Streaming some of the gameplay. (Gaming)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Friday, August 19, 2016, 23:41 (3018 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

A lack of enemy AI in two of the playlists makes it less pat-on-the-back-y, which is good, but might be too much for Titanfall 1 players.

This is a big deal for me. The real benefit of the AI combatants was not to make things "easier" (although it did give under-skilled players a small way to contribute). The real point was that all that extra foot traffic and weapons fire gave Pilots a little bit of natural camoflauge against the Titans. One of the ways they balanced Titans with Pilots is that Titans would often have a difficult time spotting enemy pilots amongst all the contrails, drop pods, and foot soldiers scurrying around all over the place. On top of that, it all helped give the battles a feeling of epic scale that other shooters lack. One of the complaints that I've already heard from big Titanfall 1 fans is that the battles feel too small and too empty this time around.

The battles are super small (outside of the city map). The upside for Pilots is that Titans are super cramped. There is little room for them to move around in (to the point where my Titan is much better off on Autopilot). One map has a corner where there is a more open field for the Titans (without cover), but it's also super easy to pick off the Pilots shooting at you. I never felt afraid of a Titan in the center of the map, they have almost no chance to kill outside of accidental stomps if you get too close, and a Warlock Melee that's pretty funny.

That said, I don't dislike it, and the campaign is looking pretty neat, but I really hope there's more to it than small skirmishes (I did like the Bounty gametype, because it uses all corners of the map, even if the non-objective areas become ghost towns).