For the uninformed, Titanfall 2 is the game that Respawn Entertainment made before they made Apex Legends. Everyone knows about Apex Legends at this point, right? Compared to this game, I have ten times more hours in Apex across Origin and Steam, spread across 4+ years and 18 seasons at the time of writing. Clearly, I like Apex a lot (or at least I used to, at any rate), and I'll probably continue to play Apex in some capacity for the foreseeable future, no matter how much it may abuse me. Titanfall 2 makes me regret spending that much time in what I now think is a vastly inferior game.

Titanfall 2 is so much better, so much more fun than its follow-up, that it's kind of incredible. Like Apex, I played this game on Origin first, so I have about 250 hours total. I genuinely think that in those 250 hours of Titanfall 2, I had roughly as much fun as I had in about 2.5k hours of Apex Legends. This game is honest-to-god 10x more fun than Apex. I have yet to meet somebody who played this game and did not like it.

If you like movement shooters, buy this game.
If you like giant robots, buy this game.

If you like movement shooters but hate giant robots, there are giant-robot-free game modes, so buy this game.
If you hate movement shooters but like giant robots, there are giant-robot-only game modes, so buy this game.

If you hate movement shooters and also hate giant robots, do not buy this game.
If you hate shooters in general, why are you even here? But also definitely do not buy this game.

For everyone else, wishlist this game; when it goes on sale, buy this game.





Alright, now I'm just gonna gush and ramble and critique for way too long. You can and probably should stop reading here, but if you want to understand why I was jerking this game off so hard, you might get some answers below.

This game truly has it all. A quality campaign, incredible PvP, and a hidden gem of a PvE mode. And in every mode, you will experience some of the best movement in any GAME, let alone shooter. Also in every mode: piloting giant robots. That ♥♥♥♥ is just plain cool. If you disagree, I respect your opinion, but I also think you are lame as ♥♥♥♥.


Campaign
The definition of short but sweet. A bit overrated, IMO, but man, it's still really good. Just packed with creativity, every level is unique in some way. Even the worst ones are still mostly enjoyable because of how good the movement and gunplay are. It's also a great training course for multiplayer pilot gameplay. My only complaint is that it absolutely does not prepare you for multiplayer titan combat. Your campaign titan may share loadouts with the multiplayer titans, but it otherwise functions very differently.

A word of warning: Do not play on the hardest difficulty on your first playthrough. If you are bad at games, it will be impossible and miserable. If you are good at games, it will be possible, but tedious and still a little miserable.


PvP
This is the main attraction. For every match that's a terrible experience, I have 10 that were joyrides from start to finish. I will admit that I still haven't played every mode, but pretty much all of the ones I tried have been at least decent. 90% of my PvP matches are in the 'main' mode, Attrition. Attrition is honestly kind of genius. The developers found an answer to the question, "Without making the lobby size huge, how can a military shooter still feel like an actual war?" Attrition is 6v6 TDM with giant robots and computer-controlled "fodder" units. I put that in quotes because the AI can ♥♥♥♥ your ♥♥♥♥ up if you're not careful. Not a common occurrence, but it's always embarrassing when it happens. Adding titans and AI opens up a surprising amount of gameplay diversity. Bad at pilot combat? Farm AI until you can call down your titan. Bad at titan combat? Auto-Scorch with Assault Chip; use that sucker as bait. It'll pick up a few random kills, too. (I've heard Auto-Northstar can be lethal as well.) Bad at everything? Well, at least you respawn fast. (Can't say the same for Apex...)

Balance is pretty good, too. Some things are definitely much better than others (looking at you, CAR), but every weapon and titan can be broken, given the right situation. And *almost* (again, looking at you, CAR) every weapon and titan can be useless, given the wrong situation. Everything has at least a little counterplay. When the opposition is running some utterly joyless loadouts and making my match completely miserable, I often feel like I can turn the tide with a smart counterpick and a little strategy. Doesn't always result in a win, but it usually makes some kind of impact.

Also, when you're starting out, run whatever the ♥♥♥♥ you want. You will sometimes find people that will try to give you ♥♥♥♥ for playing certain weapons (e.g. CAR, Spitfire) or titans (e.g. Tone, Monarch). These things are, admittedly, annoying to fight and/or easy to use. You still shouldn't feel bad for using them. (Unless you are intentionally using them to piss people off. Don't do that unless they were toxic first, you little ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, you.) Don't let these people talk down to you just because you want to learn without getting entirely stomped. This game has a sky-high skill ceiling. If the opponent can't deal with you, they aren't very good to begin with.

On the flip side, try to avoid calling anything broken or no-skill before you've actually gotten a chance to use it. I know I've had my fair share of eye-opening moments...

Aside from that, I've found that toxicity is pretty low outside of weapon shaming. For every racial slur or salty insult I see, there are 5 chat messages that are just wacky nonsense. It's great. You'll even see a 'ns' sometimes. Crazy!

though i do sometimes wonder what is going through the minds of g100 players that still use the car


PvE
THIS ♥♥♥♥ IS ACTUALLY GOOD. Frontier Defense is severely underrated. I have yet to get deep into this mode, but so far, it's been a blast. Massacring clueless grunts, mowing down armies of titans, watching your own titan slowly become the most overpowered thing you've ever seen, barely scraping by on your last retry. (Yes, there are retries. Don't leave until the match is over! Unless you already knew that, and you're just a filthy ragequitter.) It's all good stuff. I find Easy a little too easy, but Regular is great for some brainless fun with a little challenge. Hard is actually hard and makes me have to think for once. I am currently too afraid to play Master and Insane, but I hope to one day git gud and try those out.


Price
Okay, this doesn't fit with the other sections, but it bears mentioning. This game is on sale relatively often, and the discount is usually deep. I got this game on Steam for $3, and I think I bought it on Origin for $5.


"Why did you buy this game twice?"
Yeah, I understand nobody gives a rat's ass about this. As you can clearly see, I'm not expecting anyone to read down this far (or read this review at all, for that matter). Congratulations on making it here! Anyway, this will take some explaining. If you're not aware, this game still runs through Origin (well, technically, it's the "EA app" now). When you buy and install it on Steam, it actually just installs Origin on your computer, and whenever you run it, Origin will launch (don't worry, it closes when you close the game). So, if I can't avoid Origin, why did I buy the game again? I bought this game for a second time on Steam because I couldn't be bothered to install Origin when I got a new PC. Yep, this game is so good that I was willing to pay $3 for it to install Origin for me.

For the uninformed, Titanfall 2 is the game that Respawn Entertainment made before they made Apex Legends. Everyone knows about Apex Legends at this point, right? Compared to this game, I have ten times more hours in Apex across Origin and Steam, spread across 4+ years and 18 seasons at the time of writing. Clearly, I like Apex a lot (or at least I used to, at any rate), and I'll probably continue to play Apex in some capacity for the foreseeable future, no matter how much it may abuse me. Titanfall 2 makes me regret spending that much time in what I now think is a vastly inferior game. Titanfall 2 is so much better, so much more [i]fun[/i] than its follow-up, that it's kind of incredible. Like Apex, I played this game on Origin first, so I have about 250 hours total. I genuinely think that in those 250 hours of Titanfall 2, I had roughly as much fun as I had in about 2.5k hours of Apex Legends. This game is honest-to-god 10x more fun than Apex. I have yet to meet somebody who played this game and did not like it. If you like movement shooters, [i]buy this game.[/i] If you like giant robots, [i]buy this game.[/i] If you like movement shooters but hate giant robots, there are giant-robot-free game modes, so [i]buy this game.[/i] If you hate movement shooters but like giant robots, there are giant-robot-only game modes, so [i]buy this game.[/i] If you hate movement shooters and also hate giant robots, do not buy this game. If you hate shooters in general, why are you even here? But also definitely do not buy this game. For everyone else, wishlist this game; when it goes on sale, [i]buy this game.[/i] Alright, now I'm just gonna gush and ramble and critique for way too long. You can and probably should stop reading here, but if you want to understand why I was jerking this game off so hard, you might get some answers below. This game truly has it all. A quality campaign, incredible PvP, and a hidden gem of a PvE mode. And in every mode, you will experience some of the best movement in any GAME, let alone shooter. Also in every mode: piloting giant robots. That shit is just plain cool. If you disagree, I respect your opinion, but I also think you are lame as fuck. [b][u]Campaign[/u][/b] The definition of short but sweet. A bit overrated, IMO, but man, it's still really good. Just packed with creativity, every level is unique in some way. Even the worst ones are still mostly enjoyable because of how good the movement and gunplay are. It's also a great training course for multiplayer pilot gameplay. My only complaint is that it absolutely does not prepare you for multiplayer titan combat. Your campaign titan may share loadouts with the multiplayer titans, but it otherwise functions very differently. A word of warning: Do not play on the hardest difficulty on your first playthrough. If you are bad at games, it will be impossible and miserable. If you are good at games, it will be possible, but tedious and still a little miserable. [b][u]PvP[/u][/b] This is the main attraction. For every match that's a terrible experience, I have 10 that were joyrides from start to finish. I will admit that I still haven't played every mode, but pretty much all of the ones I tried have been at least decent. 90% of my PvP matches are in the 'main' mode, Attrition. Attrition is honestly kind of genius. The developers found an answer to the question, "Without making the lobby size huge, how can a military shooter still feel like an actual war?" Attrition is 6v6 TDM with giant robots and computer-controlled "fodder" units. I put that in quotes because the AI can fuck your shit up if you're not careful. Not a common occurrence, but it's always embarrassing when it happens. Adding titans and AI opens up a surprising amount of gameplay diversity. Bad at pilot combat? Farm AI until you can call down your titan. Bad at titan combat? Auto-Scorch with Assault Chip; use that sucker as bait. It'll pick up a few random kills, too. (I've heard Auto-Northstar can be lethal as well.) Bad at everything? Well, at least you respawn fast. (Can't say the same for Apex...) Balance is pretty good, too. Some things are definitely much better than others (looking at you, CAR), but every weapon and titan can be broken, given the right situation. And *almost* (again, looking at you, CAR) every weapon and titan can be useless, given the wrong situation. Everything has at least a little counterplay. When the opposition is running some utterly joyless loadouts and making my match completely miserable, I often feel like I can turn the tide with a smart counterpick and a little strategy. Doesn't always result in a win, but it usually makes [i]some[/i] kind of impact. Also, when you're starting out, run whatever the fuck you want. You will sometimes find people that will try to give you shit for playing certain weapons (e.g. CAR, Spitfire) or titans (e.g. Tone, Monarch). These things are, admittedly, annoying to fight and/or easy to use. You still shouldn't feel bad for using them. (Unless you are intentionally using them to piss people off. Don't do that unless they were toxic first, you little shitter, you.) Don't let these people talk down to you just because you want to learn without getting [i]entirely[/i] stomped. This game has a sky-high skill ceiling. If the opponent can't deal with you, they aren't very good to begin with. On the flip side, try to avoid calling anything broken or no-skill before you've actually gotten a chance to use it. I know I've had my fair share of eye-opening moments... Aside from that, I've found that toxicity is pretty low outside of weapon shaming. For every racial slur or salty insult I see, there are 5 chat messages that are just wacky nonsense. It's great. You'll even see a 'ns' sometimes. Crazy! [spoiler]though i do sometimes wonder what is going through the minds of g100 players that still use the car[/spoiler] [b][u]PvE[/u][/b] [b]THIS SHIT IS ACTUALLY GOOD.[/b] Frontier Defense is severely underrated. I have yet to get deep into this mode, but so far, it's been a blast. Massacring clueless grunts, mowing down armies of titans, watching your own titan slowly become the most overpowered thing you've ever seen, barely scraping by on your last retry. (Yes, there are retries. Don't leave until the match is over! Unless you already knew that, and you're just a filthy ragequitter.) It's all good stuff. I find Easy a little [i]too[/i] easy, but Regular is great for some brainless fun with a little challenge. Hard is actually hard and makes me have to think for once. I am currently too afraid to play Master and Insane, but I hope to one day git gud and try those out. [b][u]Price[/u][/b] Okay, this doesn't fit with the other sections, but it bears mentioning. This game is on sale relatively often, and the discount is usually [b]deep.[/b] I got this game on Steam for $3, and I think I bought it on Origin for $5. [b][u]"Why did you buy this game twice?"[/u][/b] Yeah, I understand nobody gives a rat's ass about this. As you can clearly see, I'm not expecting anyone to read down this far (or read this review at all, for that matter). Congratulations on making it here! Anyway, this will take some explaining. If you're not aware, this game still runs through Origin (well, technically, it's the "EA app" now). When you buy and install it on Steam, it actually just installs Origin on your computer, and whenever you run it, Origin will launch (don't worry, it closes when you close the game). So, if I can't avoid Origin, why did I buy the game again? I bought this game for a second time on Steam because I couldn't be bothered to install Origin when I got a new PC. Yep, this game is so good that I was willing to pay $3 for it to install Origin for me.