SPLICED ISSUE 04\r\n\r\nREVIEW\r\n\r\nTITANFALL\r\n\r\nWhen reviewing games, occasionally a title comes along that prompts unbridled glee. \r\n \r\nTitanfall is one of those games. \r\n\r\nBut first, the elephant in the room: while SPLICED is available all over the world (hi, international readers – you darling bunch, you) we’re all actually based in South Africa. Funny thing about Titanfall and South Africa: Electronic Arts decided to cancel the game’s release because of the lack of Microsoft Azure servers on our continent. Still, thanks to digital distribution, many South African gamers are playing Titanfall with massive, stupid grins on their faces in spite of Electronic Arts South Africa’s baffling decision. EA blamed unsatisfactory local networking speeds, but those South Africans who are playing the game are finding it entirely stable and completely playable despite the 200+ millisecond pings to European servers. In that regard, Respawn’s networking code is obviously built on unicorn sparkles, because that latency compensation is astounding for a first-person shooter as fast as Titanfall.\r\n\r\nAfter extensive testing (on a 2MB line by the way), we do not know why EA South Africa decided to deny Titanfall’s release. What we do know, and what we will indeed gush about for the remainder of this review, is that the game is utterly fantastic.\r\n\r\nWith Titanfall, Respawn has pruned stale online FPS conventions, and injected enough evolution and chutzpah to create something that feels like a new experience. This is the shot of adrenaline to the heart that online shooters have needed for the past two to three years.\r\n\r\nTitanfall’s universe is an interesting one and there’s some intriguing canon, but this is also perhaps the game’s biggest disappointment. For years, people have been saying that franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield should drop the single-player campaign and focus on multiplayer, because inevitably the single-player turns out to be insipid drivel anyway. Respawn has done that and shirked a real single-player campaign to focus on multiplayer. Ironically, there is more potential for a great single-player campaign here than in any previous contemporary shooter from the past five years. While the game does have a “Campaign Mode”, it really shouldn’t be called that as all it is, is a collection of the usual multiplayer modes and maps, but with some voice-over narrative and the odd scripted opening scene. Yes, Titanfall was always created to be a multiplayer game, but the “campaign” could have been so much more than what Respawn has given us. You’ll play it through once simply to unlock the other two Titan classes, but then you’ll never look at it again.\r\n\r\nDoes that matter? Not at all, because the multiplayer on offer is phenomenal.\r\n\r\nThe six-versus-six matches of Titanfall are frenzied. Bolstering the player numbers is a continually spawning collection of AI-controlled grunts. This means that you get to shoot other players as well as their AI team mates. The AI is dumb as mud, but we get the feeling that’s a design decision to ensure that even the most inexperienced players can contribute. It also ensures that players feel like the super-soldiers the game world says they are. As a Titan Pilot you’re quick, agile and lethal enough to take out a Titan on your own if you have the panache – and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as getting that right.\r\n\r\nEvery player eventually gets a Titan in every match, which means that everyone gets their turn to be the reason other players and AI opponents are scrambling. Titans are on a three minute timer from the start of the round, but by completing objectives and scoring kills against enemy pilots and AI grunts, you can whittle those minutes down for an earlier “Titanfall”. The sequence of calling in your Titan and climbing into its chest is incredibly well animated. You’ll do it hundreds of times during your time with the game, and every time you’ll get this twinge of excitement and feeling of power as the dust clears around your Titan’s impact crater and you leap into the driver’s seat.\r\n\r\nTitanfall ships with 15 maps that can accommodate all of the five game types. Game types include typical shooter affairs like team deathmatch (called Attrition), and Capture the Flag, but the standout modes are Last Titan Standing and Hardpoint Capture. Adding a bit of a spin to the usual shooter affair, each game mode (aside from Last Titan Standing) ends with an epilogue during which the losing team needs to evacuate the area via a dropship. Respawning is turned off for epilogues, but if you manage to reach the dropship, and if the enemy team doesn’t blow it up first, you can score some bonus XP for a successful extraction. It sounds like a superfluous addition, but the frantic rush for the dropship is a perfect way to wrap up the already frantic match. It also allows the losers to reclaim a shred of dignity by punching out in one piece – as if to say, “You may have won this one, but we’ll be back!”\r\n\r\n