There are a few things that are killing Bounty Hunt for me.
A) Nobody seems to know how to play the mode, and doesn't play the objective in a reasonable manner.
B) Last grunt syndrome. The game stalls when the bounty points don't get cleared. A lot of the time it's because of A, but sometimes that last grunt is ridiculous to find. He'll be crouching in between a tree and a rock, not shooting at anything. Sometimes it'll take 20 seconds to find his ass even if you're actually looking for him!
C) When the waves spawn, it's all drop-pods, and it kicks up a ton of dust. It makes it hard to see and efficiently clear them, and it tanks the frame rate. I hope the full version has drop ships as well, on top of lots of other shit. There just isn't enough variety in the waves.
Amped Hardpoint is kind of a lost cause. Hardpoint wasn't a favorite of mine to begin with, but make it campier, and have no AI, and It really really sucks.
So that leaves Pilots vs Pilots, which inexplicably has become my favorite mode in the tech test. The frame rate is solid, the highlighted spawn zones on the map provide just enough structure and direction to where it doesn't feel like a complete mess like in Titanfall 1. It's not what I come to Titanfall for, but I think it has enough legs that I'll be playing it here and there once the full game is out.
So, game modes are lacking here. Normal Attrition, LTS, and CTF would instantly make this tech test a lot better if they replaced the modes we have now.
The maps. Yeah, the maps aren't great. But we haven't really learned them that well either. I'm starting to really enjoy Boomtown. Even the stupid out of bounds areas, now that I'm starting to learn the hows and whys of transiting them. Titanfall 1 had a 10 second timer instead of 5, which I think is better, and wouldn't hurt here. But the out of bounds areas in Titanfall 1 were just generally more intelligent. The standout for me there was the very top of Rise, where you could use the 10 seconds to cross lanes above the map.
Kodai is really annoying in Pilot vs Pilot just because of the up top camping. That'll probably be less of an issue in game modes I actually like with titans sweeping that area at least. I think there are decent parkour options on this map though.
And yeah, nobody likes Homestead, but aside from the two big fields, the rest of the map isn't that bad for parkour either. I can easily cross the middle from base to base in a few different ways.
Mobility in general is actually really good now that they buffed the wallruns. There is a little too much in the way of cockblock debris in all these maps. I guess part of it is just learning it and knowing what is going to mess you up. There's plenty of that in Titanfall 1 as well. But I think they could do with cleaning the maps a little to make the parkour feel better.
The slide is really good, and it will help you chain together long parkour routes. Sometimes I use a real slide, sometimes I use the little slide bunny hop. They both help a lot.
One thing that I love, and is a huge boon to mobility is the much higher precision hipfire. And if you combine that with the ADS hover thing, and it really opens up the high parkour high speed aggressive playstyle.
And fuck the grapple. Yeah it's good. But you don't need it to get around. And stim is pretty badass:
I really do think it needs its cooldown reset on death though because let's face it, that's a prime use. Nothing sucks more than dying, wanting to hit that stim to get back into the fight ASAP and realizing it's still on cooldown.
As for the EPG-1 being OP? Don't be stupid. Use it for like 5 minutes. It's fine. It's fun. It's not going to displace insta-melt hitscan weapons as the predominant primaries in this game.
I've already previously unleashed a wall of text or two on titans and rodeos (generally I'm optimistic about the fixed loadout and the new battery stuff). But I'll add my voice to the chorus of "where my recharging shields at?" It's just more fun to have them. The overshield you get from a battery isn't even particularly good. I mostly want the batteries to recharge chunks of health.
And I don't dig the current state of the doomed state. If you're at full health in doom, and you get another battery, maybe it should undoom your titan? It's weird you get no benefit from that battery. At this point the doom state is just an arbitrary point in your HP where you can get termed anyway. I guess the no HP drain on doom is to encourage people to risk being termed, which is fine I guess, but like I said, I just don't think it quite fits well with the battery mechanic.