My squad and I were both in our Titans moving towards the enemy controlled Hard-point “Charlie” when an enemy pilot jumped onto my back beginning to fire away at my internal components. A friendly sniper carefully picked him off from a distance when suddenly an enemy Titan fell from the sky, crushing a number of AI teammates. My buddy in his Titan took it out before it could fire off a shot, but then three other enemy Titans flanked us. They took out mine, but before they could take me out I ejected and flew onto the back of my rival. I took it out by firing grenades into its engine and flew off before I could be caught in the blast.

This is typical in the chaotic, but yet balanced online matches of Titanfall. This online only first person shooter released on March 11^th for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC features six on six combat in a futuristic setting between fast, nimble, jet pack wearing pilots and giant player controlled mechanical suits known as Titans.

Let my first just say, this game is fun. I mean very fun. I haven’t played a first person shooter this addicting since Call of Duty 4. Coincidently, two former creative heads from Infinity Ward founded the games developer Respawn Entertainment. At its core, the game does feel like some older Call of Duty titles, with its fast frame rate and instant respawning. However, the game is a lot more than just Call of Duty with giant robots.

As I mentioned before, the game has the max lobby of 12 players or six players per team. This number seems small when compared to other games in the same genre, such as Battlefield 4’s 64 player cap. After playing the game for the amount of time I did, I would not change the player count at all. One must understand that every human player has the ability to drop in their Titan suit at any time during the match. In addition, the map is also populated with AI controlled “grunts,” who don’t really pose a threat rather just something else to shoot at. More than just populating the map, killing enough of these enemies will give you “XP” for completing challenges and unlocking weapon attachments. Imagine if every one of these AI placeholders were live players with the ability to be Titans. The potential result would be mean over 30 giant robots on the map at once. Not only would they not fit on the map, but the experience would be greatly hindered as a result.

Though it is cool to play as “Goliath,” players still have a fighting chance playing as “David.” As pilots, players have a jet pack which allows them to double-jump, wall-run, and scale buildings. It is possible to cross every map without ever touching the ground. They also have different tactical abilities such as cloak and speed boasts, as well as “Anti-Titan” weapons such as grenade launchers and homing rockets.

The game types available here are typical of those found in this genre, that being team death-match (known here as “Attrition”), capture the flag and domination. There is also “Pilot Hunter” mode where you only get points for taking out a pilot, and the always fun “Last Titan Standing” where players start the round in their Titans and if taken out, they do not respawn until the following round.

They do attempt to tell a story during a live match in “Campaign Mode”, but all the missions are just rounds of Attrition with voices in background trying to make the situation serious. I could not tell you what the story is about in the least bit. Maybe if there was a penalty for losing a mission I would attempt to care about what they are saying, but of course there isn’t. You can lose every single match during the campaign and still beat it. This, and the lack of game modes, is my only complaint about the game. I was disappointed because if they could have truly pulled off a campaign-like experience in a multiplayer game, it could have been very innovative, but unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way.

Over all, Titanfall is a really fun multiplayer experience. The balancing act between humans and giant robots is innovating enough, despite the so-called campaign falling short. With Respawn Entertainment offering other game modes in future updates and expansion packs, the lack is not a huge issue. However, I would have liked more out of the box to better justify its $60 price tag. If you own an Xbox or a decent PC, there is no reason not to pick this one up.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10