Titanfall's greatest achievement is it's ability to remain entertaining through failure or success. There are so many examples of this in Titanfall it must of been an inherent part of it's design.
Lets start with the movement, I was never very fond of the parkour in Assassins Creed games. It was satisfying but felt far too simple. Titanfall manages to strike a near perfect balance between being simple and flexible. Your hands and feet don't feel like magnets, clinging onto specific parts of the environment. It feels much more natural and effortless. The simplicity empowers you to experiment rather than feel confined. In addition to this, failing a jump or a wall run doesn't make you feel awkward since there are so many ways to go. Often I have miss-timed my double jump only to find myself in a better position.
In all honestly the sheer brilliance of running around makes Titans feel a bit boring in comparison. Why would you want to be a lumbering robot when I can dash around with ease on foot? However there is one major aspect of the Titans that makes me look forward to calling them in. When your Titan takes too much damage and is completely and utterly "Doomed" tapping the eject button sends you flying through into the sky at incredible speeds. Another great example of making failure fun.
Even if getting fired several kilometres into the air doesn't appeal to you, you can set your Titan to autopilot and completely forget about the damn thing.
Those who aren't so great at shooters can still have fun too, perhaps even get one of the best scores in their team. AI controlled minions are frequently dropped into battle, mainly for the sake of getting shot in the face by enemy players. Killing these minions earns you points for your team and reduces the amount of time to your next Titan.
As the final cherry perched atop this rather fancy cake, losing a match of Titanfall is possibly the most exciting part of the whole game. All the losers have to quickly scramble to a nearby drop-ship and escape the battle without dying. The winners have to try and intercept you, and take you down.
As you can probably tell I thoroughly enjoyed the beta for Titanfall. It manages to be fun for a huge amount of players, over a huge spectrum of skill and experience. I have a few qualms such as there being too much lens flare, and how burn cards reward you for doing badly. However what really interests me about Titanfall is it's future. It's new and exciting right now, but will it simply become another Call of Duty? I guess time will tell.
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