militarized shooters that make up a huge portion of the video game industry's historical output.

*Burn Cards operate exactly like CoD's classic killstreak rewards.

*And last but not least, Titanfall was heavily marketed towards fans of the CoD series. It's pretty obvious that Respawn were counting on a pre-existing base to sell more units of their premier flagship title. It makes sense that they would use some of the concepts (ease of access, low competitive barrier, arena-style maps, various game modes, relaxed playstyle, etc.) that made their older games so popular.

With all that said, I'm not sure how you're comfortable stating that Titanfall is such a unique product when you seem to have problems fathoming how Spec Ops is much farther from being a copycat of Call of Duty than Titanfall is. Spec Ops is a 3rd-person squad shooter, its plot is miles deeper than anything CoD will ever manage to come up with, it has multiple story branches and endings, and even its multiplayer portion operates differently from CoD's generic arena battles. The only similarity between them is their military setting. Are you positive you played Spec Ops and you're not just getting it mixed up with some other game?