Titanfall Towers Over E3 Premieres

Respawn Entertainment’s exciting new IP, Titanfall, debuted at E3 this week and blew audiences away. This ambitious FPS will feature two distinctly different forms of gameplay which involve both large and small scale combat.

Initially, players will encounter a small scale game with the maneuverable and fast-moving pilots. Once they’ve acquired a few kills, the option for large scale gameplay opens up through the Titans, which are fast and powerful war mechs. According to developers, the most interesting—and important—aspect of these dual game modes is what happens when the two scales collide.

The E3 demo level took the form of a usual capture-the-flag scenario. Opposing teams were tasked with claiming and defending three hardpoints for a set duration of time, and the acquisition of these hardpoints along with certain gameplay achievements (such as enemy kills) affected the teams’ scores and propelled them towards victory.

This usual multiplayer fare served as the backdrop for a more story-based purpose. The pilots were called to defend a ship called the Redeye, which was bringing fuel to a hotzone before departing. Part of Respawn’s goal behind making a game like Titanfall was to take handcrafted, cinematic moments and put them into a multiplayer experience, and the objectives of the level (the capture-the-flag gameplay and defense of the Redeye) certainly work to that purpose.

The former creators of Call of Duty also brought together the dual scales of the game with great success. The combat was quick, ferocious and sleek, and it used the size difference between pilot and mech to innovate—rather than restrict—the gameplay. Early on in the demo, a pilot single-handedly gunned down an enemy Titan, revealing the fallibility of the hulking mechs. Pilots combating their larger-than-life enemies could utilize the boost-jumping and wall running abilities to give them the benefit of an aerial assault. Even a pilot ejecting from a wrecked Titan could be deadly. If left unchecked, the pilot may land atop a Titan and sabotage it, leaving behind smoldering debris where a mech once stood. This is only possible if a sharp-eyed Titan doesn’t gun down the ejecting pilot mid-flight.