5/5 ★ – administrator's review of Titanfall 2.

If I had to summarise this game in a single sentence, it would probably be: Holy fucking SHITBALLS THAT WAS EPIC! I've just watched the credits roll on the campaign after smashing through this (unfortunately) short game over a few days. I knew nothing about the game going in, spoiler-wise, and I'm so glad I managed to maintain that. The story isn't anything exceptional and some of the writing isn't the best, but the world, the level design and the gameplay more than make up for that. If I remember correctly, Titanfall 1 was a multiplayer-only game that had a beta. I played the beta and thought it was decent, but never got the full game, so I don't know if there was a storyline or any DLC that introduced any kind of campaign. I don't think so, I seem to remember Titanfall 2 releasing and people not really being too excited by it, and it sort of fell by the wayside pretty quickly, only to pick up steam later as more people played the single player. And what an absolute TREAT of a campaign this is. The gun play is excellent, the weapon choice is pretty varied, and the parkour aspect is just sublime, with it being fairly flexible and staying away from rigidity giving players the chance to explore and actually use it everywhere. The sound design is top tier, with ambient, soundtrack and weapon effects being, to my mind, perfect. The voice acting in some cases could be better, but the game has a slight edge of cheesiness to it where it is able to get away with the average writing and voice work. It's almost charming. And the titans. Wow. The whole titan experience was incredible. I felt nearly unstoppable on my meaty flesh sack feet, but stepping into a 10-fucking-meter tall mecha built for war is so stupidly epic that I guarantee that I am going to play this again just to feel like a superhero. You unlock different weapons/loadouts for your titan throughout the game which change how you approach titan battles, with some allowing you to steamroll some enemies yet face challenges with others. It's pretty well balanced, but I did absolutely have my favourites. More work done on enemy and scene variety would have enhanced this further. And that reminds me, the titular Titan Fall you participate in was so awesome! I want more of that. Imagine Titanfall 2's campaign being Chapter 1 of a 5 chapter game. Drool. Each level was well designed and looked gorgeous on my fairly old crappy laptop that I'm playing on - of particular highlight was EVERY SINGLE LEVEL, but if I had to pick one section of the game to gush about the most, it would probably be, of course, the time dilation level. What an amazing concept and exceptionally executed to boot. We've thought with portals (in Portal 1/2) and now we think in time travel. Just, brilliant. Special shout out to the manufacturing facility where you follow rooms being built, the titanfall battle, and the aerial engagement. The humour was appropriate and very well executed, for some reason you could choose a reply when communicating with your titan? I don't know why. But I liked it! It worked well enough to make you quickly feel attached to BT. Oh, the fastballs you do with BT somehow managed to escalate the FUUUUCCKKK YEEEAAAHHHH factor each time you do one and they never get tired. The one you do on the airship felt epic. Throughout the game I kept getting hints and nods towards Portal and Half Life, which the developers clearly took inspiration from. I had forgotten until seeing it in the credits that this is a Source engine game, so I am not surprised. My only complaint, which I think will be shared by many, is the fact that something this good being so short is a TRAVESTY. WE WANT MORE. TITANFALL 3, WE KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE! Having more levels to develop the story (which is clearly set up for a sequel) and to allows us to play with the Titan weapons more so we could learn and adapt more fluidly to different scenarios (I ended up just sticking with a few titan weapon loadouts) would have enhanced the experience. Top 5 game. Easy.