Titanfall: Frontier's Edge
Overview -
Respawn delivers the second of three planned 'Titanfall' map packs with Frontier's Edge. As expected, three new maps are at the front and back of the package. Dig Site, Export and Haven each may sport pragmatic names, but very well may represent a much-needed mix-up for avid titan pilots. Respawn having so diligently crafted the game's vanilla set of fifteen and delivered fairly well with the first map pack, there's actually a bit of reputation to live up to. Also, shipped alongside 'Frontier's Edge' is the game's fifth free update introducing a burn card black market for those with an affinity for splitting open card packs.
Video Review
Update five brings with it improvements to the frame rate on both PC and Xbox One, while introducing multi-GPU support for PC players. As an Xbox One player, I can't attest to a dramatic improvement, though the game powered through more taxing moments with greater success. The resolution remains the same.
From a design standpoint, compared to the first pack, there's nothing quite so visually ambitious as either the fog-drenched Swampland or mashed-together War Games, but nothing quite so bland as Expedition's unwanted child, Runoff, either. Dig Site, as I mentioned before, is essentially a night map, and it accomplishes that feeling of darkness without compromising any bit of visual clarity at all. That's an accomplishment, even if the map's overall design is not.
Haven and Export are a bit blander, though each sport their own color palette just separate enough from the norm to keep your eyes interested in the surroundings. Haven, especially, has some pretty cool dogfight background animations going on, while Export's massive windmill thing does little more than remind me of 'Halo 3.' I'll leave that reference out there for the experts.
Audio Review
Not much changed or improved here.
Final Thoughts
The way Respawn has hunkered down and labored over wall-jumping routes, sight-lines and rooftop cover reminds me a bit of Epic's obsession with symmetry in the 'Gears of War' franchise. They've found what works with the mechanics they've built, so they're just going with it, diving in head first.
The driving concepts of Haven and Extract may be interesting, but once inside you'll find more of what makes 'Titanfall' great, ramped up to a very complicated degree. Dig Site takes this philosophy a bit too far, shaking the titan/pilot balance just too much, though it remains playable, even enjoyable, for expert players. Frontier's Edge may lack overt creative ambition, but the team's unending devotion to intricate, dense, and replayable design remains intact.
