Titantall Beta Review

The Titanfall beta concluded last week and man was it fun. The first outing for Respawn Entertainment since their formation after the Activision fiasco. They've combined some of the best elements from shooters, platformers, and strategy games to make what I consider an awesome game that should be played by all. This game could be a reason to buy an Xbox One. It will also be released on Xbox 360 but at a later date and by different developers.

The PC requirements were not that high because my older computer ran the game without many issues at all. From reading of various articles it appears that their servers are cloud based which allow for the smoothness and reduced lag.

The beta featured 3 different game modes: Attribution, Capture Point, and Last Titan Standing. The games are all 6v6 with NPC grunts making up the rest of your squads.

Game Modes:

• Attribution - is your typical team deathmatch with the inclusion of being able to call in your Titan after a certain amount of time has passed or if you get kills on the enemy team it reduces the amount of time before your "Titanfall." At the end of the round it's made interesting as a drop ship will attempt to pick the losing team up and its the winning teams job to ensure they don't make it there or their ship is destroyed. The ship will leave without you if you die or don't make it
• Capture Point - is good ole capture the flag which is made the flow of battle is changed when you have a giant Titan guarding a base. At the end of the round it's made interesting as a drop ship will attempt to pick the losing team up and its the winning teams job to ensure they don't make it there or their ship is destroyed. If you don't make it or you die the ship will leave without you.
• Last Titan Standing - this is an all out Titan battle where you only get one life and one Titan to win the game. If damaged too much you can eject from your Titan before explosion but this does count against you losing a Titan so if the rest of your team loses their Titan guess what you lose tooo.

Weapons

• Shotgun - Standard shotgun that is great a close range but not so much at long range
• SMG - great to pop off some quick shots or get that one player before that get away
• Pistol - always a great secondary to have
• Smart Pistol - considered a cheating weapon because it automatically locks onto targets but its not a cheating as you think because while it may be easy to lock on to grunts actually players are not as easy to lock on to
• Sniper Rifle - good a long range and for me there is not realistic shaking or breathing so its easy to shoot. If moving targets are easy for you to shoot.

Anti-Titan Weapons - weapons used to combat titans when your are not on a Titan. These weapons are quite effective and I didn't get the feeling that I was at a disadvantage battling the Titans

• Side winder - shoots multi-rockets
• Heavy Rocket launcher - lock on rocket launcher
• MAG - magnetic grenade launcher 
• Charged Rifle - energy rifle

Grenades

• Frag - regular grenade that is most effective against players or grunts
• Arc - grenade with a little something extra for the titans. They emit an electric energy that stuns the Titans. Very useful against them or other players

Titan Weapons

• Chaingun - Machine gun useful for mowing down the enemy team
• 40mm Cannon - Rifle with zoom. I found this to be most effective when I played
• Quad Rocket Launcher - says what it is
• Secondary Weapons - In my beta experience the Titans had a secondary weapon that could be fire if you didn't have time to reload. In the beta these were a variation of shoulder rockets.

Accessories/Skills

• Parkour  - ability to freely traverse the terrain of the game. What this means to you is if you see it you can climb it and with style. You can wall run down the side of a building jump off a billboard and onto another wall to keep the flow going. Simply put its awesome.
• Jump Jets - why am I not calling them jetpacks...well because they aren't. You can't hold it down to reach high places but when you combing this with your parkour skills then you can pretty much get any where or do anything. That anything may be jumping on the back of a Titan and sabotaging it. 
• Titans - One of the main reasons to play this game is the pilot the Titans. While they are unable to jump that can crouch, dash twice in any directions, and punch the crap out of people making the explode into nothingness. It is truly awesome. One of the coolest things you will find out if you punch into another Titan is if you are lucky you will grab the person out of the Titan and toss them off somewhere. It's truly quite hilarious to do this to someone.
•  Guard Mode - If you hop out of your Titan you can place it in this mode to protect the area its standing in. Useful for protecting a flag or dropship.
• Follow Mode - Your Titan will follow behind you on the map where ever you go until destroyed. Quite handy when trying to take down multiple enemies. 

Final Thoughts

• I enjoyed my time with the Titanfall beta and was constantly telling my co-workers about how you could do this and do that in the game. The mix of shooting and parkour was a welcomed addition to the genre. When piloting the mechs I think back to the Mechwarrior games. I primarily wrote this so that my co workers could read about it and decided whether or not to preorder the game. I think Titanfall is going to be a big hit this year and look forward to playing.