Titanfall 2 Everything Wrong
Yesterday I posted some first impressions for titanfall 2. First of all unable to play for more than 40 minutes total. Disclaimer I don’t think titanfall 2 is a bad game. Clear change in direction compared to the original. Under the shadows of other shooters, titanfall now limited in scope. Finally time to discuss what has changed in detail.
New style
Implementation strikingly rather different compared to the original. Atmosphere different compared to the original. No longer feels like a battlefield but more staged arena. Movement feels weighed over floaty unrestricted. Fundamental concept behind the map design is different, movement a secondary objective not primary. More grounded experience instead of the heavy mobility. Design philosophy completely different, minor changes reshape entire game.
Smaller scale
Scaling back everything made titanfall unique. A shell of its former self with no direction or purpose. Seeking a slice of the tiny gaming audience that enjoys this genre. The compromises made turn Titanfall from being a unique movement shooter. More grounded game that quite honestly seems boring. Original erratic movement provided chaos to the winding careful compiled maps. Titanfall 2 throws away everything the original did reducing the chaos.
Studio reviewed original game decided should not just be about hypermobility. Making series of compromises based on feedback from every source. Designers decided against heavy chaos caused by hypermobility. Concepts revisited keeping some DNA, core concepts changed. Fear the designers took wrong feedback created game nobody wants.
Movement gained weight, total jump distance smaller, don’t gain as much momentum. Movement changed based on feedback given interviews make clear the reason. Designers want slower less hectic gameplay, reducing what titanfall was. Only have rough numbers behind movement system changes. Impossible to reach top movement speed all the time. Wild fluctuation compared to original, allowed constant speed. Fluctuation between speed when moving feels odd. Pointless in combat compared to the original system. Extremely limited what you can do and what you want to do.
Titans
Titanfall after act of titans falling down. Actuality titanfall feels like titans don’t fall often. Required to earn titans no longer earn them after period of time. Limited in total customisation with each titan sharing similar bonus traits. Regeneration of shields now comes down stealing batteries. Complete change titan rodeo mechanics no longer do damage but steal batteries. Actuality titans are not really that threatening which is odd. Low mobility feel forced use any extra mobility abilities. Hope final version allows you change titan mid match and any customisation. Problem facing titans feel rather pointless, takes ages to earn. Limited impact each one feels similar not unique. Unsure how make each one feel like credible threat.
Map design
Map design seems to focus more on a horizontal plane as opposed to vertical. Previous title focused on vertical gameplay hectic gameplay. Players exploited the map design to move about quickly. You could avoid touching the ground at all. Limited play time you seem unable to repeat this style. Designers appear to want to force you to play on the ground more. This would not be a problem if the combat was different. Open focus on the maps does not suit the movement system in its current form. The map design feels like a prison is instead of playground. Finally could be wrong new style requires players to look at the maps differently compared to past maps.
Titanfall One suffer from a lack content, need lots of weapons that feel different. You have to give players various experiences within the game to make sure that they stayed interested. Content displayed in public extremely limited at moment. Development team focused on the wrong sort of contents, added a linear progression system. It unknown whether or not the development team has produced shared content or unique content across every game mode.
Original view abandoned team didn’t have the courage to carry it on. Companies want cover production costs, producing products people want. Shame original vision changed so much. Instead of safe sequel have risky second album, heavy metal to pop rock. Seen couple titles go down the same route each one ending up not having any audience. Development team may have identify the wrong problem.
Conclusion time
Change in direction lower focus on mobility more predictably. Grounded gameplay experience less focus on titans. Designers believe this was core problem, here and here. Remains to be seen if the studios gamble was right.