Click here for the first part of our Titanfall beta coverage.

In the meanwhile, class based multiplayer become the norm. It also shifted from rigid pre-determine classes into the “loadout” system which allows each player to customize his character to match his play style.

Titanfall does that, of course. Its developers Respawn Entertainment are ex-Call of Duty veterans, which arguably turned Loadouts to the mainstream.

But it also does a lot of other things, which makes me like it so much (at the moment). To begin which, it took Brinks free-running and made it good. In Brink you didn’t move very fast and could only go through routes designed into the maps. There were hard-walls you just couldn’t get past no matter how “free” your running was.

The two maps shown in Titanfall’s beta don’t have this problem. You move fast, you can go anywhere you want, and if you miss your jump you can rely on your jump jets, or the game’s auto-correction to get you to a safe landing. This experience reminded me playing UT with low-gravity mode, jumping to ridiculous heights and firing a pulse rifle at people.

I did find that sometime while you’re in “free-running” mode the game decide to stick your to surfaces you didn’t want to go to (like trees), but that is a minor hassle.

Like DOTA style games, Titanfall feature “minions”, AI controlled characters that help each team. I like this addition for several reasons: they make the game feel more alive, like you’re in a huge battlefield with a lot of people around. They offer even a beginning player a chance to be credit to team by killing those AI characters. Since the default weapon, the Smart Pistol kills the basic Grunts in a single shot. It earns you XP and earns your team victory points (at least in Attrition).

Titanfall makes vehicle play from other games and condense it into a single vehicle, the Titan. In the beta there is only a single type of Titan, but it stand to reason we will see more in the full release. Each player can get a Titan over time, and participating in the match will shorten the time It takes for your Titan to be ready.

From my experience the Titans are used at the moment mainly to destroy other Titans, but you could also walk around and crash all infantry you happen to step on. Fighting against Titans remained me of trying to destroy tanks in Enemy Territory, and this is also where my feel of being a support class comes into the game.

Using the Smart Pistol, cloaking ability and anti-Titan weaponry I can be a valuable player almost without engaging in combat directly – which is my kind of fun.

Another very good point in favor of the game is the short match length. Yes, I could sit 5 hours a night in front of my computer playing, but I like each match not to drag on – especially if my team is losing! The attrition mode usually ends in about 10 minutes, since almost every action your take earns your team victory points, and in the Epilogue there is perma-death in effect. Last Titan Standing round tends to be even shorter, although I didn’t stick around for a full match to know how long it takes to finish.

The progression system is fair. Didn’t take me long to unlock the ability to customize my loadout, and even the basic ones are just fine. Since the game features a regenerating health system (which I dislike) I’m assuming the full game won’t feature any health packs. Titan’s health does not regenerate so maybe we will get some form of repair tools.

The one thing I want to see from the full game is objective-based mode. Attrition is not bad by itself, but it could be better if there was something to fight for on the map besides getting points. Initial reports say that there will be a full campaign multiplayer mode, with a structured story and scripted events – this I really want to see. It seems Titanfall took some of the good stuff in Brink and made it mainstream.

Final thoughts: Titanfall may be a game I’ll break my “not buying new expensive games” rule for. There’re about three weeks to the full release, and I’ll wait to hear what’s in the final package first. In the mean time, I’m going to play some more of the beta before they close it (why can’t they just keep this “beta” demo running, like UT2003 did?)

If you enjoy our content, please consider supporting via our Patreon page.