‘Titanfall 2’ multiplayer will be tweaked after fan feedback
Last weekend Titanfall 2 opened its doors for the first of two multiplayer test weekends, allowing fans to play an alpha version of the game for free on Xbox One and PS4. While it achieved a goal of testing out some of Respawn Entertainment’s revamped cloud-based server technology (and will be followed by the second test this weekend running Friday through Sunday), players also had a lot of feedback about how the game plays.
In the original game, the eponymous mech drops were an ability that charged both passively and based on kills, a shift from the usual Call of Duty-style killstreak rewards that only reward actions. In the test last weekend, the passive charging was gone, but Respawn says it’s coming back. It’s unclear if the passive charging of a pilot’s Titan Meter will be implemented for the upcoming test, but in a blog post multiplayer game designer Steven DeRose explains “We still want objectives to be the fastest way to get a Titan, but the goal of every player being guaranteed a Titan per match hasn’t changed.” Other changes that should feel familiar to Titanfall vets include making air and wall-running speed faster and letting players retain more speed while wall-running.
Those are the kinds of abilities that separated the first game from its shooter competition when it launched, and it’s important to nail them again this time around — especially since Call of Duty has included them in games released post-Titanfall. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any word on more integration with AI bots in most game modes, which is different from the original.
Still, some players are concerned, particularly given an interview with ShackNews where game director Steve Fukuda remarked on an intentional decision to slow things down “just a touch” from the original game, and maps designed around “more fundamental” lanes of movement. DeRose’s blog post says the team will showcase other map types soon, including some traditional maps. The HUD and Titans themselves will also undergo significant tweaks before the game is released October 28th on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
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