Live Magazine Christmas 2016 Edition

petitive mode. Extra content, including
“Frontier Defense” — an addictive
co-op mode inspired by Gears of
War’s “Horde” mode — and “Deadly
Ground” did arrive eight months after
launch, but it was a case of too
little, too late.
So on the commercial side of things,
the Titanfall detractors were more
or less correct. In terms of quality,
though, the Titanfall believers found
their faith justified. Put simply, Titanfall
is one of the most inventive and
engaging shooters in years, a musthave
title for Xbox One owners,
and the all-around best first-person
shooter of the eighth generation (so
far). Why is it so good? Well, the answer,
paradoxically, has a lot to do
with why many players ignored or
forgot the game: the singular focus
on competitive multiplayer.
Respawn’s deep focus on multiplayer
allowed the studio to forge one of
the most accessible and balanced
shooters in a generation. Staffed
with industry veterans who had
worked previously on Call of Duty 4:
Modern Warfare and its sequel, Respawn
was able to draw on its past
experiences and pave a road toward
the future of the genre, focusing on
player mobility, survivability, and the
merger of single-player tropes with
multiplayer action.
On the mobility front, Respawn
scored a home run. Titanfall’s pilots
are fast, agile, and capable of dashing
across maps like a ring-tailed lemur.
The game features maps that
are impressively large, vertical, and
open for exploration — a far cry
from the plodding, mostly-flat maps
in rival shooters. Titans are of course
bulkier and slower but add even more
flavor to each match.
Equally important was survivability.
Titanfall producer Drew McCoy explained
a few months after the game
launched that Respawn “looked at
how you increase a player’s life span
without reducing the lethality of it,
because that time from to kill to kill
is one of the big hooks. Players like
getting constant kills — they don’t like
being killed constantly.” Enter Titanfall’s
much-maligned AI bots, which
ease novice players into the game
and act as a buffer of sorts between
opposing pilots.
Last but not least, Respawn infused
elements common to single-player
campaigns into Titanfall’s competitive
multiplayer. With cinematic introductions,
AI soldiers dotting the landscape,
and an epilogue that follows
every victory and defeat, each match
feels like a small battle in a much
larger war. Even a loss can feel like
a live-to-fight-another-day scenario.
Although Titanfall failed to reach EA’s
lofty sales expectations and moved
far fewer Xbox One units than anticipated,
it stands today as a shining
example of the first-person shooting
genre. By drawing in creative minds
and focusing deeply and intently on
a single concept — competitive multiplayer
— Respawn created the heir
apparent to Modern Warfare, and by
prioritizing mobility, survivability, and
immersive single-player “moments,”
forged the most disruptive shooter
since 2007.