Titanfall 2 Campaign is good, but it could have been great. (Gaming)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Thursday, November 03, 2016, 21:22 (2951 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY
edited by Korny, Thursday, November 03, 2016, 21:29

If there is one phrase that popped into my head over and over as I played Titanfall 2's campaign, it's "missed opportunity". I had some fears going into the campaign (which were only increased as I heard Cruel talking about it enthusiastically), and for the most part, those fears were confirmed.

It took me about five hours to beat on Hard difficulty (I ain't no beep), I found 29/46 collectables, and I achieved a time of 35.00 seconds on the tutorial gauntlet (heh!)

The Good.
-The campaign was designed with gameplay first, story second. It's fun to play, and each mission feels fresh, and keeps the pace moving briskly.

-The collectibles often require a bit of parkour and improvisation to grab. You'll usually see them a mile away, but getting to them can be the tricky part.

-One of the things that I loved about Respawn back in the Infinity Ward days was that 80% of the writing in their games was a reference to 80s/90s films, and that trend continues here, from the dialogue to the Trophies, there's a lot of throwback to the good old B movies of yesteryear.

The Bad
-The campaign was designed with gameplay first, story second. A lot of the story is paper-thin and unexplored, which is made worse by the fact that important plot details and twists are not even remotely explained. They just happen, are rarely questioned, and then the game moves on. That ties directly to the next point.

-Missed Opportunity. I could go on about this one for a while, and I'll say that I tried to judge the game primarily for what it is, rather than what I wish it was, but there's still a nagging in the back of my head about it.
It starts with the gameplay. One of the big things about this campaign is that each mission introduces an interesting and often unique gameplay mechanic. The downside is that the mechanics tend to be exclusive to that one mission, so you're never really growing as a player, or expanding your arsenal outside of that one short mission, so by the time you're getting good at it, the game completely drops it, and it's never seen again. Now, that was something that I expected from this team (Modern Warfare 2 had a LOT of this), but it still bummed me out, because the things they introduce could have been applied very well in other sections of the game (and one unique tool's feature gets flat-out replaced by a simple button prompt further into the game). I wish they had done something similar to Portal 2, where each level had a unique gameplay mechanic, but players were learning and building off of each new thing that they learned. By the end of the game, everything was coming into play, and each new challenge was satisfying to solve. At the very least, the lessons that we were learning could culminate into a large, difficult scenario where we had to put the unique mechanic to the ultimate test, but it rarely even did that. Ultimately, the levels and their setpieces feel like chunks of other games that flesh out those mechanics, and to hear people talk about it like it's innovative or deep is a bit disheartening (i.e. You get to reshape the environment with cranes! You move a few platforms to the side, and that's it. Half Life 2 was doing this 12 years ago. Uhh, you get to manipulate time for navigating and comba- Timeshift. You get a tool that can manip- Half Life 2 again).
As for story, there are a number of shortcomings that irritated me. In particular, the characters in the game aren't interesting. Which is weird, because they go through the trouble of giving your enemies intro sequences like a Borderlands knockoff, but that's occasionally all you get from the characters, and they're so one-dimensional, that you don't really care about the fight (which is usually over in seconds, and doesn't usually require any more strategy than "unload everything at them". The most interesting boss was an android, and I couldn't tell you anything other than "she had control of a foundry, because reasons?" Some of the bosses give you no more than an intro and a few cartoonish (and bad) lines of dialogue before you gun them down, never to know what made them special other than their slightly-more-armored Titan. Also, none of the bosses have anything to do with the mechanic of the level, so they're pretty interchangeable.
Another story irritation is that nothing is explored. The Macguffin of the game is just there. Where did it come from? Nobody seems to know or care, and the game makes absolutely zero attempt to even imply a purpose or origin. The bad guys have it (how? don't ask), and they can use it against the good guys (how? don't ask). It's yet another Death Star, somehow (how does it destroy planets if it folds time? Don't ask). Also, how does it tie in to the tiny handheld tool that was obtained in a noodle incident? No idea. Why did the pilot commit suicide feet from the Arc tool that he went to get? *shrug*.
It bothered me a lot, because all of these things could have easily been made more interesting, and the characters and story could have had a bit more depth (even the minor characters that showed up in the last level get character intros in the end credits, Predator style, was I supposed to know who they were? They didn't do anything particularly interesting. I assume they're from the radio drama in the first game).
-The guns and gadgets are mostly boring. A mid-range rifle and a shotgun will get you through the entire campaign, and there's nothing that really sets the grenades apart.

The Ugly
-I would love for there to be campaign add-ons, or at least puzzle rooms (similar to Mirror's Edge, or Black Ops 3's) that help build upon the unique mechanics of the game, but I know it won't happen.
-The protagonist isn't really a distinct character, and given that players control his dialogue, I wonder why the option to have a female pilot doesn't exist. I noticed that there are hardly any pronouns used when talking about the player; you are usually referred to as "Pilot", "Cooper", or "They". It's weird that the game seems to go out of its way to avoid using pronouns, then gives your character a face that you only see in a couple of cutscenes (and really could have just left you with a helmet on, for the most part). Triggered!
-The lack of Grappling hook in the campaign was odd, given how prominent it is in the multiplayer. Wonder why that is (could have had a set-piece or two that relied on it). Must have broken some level design.
-Really feels like a whole level or two was cut from the game, but that may be a result of "build encounters, then put a story around them" design that people berated Reach for having. I dunno, but a giant sewer, a world foundry, and a super-secret research lab all being within general robot walking distance of each other (the game actually tells you how much distance you've traveled with BT at that point, and it ain't much) seems a bit odd.

Overall, the campaign was fun, and I'll happily play it again once or twice to finish off those Trophies, but too much about it is pretty forgettable, and that makes me sad.

8/10