True confession: I wasn’t that fond of the original Titanfall.
I bought my son his Xbox One two Christmases ago. The only game he cared about when he got his Xbone was Titanfall. When he got it, he played it religiously. I, of course, tried it as well and came away less impressed. Yes, the mech combat was sweet, and the game overall had lots of polish, but I just wasn’t all that blown away by it.
The footage I saw of Titanfall 2 during EA’s E3 conference did twig my interest. There are six new Titans? Ok, maybe with more variety, I’ll find something more to my style. Oh wait, they have new abilities and moves? Well, a couple of those Titans sure looked more agile. That’s interesting. Maybe the firefights will have more of an Armored Core feel, with multiple types of mechs picking out each other’s’ weaknesses in the heat of battle. I can dig that.
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In the end, though, only two things about Respawn’s newest mech FPS resonated with me: it will have a single-player campaign, and it will be on the PlayStation 4.
Yes, the upgraded Titans and their new abilities will make for better skirmishes. And, yes, the visuals look nicer this time around. But I’m not interested in playing a game like Titanfall 2 in multiplayer-only arenas. I would like the ability to play through a single-player campaign where I can practice and hone my skills and strategies BEFORE I go out into the wolves’ den that is online play.
I’m still surprised that AAA developers like EA really thought a single-player campaign was a throwaway feature in FPSes. So you really think players like me love nothing more than to get facerolled by someone who takes these games about 817,041 times more than I do? Wait…is facerolling still a thing?
As for Titanfall 2 arriving for PS4, I know there will be a large contingent of people that may not like the idea of a title once console exclusive to the Xbox One jumping into Sony’s pool as well. Many people like the idea of console exclusives for their favorite console. You can’t deny the inherent value in having titles that bring people to your system.
I think, however, that Titanfall 2 on the PS4 it will benefit the game in the end. The more people that play Titanfall 2, the better the game will do, and the more EA will want to pump into the series. Shit ain’t rocket science. And who knows? Maybe this game, backed by EA’s prominence in the industry, can get Sony to play nice with Microsoft and finally open the floodgates to true cross-console play.
Yea, I know. It’s a pipe dream at best. It assumes that Sony wants to be altruistic and EA wants to do something good. But maybe it could happen.
