tone was firmly Call of Duty by way
of District 9, Titanfall 2 attempts to
be more colourful and characterful,
giving you an Iron Giant-esque
companion and a whole cast of
anime villains to square up against.
But those baddies have a real case
of Boba Fett syndrome – fan
favourites with cool designs who
ultimately get maybe a minute or
two of actual screentime before
being inelegantly killed off by
Rifleman Jack Cooper, the most
boring man who ever lived.
Here’s the thing, for me, the first
game might not have had a
singleplayer campaign, but it was
trying some wildly interesting stuff
when it came to telling story through
multiplayer. A playlist of missions ran
you through a fairly rote sci-fi story,
experiencing a war from both sides.
You’d be introduced to the stakes of a
match through short first-person
vignettes, and maps would shift as
they developed, skies exploding as
fleets warped in and orbital cannons
blasting carriers out of orbit.Listen, Titanfall wasn’t winning
any Hugo awards with its writing.
But it felt bold and experimental, a
precursor to the kinds of seasonal
storytelling that would define later
live-service games like Fortnite or
Respawn’s own Apex Legends.
Titanfall 2 is ultimately a fine
singleplayer story – but it rarely
surprises and doesn’t give its smartest
ideas time to breath. Besides, it’s in
multiplayer where the wall-running
sequel really gets to stretch its legs.FALL AND RISE
When I reinstalled Titanfall 2 at the
start of December, it was widely
considered unplayable online. The
rampant server attacks that have
plagued Titanfall for years now batter
its sequel, with attacks even briefly
spilling over to Apex last year.
Fortunately, Titanfall 2 got an
early Christmas present from its
most die-hard fans. In mid-
December a modded server browser
dubbed Northstar appeared, letting
players circumvent matchmaking to
connect directly to player-run
servers. The idea being that while a
centralised matchmaking server is
prone to DDoS attacks, custom
server owners can simply spin up
new games on the fly.ROGUE’S GALLERY
If Sloane had a personality, she’d make this boxoutBLISK
Big, bad, and sounds
exactly like your dad.
Blisk has the honour
of being the only
Apex Predator not to
get mulched by
BT-7274.ASH
Being a robot and all,
this heartless
simulacrum survives
her untimely murder,
rebuilt and ready to
enter Apex Legends
five years later.VIPER
Everyone loves Viper,
the cool collected
flying ace who gets
unceremoniously
shotgunned in the
face five minutes
after his arrival.RICHTER
Had to look up his
name to remind
myself he isn’t just
an Arnold
Schwarzenegger
clone. Enjoys
collecting ears.OLD GAMES, NEW PERSPECTIVES
REINSTALL
Mind if I take a look at
your cockpit?