Top 5 Reasons Why Should I Buy Titanfall 2

While Titanfall 2 scored a rather mighty 9/10 in our review, and it’s currently at an amazing 90 Metacritic rating, it seems early word on sales (in the UK, at least) imply that Respawn’s latest game isn’t setting the sales charts on fire as some might have imagined.

With a lot of staff members very impressed by Titanfall 2’s single-player and multiplayer, and the fact that we think its DLC initiative is something we want to be the industry norm, we decided to dedicate this week’s Top 5 Tuesday video on why first-person shooter fans — especially multiplayer shooter players — should buy Titanfall 2 ASAP.

As expected, we talk about the polished core gameplay, fantastic multiplayer progression system and more. Check the video above to see why you should buy Titanfall 2. Thankfully, EA seems committed to the franchise, so fans can expect more Titans to fall in the near future.

On the fence about Titanfall 2? Did our video sway you? For those who already have Titanfall 2, don’t forget to join the PlayStation LifeStyle Titanfall 2 Network! We’re already at over 32,000 members and growing!

Titanfall 2 Feature 3.11.16

We're Excited for Titanfall 2, Are You?

In anticipation of Titanfall 2, we recount what makes Respawn's shooter so good to begin with.
A Different Breed of Shooter

Held up as a revolutionary addition to the FPS genre, it’s fair to say that Titanfall risked being consumed by its own hype prior to release. It was considered to be Microsoft’s killer app — the one title that would fire the Xbox One off shelves and into the living room — along with the next step in competitive multiplayer. Even for a shooter that features hulking, futuristic mechs, the strain of expectation began to show like rust creeping over Titanfall’s steely exterior.

Digging beneath the hyperbole and there IS a nugget of truth to those claims. Titanfall didn’t rip up the rulebook; Respawn’s shooter is the rulebook on steroids. Hopping into a 20-foot mech is one thing, but the feeling of zipping between buildings as a pilot is intoxicating. Granted, there aren’t many game modes to experiment with, but Titanfall's free-flowing movement system doesn’t take long to get its hooks in you. Plus, that moment when you hunker down in a safe corner of the arena before calling in your Titan from orbit is pretty special, regardless of how many times you hear “standby for Titanfall.”
Mech-on-Mech Warfare

We can’t recount the highlights of Titanfall without addressing the elephant in the room. Yes, wall-running as a pilot is enough to get the blood pumping and pupils dilated, but Respawn added a whole new layer of intrigue to its multiplayer shooter via mechs. Hammond’s deadly machines come in three variations: Atlas, the entry point to your towering arsenal, along with the Ogre and Stryder. And those bipedal weapons of war would be enough to keep Solid Snake awake at night.

Controlling a titan may not be as intuitive as playing the boots on the ground, but by allowing players to switch their hulking companion to AI mode while running and gunning around the map, it allows for a more flexible playstyle, rather than the giant mechs being viewed as just another killstreak.
Addicting, Twitch-Based Gameplay

Remember the overwhelming hype that threatened to engulf Titanfall before release? Part and parcel of that hyperbole stemmed from the shooter's blistering sense of pace. Call of Duty may have instated 60fps as the multiplayer standard, but Respawn's debut took that one step further with its liberating wall-running system.

Granted, two years after release, said mechanics aren't as impressive, particularly now that they've been normalized via Advanced Warfare and last year’s Black Ops 3. Even still, the underlying gameplay systems gripped you and refused to let go, so imagine the ways in which Respawn will iterate on that design philosophy within a game built from the ground up for PS4 and Xbox One.
An Intriguing, If Familiar Story

Take a glance at the archives of science fiction — be it film, gaming or literature — and you’ll find that most stories rooted in a far-flung version of space colonisation involve a power-mongering conglomerate and a ragtag group of freedom fights. From Star Wars to Firefly, it’s interstellar ground that has been well-trodden, but Titanfall’s shoestring story still hues close to those tropes.

Igniting an intense war between the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation and the Militia, Respawn took the decision to layer the narrative over the multiplayer experience, meaning players were exposed to brief snippets of exposition during matches or even loading screens. Sharing more similarity with Turtle Rock’s Evolve than Star Wars Battlefront, it wasn’t the most effective means of world-building, and for a premiere episode of what is surely EA’s budding new franchise, Titanfall’s story was relegated to the sidelines.

But as our story recap proves, there’s plenty of potential bubbling beneath the surface — Titanfall’s story just needs the necessary screen time. Plus, having recruited Jesse Stern (NCIS, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), we have every faith that Respawn will take full advantage of Titanfall 2’s new campaign.
Genre Heritage

First hatched by ex-Infinity Ward devs Jason West and Vince Zampella in 2010, Respawn Entertainment boasts considerable heritage in the shooter genre. This bleeds into the Titanfall experience itself, and picking up the controller to hop into a round of mech-on-mech combat feels intuitive. Slick controls and excellent first-person platforming are just some of the shooter’s high points, and considering that blistering multiplayer is Titanfall’s bread and butter, the resulting final product is a competent shooter experience.

It's by no means perfect, but as far as franchise-starters go, Titanfall has laid out a great platform for the oncoming sequel.