With the release of Titanfall 3 being rumoured to happen sometime this year, fans of the series have a lot to look forward to in 2019. Here’s to hoping that EA doesn’t mess anything up. Below are 5 features that we need in the heavily anticipated next installment of the fast-paced and futuristic first-person shooter.
More Mobility
The best part about the Titanfall series is without a doubt the movement. It’s the same fast-paced movement that Call of Duty tried to implement but executed to perfection. Wall running is fun and the maps themselves are designed to foster creative playstyles that utilize the deep movement systems. Sure, you can start out by doing a few wall-runs and double jumps here and there, but once you’ve mastered it, a few perfectly timed jump, slides and grapples can send you flying across the map nearly instantly.
Some of the most fun I’ve had in the game was with the grappler, and I hope that the devs take the time to create some truly unique gadgets that further explore Titanfall’s movement focused gameplay. Nothing would make me happier than unlocking boots that launch you into the air if you perfectly time a slide-jump or thrusters that let you divebomb into a group of enemies after ejecting from your titan.
Extensive Gun Customization
The first two games did include light weapon customization, but for the most part, it was pretty shallow. You could change a gun’s sights, maybe add a suppressor, and then fiddle with reload and ADS times, but it was nowhere near the level of customizability commonly found in franchise’s like Battlefield and Call of Duty. I can’t fault the developers too much though, because there were more perks, abilities, and gadgets to choose from than I can even begin to name.
Customizable Class-Based Titans
This one’s pretty similar to my last point, but deep customization was lacking when it came to the Titans (or the “big guys” as my girlfriend likes to call them). You could change up some of their abilities and camos, but that was about it. Once you picked which titan you wanted to drop in with, you were stuck with the weapons that were assigned to its class. This keeps things balanced and gives each titan a distinct feel and personality, but it can get a little stale when your favourite Titan is always equipped with the same old minigun.
Instead, the developers should work on creating a few different weapons for each titan that fit their class’. Take “Ronin” for example. He’s a titan that’s designed to get up close and personal, so he’s equipped with a shotgun, sword, and a phase shift ability which lets him quickly teleport a few meters to get out of bad situations. How about being able to swap out the shotgun for a submachine gun, the sword for a battle axe, and the phase shift for a small bubble shield. The current system is by no means half-baked, but adding some class-based customization could make weirdos like me play the game even more than I already do- which is probably a bit too much.
Better Gun Balance
A lot of the first two games’ weapons were really good, but the problem was that a few of them were too good. If you weren’t using either assault rifles, submachines guns or maybe LMG’s, you were basically going to get murdered. The problem was made even worse when the second installment drastically reduced TTK (time to kill) to just a few seconds. Try killing a guy with a sniper rifle while he’s zipping and sliding halfway across the map in a few seconds- it’s not that fun.
This is probably the first time I’ll ever say this, but I think snipers would be better off using hit scan. A lot of the current guns shoot projectile based ammunition, which makes it that much harder to pop off headshots on enemies travelling at around half of the speed of light. While they’re at it, they could probably decrease ADS time too. I’m not exactly a fan of quick scoping, but it’s better than players basically just ignoring the sniper class entirely.
To Not be Murdered by EA
EA, everybody’s favourite company. In 2018 they were once again placed in the top ten list for United States’ worst companies according to 24/7 Wallstreet, an honour the company is familiar with at this point. Just 5 years ago the company peaked at number one, a prestigious title no doubt.
To the dismay of fans of Titanfall and of quality video games in general, EA, the studio behind many of the industry’s biggest blunders and failures acquired Titanfall developer Respawn in late 2017. Titanfall’s previous two entries were published by EA, while development of the game was helmed by Respawn, which was probably why the games were, well… good.
But now we have EA to deal with, so I just have one demand.
Please don’t mess this up EA. We know you guys can make games that don’t try to suck up every last bit of cash from the player’s wallet. Granted, the only recent EA games that I’ve enjoyed have been Battlefield, but still.
I’ll be honest, I don’t exactly have high hopes. The total butchering of Titanfall 2’s release in 2016 has already been heavily documented. EA basically doomed the game to be dead on arrival when it made the bright decision to release it smack dab in the middle of EA’s own Battlefield 1and Activision’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. What’s worse is that at the time, COD was still fiddling around with the same futuristic exo-suit inspired gameplay that Titanfall 2 was trying to refine. What resulted was Titanfall 2’s untimely demise.
So hey, maybe don’t purposefully kill your game this time? Just a thought.
P.S. please don’t add loot boxes.
