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Template:Infobox Game
Titanfall 2 is a science-fiction first-person shooter video game and a sequel to Titanfall. It was developed by Respawn Entertainment and was released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows on October 28, 2016.
Plot
In the wake of the Battle of Demeter, the Frontier Militia is now on the offensive, battling for resources and control of the Frontier planets. The IMC, though weakened by the lack of reinforcements from the core systems, are still a dominant fighting force attempting to drive out the Militia forces and put down any resistance to their control of the Frontier.
Jack Cooper, a Class 3 Militia Rifleman, aspires to one day become a pilot on the front lines of the war against the IMC. Cooper had caught the eye of Captain Tai Lastimosa, a veteran pilot who had saved Cooper's life in a previous battle. Though not authorized, Lastimosa had begun giving Cooper ad hoc training between missions using a VR simulator pod. Cooper's training is cut short as the Militia's 9th fleet begins an assault on Typhon, an otherwise uninhabited planet with an IMC research facility. In the initial battle, the majority of the 9th Militia fleet is destroyed by the IMC, although several Pilots and militia soldiers, including Cooper, make it to Typhon's surface via drop pods. They are quickly overrun by IMC ground forces. Captain Lastimosa comes to Cooper's aid and pulls him to safety, but is overwhelmed by the Apex Predators, a skilled team of mercenaries, led by Kuben Blisk, who works for the IMC. Lastimosa is mortally wounded and his Titan, BT-7274, is incapacitated. Severely wounded, Lastimosa transfers authorization of BT to Cooper and gives him his helmet, armor and jump-kit before succumbing to his injuries. After Cooper restores power to the damaged Titan, BT explains Lastimosa's mission; Special Operation 217: to rendezvous with fellow SRS Pilot Major Anderson, the mission's commander, and assist him in the completion of their original assignment.
After dispatching Blisk's mercenaries and arriving at Anderson's last known position, Cooper and BT find Anderson's body hanging from the ceiling at an abandoned IMC research facility, half of his body above and half below, leaving command of Special Operation 217 to Cooper. After watching Anderson's mission briefing by Marauder Corps Commander Sarah Briggs, Cooper and BT learn that Anderson was given a wrist-mounted device to help him navigate the facility which allowed him to travel back and forth through time simply by clenching his fist. Cooper finds the other half of Anderson's corpse and equips the device. Intel is gathered concerning the lab's horrifying experiment: the IMC has developed a super weapon known as a 'Fold Weapon', that utilizes time-displacement technology; which will be used to destroy all Militia-occupied planets, as well Harmony, home to several million civilians as well as the Militia headquarters, will be the first target. They also learn that the displacement technology is dependent upon a power source known as the Ark, and that it was a scaled down prototype version of the weapon that destroyed the lab initially. Cooper and BT resolve to broadcast a signal out to the Militia fleet to initiate a counterattack before the weapon can be mobilized.
After alerting the Militia fleet and mobilizing the troops on the ground, Sarah Briggs leads an assault against the IMC-held installation where the Ark is being kept in order to seize it. Arriving too late to prevent it from being loaded onto the IMS Draconis, the Militia give chase in hijacked IMC ships and Cooper leads a charge against the IMC Supercarrier defending the Draconis en route to deliver the Ark. Cooper and BT successfully get aboard the Draconis to seize the Ark, only to be knocked out when an internal explosion renders them unconscious, and they are captured by Blisk and his second-in-command, Slone. In an attempt to escape their captivity, BT is mortally wounded by Slone, but provides Cooper with a SERE (Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract) Kit consisting of a Data Knife and Smart Pistol MK6. Cooper retrieves BT's CPU core and makes his escape.
Cooper escapes the Draconis to be granted a new unfurnished Vanguard chassis where he is reunited with BT upon reinstalling his CPU core. With an upgraded minigun loadout at their disposal, Cooper and BT lead a final assault on the base where the Fold Weapon is being prepped for use against Harmony. After killing Slone, Cooper and BT attempt to retrieve the Ark only to be knocked out by the blast. Blisk again arrives but reaffirms that he is 'loyal only to a paycheck' by sparing Cooper so that they may yet fight another day.
BT's auxiliary power is brought online just as the weapon is getting ready to fire, and as they are unable to cycle the weapon down, BT hurls himself into the Ark core and throws Cooper back towards the surface, before sacrificing himself and detonating his reactor core to destroy the weapon, creating a massive explosion. Cooper escapes the planet with moments to spare as Sarah and Barker pick him up before warping to a safe distance, showing Typhon has been destroyed and the threat of the weapon had been eliminated. The game ends with a monologue from Cooper, talking about Sarah affirming his status as a pilot and officially inducting him into the Marauder Corps, as well as him reminiscing over his experiences with his fallen friend and partner, and that no Titan can ever replace him.
In a post-credits scene, the Titan neural link to Cooper's helmet is activated with an encrypted message, implying that BT is still alive within Cooper's helmet.
Gameplay
Pilot
Pilot gameplay follows the same basic lines as the first game, in regards to basic mechanics. However, the health of players has been drastically lowered, and Time-To-Kill (TTK) is much lower than the first, making fast reflexes more of a priority.
A new mechanic, sliding, has also been added. Crouching while sprinting or otherwise moving will allow the user to slide across the ground for a short time, preserving momentum and allowing for slide-hops for quick traversal of the arena.
Weapons
The armory of Titanfall 2 has been greatly expanded since the first game. On launch, Titanfall 2 had 22 Pilot Primary weapons and 8 Pilot secondary weapons. Unlike the first game, which featured primary weapons, secondary weapons and an Anti-Titan weapon, the AT and Sidearm roles are now in the same category, and choosing one means sacrificing the other, allowing a trade-off between specialty and versatility. This secondary weapon category included 4 sidearms and 4 AT weapons. Of these weapons, every single Titanfall weapon returned in some form or another (The R-101C Carbine replaced with the R-201 Assault Rifle, the G2A4 Battle Rifle replaced with the G2A5 Battle Rifle etc).
After the game's launch, two weapons have been added through DLC; the B3 Wingman Elite and R-101C Carbine.
Of particular note is the Smart Pistol. Due to its reputation amongst the playerbase, the Smart Pistol has now been relegated to a one-use Boost, as opposed to a loadout weapon.
As of The War Games DLC, Sidearms and Anti-Titan weapons are no longer mutually exclusive, and a player is now free to wield a Primary, Sidearm and AT weapon in the same loadout just like Titanfall.
Tactical Abilities
Unlike Titanfall's limited selection of Cloak, Active Radar Pulse and Stim, Titanfall 2's tactical selection has added four new tacticals into the mix; Holo Pilot, Phase Shift, A-Wall and Grapple. Active Radar Pulse has not directly returned, but has been replaced with the similar Pulse Blade. Each tactical now has its own Pilot model (As opposed to model being based on weapon in the first game), allowing players to know someone's abilities just by looking at them.
Boosts
Replacing the Burn Cards of old is the "Boost" system. Before a match, players can select one of a dozen Boosts, that provide various effects. When the player hits a certain percentage of their Titan meter (Percentage depending on the boost in question), they will then be able to activate the boost they have chosen as a one-time use item, bringing it's effect into play. This could range from simply upping the damage of weapons, to giving the player a Battery or even place down an anti-personnel sentry turret. After the player has called in their Titan, the player will be able to call in their boost again.
Titans
Titans have had a significant gameplay change since the first game. Instead of fully-customisable loadouts like those of Pilots, Titans are now based on six class archetypes (Seven, as of Monarch's Reign). These archetypes each have a unique class weapon, tactical/ utility ability, Core Ability, Ordnance and defensive ability. In addition, Electric Smoke - a defensive ability selectable in lieu of another in Titanfall - is now a standard ability available to all Titans.
Titan customisation is not completely gone, players can still select three Titan Kits, one universal, one unique to that Titan class and one that affects how the Titan drops into battle. These allow a player to emphasise or optimise a certain playstyle within their class. For example, a player playing Ion could optimise their class towards the Laser Shot as their primary tool by using Entangled Energy to constantly replenish their shot. Alternatively, they could emphasise their Vortex Shield via Vortex Amplifier, Laser Core via Grand Cannon or Splitter Rifle via Refraction Lens. The only exception to this is the Monarch, which can choose three tiers of upgrade to use in its upgrade core; a full explanation of this mechanic can be found here.
The six launch Titan classes are Ion, Scorch, Northstar, Ronin, Tone and Legion. A seventh, Monarch, was added in Monarch's Reign. Ion and Tone are based on the Atlas Titan, Scorch and Legion are based on the Ogre and Northstar and Ronin are based on Stryder. Monarch is based on the Vanguard, seen in the campaign, but in practicality has the same stats as the Atlas Titans.
There are several other differences to Titans in Titanfall 2, that overall make Titans less durable than their predecessors. All Titan chassis types (Atlas, Ogre and Stryder) now have one less dash than their predecessors. This means that Ogres have no dashes without the Turbo Engine, while Stryders only have two (Ronin has two, in addition to his Phase Dash ability, however).
The recharging energy shields have also been replaced with the Battery mechanic. Titans by default start with no shielding, but can be provided with a single-use (ie non-recharging) energy shield if the Pilot, or a friendly player, inserts a battery into the Titan. This action also restores a small portion of the Titan's health and provides it with some additional Core Ability charge. Batteries can be found by Rodeoing an enemy Titan and stealing theirs, killing a player carrying a battery or using the Battery Back-up Boost. Forcing a Titan into the doom state is no longer a death sentence, however, and the countdown before the Titan explodes has now been removed. This essentially allows doom state to function as a second bar of health, though it can be quickly killed by others if the player is not careful.
Campaign
The campaign mode of Titanfall 2 features slightly different mechanics, as the player plays as a Vanguard class Titan as opposed to the seven Titans of multiplayer. By default, BT-7274 is equipped with the Expedition loadout not available for multiplayer use. Another campaign-unique loadout is the Brute, thus-far the only appearance of the Quad Rocket in Titanfall 2's sandbox.
To compensate for the restriction to one Titan, BT can pick up the other seven loadouts after finding them scattered throughout the various campaign missions. These loadouts are not customisable, however. BT also has two default dashes and a recharging energy shield, making him play much more like a Titanfall Atlas than any other Titan in the game.
For Pilot gameplay as Jack Cooper, the player will find they only have limited ammunition and can ran out of spare magazines or grenades - this contrasts to the multiplayer experience, where weapons have infinite reloads and ordnance abilities recharge rather than run out.
Development
Work began on the game in late 2014. Due to the profits gained from the original game, this allowed development to factor in both an all-new singleplayer campaign, as well as multiplayer modes.
Ship design is intended to be more practical in the setting rather than being akin to more traditional sci-fi. The ships are meant to reflect a conversion of ships that were intended for excavation, demolition, and working the land, turned into weapons of war. It has been stated that an inspiration for the developers is the concept of a junction between technological advancement and the inevitability of conflict.
A TV spinoff series will be developed with Lionsgate. Respawn CEO Vince Zampella has likewise desired to develop a Titanfall animated series.[1]
Whether or not the game would feature a singleplayer campaign was the first question asked during development. It was designed with a "gameplay first" mindset, and designed as a blend of Rambo, Star Wars, and Gundam. Respawn used a "2-1-1" ratio for the content, namely "two parts combat, one part platforming, one part puzzling." The idea of focusing on a single pilot and his Titan came up, but their actual identities were developed later.[2]
Two multiplayer technical tests were held, first from August 19th to August 21st, and the second from August 26th to August 28th.
During the game's marketing, Respawn uploaded a short mini-series called "Titanfall 2: Inside Development"; several short videos discussing various behind-the-scenes aspects of development.
Post-Launch Support
Unlike the first game's season pass and paid map packs - Expedition, Frontier's Edge and IMC Rising - Respawn have instead decided to make all maps and game-affecting content (Such as weapons, titans and abilities) free to all Titanfall 2 players. As of June 2017, four new maps (Three of which are remastered from Titanfall), five new game modes, one new Titan, one new faction, two new weapons, five new Executions and six new Kits have been added into the game over five DLCs. Additionally, four non-regular multiplayer maps have also been added, one for the Coliseum mode and three for the Live Fire mode. Each update has also included a swath of balance passes, to fine-tune aspects of the sandbox.
Paid DLC has also been added, but these are purely cosmetic, and do not impact the balance of the game or the gameplay itself. These include new camos, warpaints, Callsign banners and patches, Prime Titans and Titan nose arts. For details, see the individual pages linked below;
- Angel City's Most Wanted
- Live Fire
- Colony Reborn
- A Glitch in the Frontier
- Monarch's Reign
- The War Games
Future Content
Several new maps, modes and features have been hinted at or confirmed by Respawn. These include the return of the game mode Frontier Defense and the expansion of Private Match settings - and addition of Coliseum into Private Match.
Campaign Video Walkthrough
References
- ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/dongroves/2016/02/05/titanfall-2-lead-writer-promises-a-grounded-dirty-and-human-world/2/#28d51243a4f8
- ↑ Game Informer #85: The Year of the Shooter - How the Genre Came to Rule 2016