Just saw this pop up on my FB feed pretty good read. Especially for those gaffers who still seem to think Titanfall is just "Cod with Mechs"
Full article here.
It's great to hear them discuss the actual feel of the game finally got to play this at the EG show and it feels great to control.
Word spread fast. Titanfall was demoed at Augusts Gamescom show and, by day two, players were queuing for up to eight hours for a single 15-minute game, because once you play it you want to tell people about it. Titanfall is a mechanised and rocket-propelled anecdote generator, a meme with an Xbox One controller, a six-on-six multiplayer shootout where every moment is worth recounting, from the time you racked up a 20-man killing streak fighting alongside your own AI-controlled mecha to the moment an enemy Titan gunned down your armoured suit and you ejected straight onto the killers hull. Titanfalls systems seem purpose-built to make stories happen.
There were three core mechanics we wanted, explains producer Drew McCoy. Mobility, survivability and scale. Once the Titans started to come in you naturally started to get this longer lifespan, and even if you get destroyed you can eject and keep living. A lot can happen in a single life.
Because you move so fast, its not about who [aims quickest]; its about who outmanoeuvres the other. I think its a response to the fact that were all getting older and our reaction times arent what they used to be. I want to hop into a game and not feel like every 14-year-old is going to dominate me. I want a fighting chance and I dont want to feel Im screwed if I didnt get in on the first week.
Such survivability should prohibit large bodycounts but Titanfalls maps are target-rich environments, populated by dozens of AI soldiers run by Microsofts dedicated servers. All of them put up a decent enough fight to be trouble, but theyre thick and flimsy enough to be worth fewer points than a Pilot or Titan kill. AI grunts keep that quick time-to-kill feedback loop, says McCoy. When you can kill three guys in eight seconds, thats good but when youre on the other side of that, its not. If you run into a group of AI [units] you can take them out, and you still have that gameplay loop of doing things, achieving things, killing people.
Respawn rejects the word bot for its AI units, but like all bots, Titanfalls grunts are terrible in concept a legion of semi-coordinated goons except here, they work so well that Titanfall wouldnt be Titanfall without them. Theyre not bots, says McCoy. Theyre not meant as a human replacement. Theyre a different class of people. Pilots are these super-awesome soldiers that have the gear to do double jumps, the weapons to take down Titans, but the AI are the low-level guys that are always on the ground theyre not double-jumping and theyre really weak, but the purpose they serve design-wise is multifaceted. They show new players where to go. And once they start fighting, theyre usually fighting other AI because all the experienced players are fighting on walls and rooftops. New players start getting kills on AI, when usually in multiplayer games theyre getting completely whacked.
Mobility, survivability and scale are Respawns buzzwords but players leaving EAs booth at Gamescom were more inclined to mention how the game feels. Titanfall doesnt play like other modern shooters; when asked for influences McCoy mentions Quake, Tribes, Doom and Street Fighter.
Doom is actually where some of the Titan combat came from. That dance you did, strafing back-and-forth with rocket launchers; you felt like you could actually evade their fire. Titans can fire a slow [missile barrage] by holding the trigger, and thats actually a fighting game inspiration. Like in Street Fighter, if you throw a fireball you can force your opponent to jump over them and do another move to take them out.
This is zoning in an FPS. While Pilots zip around with their sticky boots and jetpacks, Titans play a slower, more tactical game of move and counter-move. Maybe youre really good at moving around the level, timing your Vortex to block their fire then dashing at a Titan, reading your opponents tells. It feels like a fighting game, says McCoy.
It feels different and new, the way Modern Warfare felt in 2007 and no major console shooter has felt since. Our story goes like this: we spawn and rush forward, moving ahead of the AI grunts and breaking off from our five teammates to climb the tower in the centre of the Angel City map. This is a mission torn from the campaign, a plot-driven deathmatch where the enemies are real players, and from that vantage point we can pick off grunts two or three at a time while firing on Pilots still too attached to the ground beneath their feet.
Full article here.
It's great to hear them discuss the actual feel of the game finally got to play this at the EG show and it feels great to control.