Titanfall 2: What Went Wrong?

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Titanfall 2 is one of the most underrated games of all time. Most people who have played this game have come out loving it, so why aren't there any more Titanfall games? I'm here to answer "what went wrong" with the Titanfall franchise.
 
Probably because it's time of release, but I will say this.

Titanfall 2 was not only the best online FPS I've ever played, but the single player campaign was one of the best FPS campaigns ever made.

If we don't get Titanfall 3 then there is no justice in this world.
 
What went wrong? Woefully short campaign, terrible rodeo mechanic, lacklustre titan customisation, third person titan entry.

Off the top of my head.
 
in the case on the pc no anticheat, it killed the playerbase, because people were using silent aim while doing wall running/jumpng maneuvers while still being pinpoint accurate. i seriously havent seen a playerbase hemorrhage off so fast.
 
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I clicked on this thread solely to see what faults anybody could have picked with Titanfall 2. Now I see it means what went wrong as in, why didn't it create a bigger splash.

It's a good question. I don't play multiplayer, but the campaign was worth the price of admission on it's own. It felt fresh, inventive & was a whole lot of fun. I guess most FPS fans these days are just more into live service multiplayer stuff?
 
the biggest reason is EA greed. Releasing the game a week after battlefield 1, was a stupid move. Of course everyone is gonna buy an established franchise. They should have released titanfall 2 a couple weeks before or after. They sent the game to die. Idiots.
 
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I really enjoyed the campaign. But it was only like 6-8 hours so I just rented it from Redbox and blew through it as I hate PVP games. Games that short just aren't worth buying to me. Add in it got released along side other, bigger name PVP shooters and it's not surprising it failed.

If they want to revive it, I'd suggest them either making it a light RPGish type game with a longer campaign and more loot and customization for the Titans, or even make is a Destiny-ish looter shooter.

I just don't think there's much space for another PVP shooter with people locked into some combination of CoD, Battlefield/Battlefront, Fortnite, CS:GO and so on. That market is pretty saturated. Looter shooter fans seems a bit tired of Destiny, so maybe they could capitalize on that or go the RPGish route and capitalize on the lack of a good shooter RPG like Mass Effect for a long while now.
 
An OK game at best, released between two titans (get it?). Super short campaign with average story, i dont get what the fuss was about and definitely didn't get comparisons to HL2. It wasnt even close story wise quality.
 
the universe had identity issues until apex came around

it's not dead, there's around 2000 active players / day on pc

probably the best arena shooter ever tho, for what it's worth
 
I lnow its blasphemy, but i honestly didnt like the campaign. It cant of sold THAT badly though as Apex started out as Titanfall 3 apparently.
 
Amazing game. Played the campaign 5x, got all the helmets and whatnot

MP was fun but it should have launched with Frontier Defense Mode and not added it too late

I probably prefer the MP style of TF1

The game was sent to die release sandwiched between COD and BF1

I keep hoping APEX launches a PvE mode with Titans
 
What went wrong? I'll tell you what went wrong instead of a lame 10 minutes video that says nothing

What went wrong is the dumb ass release date they gave for the game
 
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the campaign is good but overrated .. the mp bored me to death .. its just a call of duty with mechs and open field maps
 
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The first game was ok but it's MP ultimately didn't really enamor anyone in any serious way, so finally adding the SP to 2 wasn't enough to bring in the hordes. Launching it against Gears and BF didn't give it much room either.
 
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This dude is full of shit. Because he wanted a game with no titans or AI grunts he just states that that's why TF2 sucks and failed. I disagree completely, attrition is the signature game mode and it is a ton of fun both as a pilot and as a titan.

TF2 failed because of a bullshit release date and a complete lack of promotion by EA who heavily favored BF1 which turned out to be a shit game for the most part.
 
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TF2 failed because the multiplayer was a step down from Titanfall 1. Titanfall was the new game from the guys that brought us the best CoD multiplayer experiences. And it felt like it. There was some issues and a lack of content, but overall it was fantastic. The first TItanfall had a collection of the best maps I've played on in a mp game since MW2 and Blops 1. The gun design and core shooting was amazing. And the wall running and titans were just present enough to be a refreshing change rather than a completely different experience. Titanfall 2 launched with a collection of maps that were in my opinion, far worse. They tried the "hero" thing where you picked titans with vastly different abilities and play styles which was a big departure from the more CoD like gameplay of the first, I think gun design and overall aesthetic took a bit of a hit. Shooting oddly didn't feel as tight. And they added far more gimmicks and different things that significantly effect base gameplay.

TL;DR

Titanfall felt like it came from the guys that gave us CoD 4 and MW2. It was different enough that it felt like a new experience, but the core was there and it was great. Titanfall 2 felt more like a new ip than the original did, and I personally didn't like that.
'
 
I guess that EA didn't saw as a profitable game since it has the emphasys for the single-player
 
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It was sent to die. Terrible release date.

Also, journos and EA were shilling campaign HARD. But it wasn't nearly that good.
 
Space Runaway said:
The first game was ok but it's MP ultimately didn't really enamor anyone in any serious way, so finally adding the SP to 2 wasn't enough to bring in the hordes. Launching it against Gears and BF didn't give it much room either.
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Gears likely had very little to do with it considering the sales for that game were rather modest. The bigger contenders were BF1 and infinite warfare
HE1NZ said:
It was sent to die. Terrible release date.

Also, journos and EA were shilling campaign HARD. But it wasn't nearly that good.
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I disagree, imo it was one of the best shooter campaigns this gen possibly just behind doom '16
 
There's a lot of great and polished multiplayer games today that just have to live with low player counts. The big evergreen free to play juggernauts suck so much air out of the universe of multiplayer titles that boxed AAA products are left to fight eachother for scraps.

I also think the franchise was way overhyped by Xbox trying to find a silver lining to their disastrous launch. Yes, it got out ahead of the advanced movement FPS fad, but in the end it was just one among a sea of them and it really comes down to taste whether you think it's multiplayer is worth it over the others.
 
I heard the PS campaign was awesome. But I never touch SP so I can't verify this.

I also don't know if any patches fixed MP, but when I played it at the beginning, the MP was broken.

Although it looked better and played smoother, there were many things I remember being shit compared to TF1:

1. Suddenly lots of snipers

2. These giant TF robots must have the worst durability in the world. They got killed fast

3. Maps weren't as good

4. There was this stupid xray radar thing you could spam which showed you where enemies were

Add it all up and although the production values were better than TF1 and it seemed more polished, it played much worse.
 
Marketing and release date. EA didn't market the story mode as well as being a brand new story which didn't link with the first one. And of course EA decided to release it in between COD and Battlefield. They were too dumb to realize that the IP would get squashed between the two games.
 
rubhen925 said:
the biggest reason is EA greed. Releasing the game a week after battlefield 1, was a stupid move. Of course everyone is gonna buy an established franchise. They should have released titanfall 2 a couple weeks before or after. They sent the game to die. Idiots.
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That's EA's legacy mantra of always needing to release their shooters before Call of Duty even if the game sucks.

If you really want to see sketcky EA shooters trying to one up Call of Duty by releasing early to get fast sales, check up their Medal of Honor and Warfighter games from the 360/PS3 days. Terrible games.

What EA tried to do is corner the market assuming gamers would scoop up BF1 and TF2 leaving Call of Duty in the dust as gamers would run out of money by Nov 4.

BF1 - Oct 21
TF2 - Oct 28
COD - Nov 4

Name one publisher in history with two games in the same genre releasing a week apart, and one of them is sandwiched between two franchises that are both bigger too.
 
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BT was a nice companion character and the universe deserves more. I only played it myself after playing Apex Legends and a lot of people have went back to it. MP is still fairly active.
 
IbizaPocholo said:


Titanfall 2 is one of the most underrated games of all time. Most people who have played this game have come out loving it, so why aren't there any more Titanfall games? I'm here to answer "what went wrong" with the Titanfall franchise.
Click to expand...

man I had SO MUCH FUN in this multiplayer!! And the singleplayer was so dam good. But what went wrong? Well.. The launch window is what went wrong. EA put it up against battlefield...
 
Moogle11 said:
I really enjoyed the campaign. But it was only like 6-8 hours so I just rented it from Redbox and blew through it as I hate PVP games. Games that short just aren't worth buying to me. Add in it got released along side other, bigger name PVP shooters and it's not surprising it failed.

If they want to revive it, I'd suggest them either making it a light RPGish type game with a longer campaign and more loot and customization for the Titans, or even make is a Destiny-ish looter shooter.

I just don't think there's much space for another PVP shooter with people locked into some combination of CoD, Battlefield/Battlefront, Fortnite, CS:GO and so on. That market is pretty saturated. Looter shooter fans seems a bit tired of Destiny, so maybe they could capitalize on that or go the RPGish route and capitalize on the lack of a good shooter RPG like Mass Effect for a long while now.
Click to expand...

The idea of them turning a beautiful and pure game like Titanfall into a disgusting gacha live service shit... please no. Let it die first.

I honestly don't think the BF1 release date had much to do with it. Some games, despite the quality, just don't catch on. Titanfall 1 released on Xbox One, only, in the middle of nowhere calendar-wise, tons of hype, great reviews, and was basically the only thing for people to play on the platform at that point, and didn't move the needle at all.
 
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diffusionx said:
The idea of them turning a beautiful and pure game like Titanfall into a disgusting gacha live service shit... please no. Let it die first.

I honestly don't think the BF1 release date had much to do with it. Some games, despite the quality, just don't catch on. Titanfall 1 released on Xbox One, only, in the middle of nowhere calendar-wise, tons of hype, great reviews, and was basically the only thing for people to play on the platform at that point, and didn't move the needle at all.
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The trend for shooters lately is the military grunt game, BR, or F2P game. With the later games opening up to big bright wacky stuff.

That sci-fi shooter setting of mechs, aliens and crazy shit..... Gears, Halo, Unreal, TF, KZ, Quake don't resonate with gamers much anymore. Maybe in that 1998-2008 span it was all the rage. Not anymore.
 
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People have shitty taste and are sheep — they play whatever their friends tell them to, or what they hear is "cool".

Countless times I've heard these words from casuals "I don't really like Apex Legends/fort nite/Call Of Duty but I play because my friends do".
 
First person mech entry was way more my vibe. Third person did not do it.

I know the advanced movement made it legendary, but I would be more interested in multiplayer somehow showing the mech/pilot fantasy that I thought the single player and artwork nailed.

Then, Apex legends made me lose all hope. I loved what they sold in the art and it feels gone at this point.
 
For me personally (and every other gamer in my group of friends), the first game just left a really bad taste in my mouth. I have heard the second is better, but I'm good.
 
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Never played TF1, as it was MP focused - which ain't my bag of cats.

TF2 however, I thought was perhaps the best SP campaign since HL2. New moves and tricks were introduced level by level, and they also never outstayed their welcome. It was short, yes, but it distilled what it had to offer into a much more satisfying experience.
 
The release date, as everyone is saying, and the fact that the first was an XB1 exclusive. If you make a new franchise exclusive to one platflorm, you run the risk of it not gaining enough mindshare with the general public. Sure, it was a meme among the hardcore "Have you seen Titanfall?" but I think most potential buyers, if they were aware of its existence, didn't have any emotional investment in the series, which is a crying shame.

I don't think games "deserve" sales, but TF2 deserved something better than it got; better treatment from EA at least, that's for sure.
 
Personally, my only complaint is that it didn't launch with Frontier Defense or even have it mentioned as a future update upon its release. Frontier Defense is the only mode I played in TF1 and is the only mode I play in TF2. I don't care for pilot gameplay at all, and I have never understood the people that promote pilot gameplay over the Titan combat.

In addition to the release date/marketing issues others have mentioned, I think a few other factors played into its poor sales.
  • TF1 was an XB1 launch game, so it had a higher attach rate than it otherwise would, therefore the TF2 expectations were higher than they should be.
  • As an XB1 exclusive, it became associated with the negativity the gaming community had for Xbox.
  • Also as an XB1 exclusive, the PS crowd naturally shunned TF2 more they would have if it had been a new IP all other things being equal.
  • The TF2 beta had a poor response by the TF1 hardcore. Many of the them chose not to buy it, thinking that it would push Respawn to make TF3 like TF1, but instead they helped kill the game.
  • Respawn failed to have a Beta for the campaign, which is generally well regarded. Much like how Doom 2016 was initially seen poorly due to its multiplayer beta. However, somehow Doom got enough word of mouth regarding its campaign to recover, while TF2 did not, likely due to Doom's more well known IP (brand equity).
  • Because of the aversion that gamers have towards multiplayer only games, especially earlier this generation, TF1 (and Evolve!) bore the brunt of this anti-multiplayer hysteria, whereas later games in the same vein (cough, Overwatch, cough) got a free pass just a few short years later. Thus TF2 was "punished" for TF1's "sins".
  • TitanFall pilot combat is praised by those who it "clicks" for, but for many others, like myself, it is unintuitive, difficult, and/or unsatisfying.
 
Cert.in.Death said:
Its MP was not all that great either.
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