E3 2013 – Preview: Titanfall

Titanfall was arguably one of the most exciting games unveiled at this year’s E3. Well, aside from the fact that its existence was leaked shortly before E3 thanks to a Game Informer cover which in recent years is second only to Australian or European retailer listings for sources of gaming leaks. Details were still thin on the ground until the full reveal at the Microsoft press conference with more details following in the EA press conference later that day. On Thursday, I also got the chance to watch a live playthrough and an opportunity to corner one of the developers, Joel Emslie, Lead Artist at Respawn Entertainment.

• Developer: Respawn Entertainment
• Publisher: EA
Previewed on: [Presumably PC]
• Also Available On: Xbox One, Xbox 360
• Release Date: Spring 2014

What do you do next after helping to create the world’s best selling franchise and then leaving in less than friendly circumstances to go out on your own? This was the question facing Frank Zampella and his team as they went about setting up Respawn Entertainment, in the wake of the split with Infinity Ward and Activision. The answer given was Titanfall – a squad based first person shooter in a futuristic setting with Mech robotic suits that can be commandeered by human pilots – pilots that otherwise are small and sprightly enough to free-run and jump their way around the environments.

I don’t know how welcome this move will be with those that were hoping for something more regimentally within the confines of previous modern military settings, but for me the switch to a more sci-fi setting as well as the inclusion of Mechs and free-running has peaked my interest more than anything I have seen being presented from the Ghosts of Collar Duty.

Making something fresh while still retaining interest from previous fans of their work was a factor that Joel was keen to comment on. “We started out with [asking ourselves] how do we make a make a different game but build a bridge at the same time to the gamers. I think that with Titanfall, right out of the gate we are starting to take some big risks – and I think that one of them is having giant robots and we are working very, very hard trying to balance them with the foot game, with the interaction between the two happening. [Another risk is] having a multiplayer environment that is inhabited by a single player world – an AI. There are lots of challenges, but it is really about making sure that the mechanics are very familiar, very intuitive and that they lead into the new frontier of what we are trying to do.”

Seeing the game demonstrated gives you an idea of the type of balance they are aiming for. The Mechs seem to pack a bigger punch when it comes to weaponry and although they are heavily armoured, they are also a bigger target that is easier to spot from afar and prone to having rocket launchers locked onto them. The pilots, while much more fragile are able to hide in structures throughout the environment and are more easily able to get between structures, cover and other strategically advantageous positions such as rooftops, by making use of the free-running systems available, allowing the pilots to climb up structures and wall run to rapidly reach other areas.

When not under your control or the control of other human teammates, the Mechs will operate on their own devices as “AI buddies” to help your team effort. The match demoed was a match of seven vs seven. This could conceivably result in seven people running around as pilots on one team with seven AI Mechs running around assisting, but Joel did admit that the final number of Mechs available for each team is still in question at the moment and they were “…kicking around all kinds of ideas, it is all about balancing and finding out what works best because we also have a single player in a world that is inhabited the gamespace. It is about finding the right balance and making it not too chaotic – it is about finding the right amount of chaos.”

One factor that was not clear to me from the various presentations was what the qualifier was for the Mechs joining the battlefield. Joel explained “You start the environments of Titanfall, boots on the ground as your pilot. Think of it as sending in your foot mobiles to secure an LZ or whatever. As you are in that environment as a pilot, you are with other friendly grunts and other friendly pilots and you are doing as much as you can to take down [enemy] pilots and AI. There is a ticker on the lower left hand side of your screen and it has a timer on your Titan, basically being ordered up from orbit – and you can make that timer tick down faster the more points you score. You can be the first guy to race to a Titan and start cleaning house. So, it is a race to grab that Titan. You could also just play mellow and kick back and wait for it to come in and then just call it in and use it as an AI buddy – or just hop in and take control. You can also mix it up and hop in and out of them. It was crucial to make it smooth and silky to get in and out – so it is not a hindrance, you don’t have to think about getting in and out of it, it is just there.”

I commented that the inclusion of Mirror’s Edge style free-running into a competitive multiplayer environment made the game all the more appealing to me. Joel responded that he missed going back to games that don’t include these types of options: “When I play other FPS’s right now, when I come back to the office I am refreshed because I miss it now when playing other First Person Shooters. I want to go and I want to mantle and I want to wall run – and it feels a little tough, I feel a little too weighty in other genres and other games. It feels pretty wild.” 

You can go wild yourself and get your own boots on the ground when Titanfall drops in Spring 2014 for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.

Official Game Site

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