So, I got to play the beta today and I want to hear some opinions and share mine.
To begin with, I wasn't hyped about this game. The wallrunning and mechs looked interesting but that's about it. Interesting at best + I had a few balancing concerns. The gunplay looked like a 1 to 1 copy of call of duty which was to be expected but still kinda disappointing for me. So my overall first impression after trailers and videos was: meh.
Now after trying it out for a few hours I can just confirm my initial impression. The gunplay is pretty boring, there is no recoil and just a tiny bit of spread if you go full auto at range. The wallrunning works fine and is definitely interesting, but you can't really utilise it that much on the maps, at least on the ones that we have in the beta. Titans spawn way too quickly and can take unholy amounts of damage even from the "anti-titan" weapons. (After reaching max rank and getting comfortable with all weapons I have to say that it isn't too hard to bring a titan down. They're still a very powerful tool and too easy to earn though.) Also, your titan spawns faster if you kill people, so if one team dominates they will get their titans back even quicker which results in pretty frustrating battles sometimes. The titans handle really nicely, they're really maneuverable and can do a lot of damage to the enemy players. I also like the feature that your titan will automatically engage enemies if you are outside of it and that you can change between "guard" and "follow" mode. Burn cards are kinda weird IMO. You get a totally overpowered weapon until you die and you have to use up cards that you get through ranking up, I smell micro transactions and I don't like that. Also there's some stuff that's just plain weird, like the smart pistol. I mean, lock on bullets? Really? Who the hell would actually want to use that? And why would you ever implement something like that?? The AI controlled cannonfodder that runs around the map is okay, they can't really harm you and they fill up the maps a bit. In general it seems like an okay-ish fast paced shooter to me.
I personally would really like to see a longer spawn timer for the titans. They should feel like a mighty power up that you have to earn, and not like a toy that you can activate every 60 seconds. They should also get rid of bs like the lock on pistol. I also hope that in other maps we can see the wallrunning utilised a bit more. They're really wasting the potential of a great feature here. Burn cards still seem a bit fishy to me. Whether they will implement micro transactions or not, using some items to get overpowered weapons seems like a weird concept to me. I also hope that the gunplay gets a bit more interesting with other weapons, the ones in the beta are REALLY boring to use.
Well, that's my opinion after a few hours. Anything you guys want to add/correct/etc.?
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What is this doing on the front page? What have I done!!!!!
Seriously though, it's very interesting to read through the positive feedback some of you guys provide. In regards to the wallrunning: I get that people really like it and that it can be fun. However, I really think that they're wasting their potential here. When I saw the trailers I was hoping for epic stunts you could pull off, for fights in urban canyons where you have to know what you're doing to survive. But what they're using it for is getting up a 2-story building quickly and escaping titans. That's pretty much it. Of course you CAN get fancy with it and do some cool stuff but it isn't necessary and won't really benefit you in any way. Get on buildings quickly or get on roofs to camp, escaping titans, hanging from the ceiling and dropkicking people when they enter the room. That's about it.
To the people saying that gunplay is solid, or good: Just no...... The guns don't feel satisfying at all. You can laser beam someone from accross the map with your carbine or a submachine gun without ANY recoil compensation. Although it isn't as bad as COD (submachine guns do have a little spread in Titanfall) it still is far from being challenging. Just give guns a bit of vertical recoil so you can't stay on target without any effort, this shouldn't be too hard for beginners and it would also provide some way to balance guns (Gun A does a ton of damage but also has really strong recoil while Gun B doesn't do as much damage but is nice and controllable)
Now, I'm not saying this game should try to be competitive or "realistic" or hardcore. I just want a game that isn't trying to pamper me all the time. There is a gap between casual friendly and fucking lock-on pistols...... And yes, I know that a bad player won't dominate with the smart pistol, but he can do pretty good without ANY effort of his own, and that's simply wrong in my opinion.
Now the Titans, I know that everyone wants to try out the titans in a game called Titanfall, but they still shouldn't flood the whole map after 2 minutes of EVERY match. I really think they should give them a longer respawn timer so you have to earn them with pilot kills. If you are a newb and you never get to a titan then you can just play last titan standing. Everyone gets a titan and you can enjoy titan gameplay without ruining the other gamemodes. And to make the games a bit more balanced you could add shortened titan respawn timers if a team gets completely steamrolled. As I said earlier, if one team completely dominates the other one they will get back their titans even quicker resulting in a pretty frustrating game. Shortened spawn timers could give the other team a chance for a comeback IMO.
Burn cards make no sense to me. Overpowered items shouldn't be in the game, or at least you should have to earn them. Luck of the draw + consumable items to gain them? No, just no. And as I said I'm really worried about them implementing micro transactions: "For only 4.99$ you get a package with 7 rare burn cards"-type of stuff.
@Logan, even though I'm pretty sure you would agree with the points I made on the game so far I still urge you to try it out yourself! It's just an opinion after all and it's best to form your own if you have the time.
I can really see this game as the better alternative to COD. Let's face it, if you seriously enjoy the latest COD titles then you are accepting pretty low standards. Now if they polish this game up a bit, remove the bs and make it more interesting then it could be the next mindless casual shooter (<--- I'm not being judgemental here, there IS a place for those kinds of shooters after all) If it takes a huge chunk of the COD crowd then that's pretty good and maybe shows the whole industry that it is time to try and innovate again. I'm hoping for this game to get better and to take off and to be the alternative to COD.
I probably missed something very important but I'll stop here for now.
And please understand that I'm not trying to hate on this game, I'm not a stupid fanboy of any other shooter and I'm not trying to make it look worse than it is. I simply see the potential that this game has and I see that I could really enjoy it with a few tweaks. I'm trying to provide constructive criticism here. Not to show the world what's wrong with the game and why they should hate it but because I want this game to become a lot better than it is right now.