Titanfall 2
Overview -
Respawn Entertainment's first title, 'Titanfall' came to the Xbox One very early in its life in the spring of 2014, and with it, players learned how to wall run, boost jump, and call down a Titan which could be directly piloted or remotely/auto controlled in a fight made bigger thanks to easy bot targets. A sequel was announced a year later, and this time out, the game promised to have a proper singleplayer campaign and be featured on all major platforms. 'Titanfall 2' is available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
Video Review
'Titanfall 2' on the Xbox One has great art design, especially in the many multiplayer character skins, but the visuals haven't made vast improvements since the first release in early 2014. There is a lot of variety in the multiplayer maps and especially the locations of the campaign, and the narrative sets it up for impressive vistas. There is a dynamic scaling system going on under the hood in MP and the XB1 version has no problem maintaining 60fps, but this comes at a costly 720p resolution (or less) with frequency. For those of you with a fancy Elite controller, it is one of the few games with a control scheme custom-made for that hardware
Audio Review
The score is from 'Titanfall' and 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' composer Stephen Barton and is good if not particularly memorable. The gun and titan sound effects are spot-on, especially new sidearms like the Mozambique and Alternator. Voice acting is well done, for new and returning actors both. Artifacts are uncommon but sometimes things get a bit muddled during multiplayer matches or huge campaign battles where so much is going on at once.
Final Thoughts
'Titanfall 2' has made good on its promise of a worthy single-player campaign. It is rather short, however, and this combined with the relative lack of variety and modular Titans in the multiplayer modes equals a low replay value. I'm glad to have experienced it, but I'm not sure how much further I'll be enjoying it in the months and years to come.
