Update October 14, 2016: A couple of days ago Respawn shared their vision for the gameplay in Titanfall 2’s single-player, written below, and today they’ve unveiled their plans for the mode’s story, as you can see in the video embedded above.
It’s a buddy story, essentially, with you as a rookie pilot, building a bond and earning the trust of your inherited mech, BB. The video talks us through the protagonist’s motivations, as well as the developing friendship between man and machine.
Could it end its life as one of our favourite FPS games of all time?
One of the ways this relationship will build out is through optional dialogue choices, giving the player more agency over the duo’s rapport. Think of BB as a talking dog, albeit one with massive guns strapped to it.
It’ll be interesting to see if players find themselves caring for the towering robot, but its expressive ‘face’ might give us all those Johnny-Five-style feels. Don’t be surprised if it gets destroyed by the end.
Original Story October 12, 2016: The addition of a single-player campaign to Titanfall 2 is a risky proposition. The first made its name by being one of the best multiplayer shooters ever made thanks to focusing on that, while its lack of permanence could in part be down to missing that key element. Either way, we’re getting one in Titanfall 2, but Respawn are doing a little more with it than their Call of Duty roots might suggest. In a new video, embedded below, they talk about puzzles, boss battles, secret finding and more.
There’s clearly more in there than six hours of set pieces and explosions, though that would have been more than enough for some. Boss battles are an incredibly risky prospect in any shooter, even one where an AI robot throws you across maps and fires ordinance large enough to level cities.
From Wolfenstein’s Mecha-Hitler through Bioshock’s Ryan, FPS games just don’t have a good boss history. Even the best examples boil down to being relatively simple – like nu-Doom’s Cyberdemon – or impressive mostly for spectacle if you look at games like Vanquish or Bulletstorm. It never comes close to the likes of Dark Souls in pure enjoyment and variance.
What’s key is making it more than shoot the glowing spot, which perhaps is where the puzzles come in. They could be a welcome change of pace, assuming they never interrupt and simple complement the speed and flow the original game made its name on. Boring puzzles are as bad as anything, but an interesting puzzle makes a welcome break from the boom booms.
We’ll find out come October 29, when Titanfall 2 drops right in the middle of the Battlefield-Titanfall-Call of Duty FPS trist. A busy time for shooting men/robots/robot-men in the face.