Lean More on Titan Combat
The Titanfall franchise excels at making you feel powerful. Whether you’re on foot or your own Titan, you feel like you can take on the world, and it’s an ebb and flow that EA and Respawn nailed down perfectly. TF2 is easily one of the smoothest games out right now. If they’re serious about making this into a franchise going forward, that’s something that needs to stay constant.
Humans need to keep having the right edges against Titans, and jumping into your own Titan to go up against another one needs to feel as fun as it always does. Little flourishes like having your pod drop on you and suck you into your machine from the bottom would be cool, and while it seems a bit too simple, a Titan versus Titan mode would probably help, at the very least for new players that need some help getting into the groove of things.
Continue Being Player Focused
It’s good when developers say that they’re doing something for the players, and EA did good by announcing that Titanfall 2 wouldn’t have a season pass at all. All DLC is going to be free to players, from maps to weapons, and it’s a smart move after a not so stellar run of season passes.
With EA’s methodology of “Player First!” in mind, it’d be great if they went further with this and asked the community for what modes and maps they’d like to see. Not all of them are going to be golden, but there’s the possibility for some gems in there. And if they get implemented in, it may be enough to change people’s perceptions of the publisher, which will lead to more games being bought.
More Personality
Let’s be real here, despite the backstory that’s thrown in cutscenes and pre-game briefings, we have no clue what the heck the story of Titanfall is about. There’s something about a militia fighting a corporation, and that’s pretty much it. It’s as much of a cut and dry narrative as you can get, but Respawn added some personality to it by giving Titan BT-7274 one of his own. It’s a cool idea, and it can definitely be fleshed out in not just the single player, but the multiplayer, as well.
As games like Overwatch have shown us, you can give a game some zing that players will respond to. It’d be cool if Respawn ran with this and gave your Titan a voice in multiplayer, like complimenting you for a kill or letting you know that they’re waiting (impatiently) for the green light to show up and make a mess. During the post game breakdown, why not let us give our Titans a high five or a fist bump as we get complimented for our K/D ratio or leveling up? That certainly warrants an enthusiastic celebration, no?
Keep Up the Single Player
The original Titanfall was derided for a lack of single player, something that Respawn and EA took notice of and have promptly changed with the sequel. Surprisingly, it’s pointed out as one of the best parts of the entire package, and some have even put it up there as one of the best single player campaigns in a shooter.
With that in mind, it’s likely Respawn is going to keep Jack and BT-7274 around for as long as possible, especially with the ending taken into consideration. While it’s certainly a long shot, it would be nice if in addition to multiplayer DLC, we got one or two single player expansions as well. They don’t have to be big on story or anything, but stuff that lets us see more of these two doing what they do best and having some bro/bot bonding.
Have a Smarter Release Window
This one is a no-brainer. While it makes complete sense to release Titanfall 2 during the Fall gaming season, doing so a week between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was a borderline ridiculous move. These are two franchises that have been around much longer than Respawn has, and even if TF2 gave players a new car with each copy, it’d still have the chance of getting buried.
Respawn and EA made the smart move in releasing the original game in the dead zone that is January-March, and the same thing should hold true for future installments in this series. It has the potential to be big, but it likely won’t be Call of Duty or Battlefield big for another couple of games. Until such a time comes, the January-April zone is the best… as long as games of bigger measure aren’t coming out in the same timeframe. Otherwise, make it a summer franchise. Nothing of importance comes out between June and August besides sports games, so Titanfall has a clear street to clean up big.
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