Respawn Entertainment’s first venture into the big wide world of AAA development took centre stage in EA’s coliseum during the show, proudly displaying the games iconic ‘Titan’s as a guardian of the queue. When entering the booth, we were treated to a short 5 minute briefing on the various game elements ahead of us, including a detailed look at 3 different load outs, each sporting a unique style of play. The game mode on show was called Attrition – A typical team deathmatch setup that requires players to kill each other in more extreme ways, which in turn will award their team more points. We were also introduced to a new map called ‘Angel City’ which felt lived in and believable as a battle zone.

In a stark departure from the genres typical format of having the game split between a multiplayer mode and a single player campaign, Respawn are trying something a bit different. The game in its entirety is a multiplayer-only game, with the story elements of a typical campaign mode available through ‘campaign multiplayer’. From what I was shown, this mode features an intro/outro to each map, in which the story is explained via cutscenes, then the fighting happens followed by an outro where you’re told “Great job!” or alternatively, “You suck and your friends all died!”. In the example of Angel city’s narrative, I was playing on the ICM, and it was my job to stop those pesky MCOR from smuggling an ace Titan pilot out of the city.

The combat feels solid, with tight controls and an intuitive range of motion to help you navigate the battlefield, and considering the heritage of Respawn’s developers (CoD, God of War) it comes as no surprise. One of Titanfall’s biggest aspects is the ability to do Parkour-style movements across the terrain, helped in part by a personal jetpack that grants you a small double jump. After only 5 minutes of acclimatising to this feature, both myself and the people around me were all enjoying our new found ninja skills, and it definitely adds a new level of depth to the core game mechanics, as fighting progresses into the vertical spectrum and you suddenly realise death can come from any angle.

Weapons come in all shapes and sizes too, and from the get-go you can choose to play one of the classes, each with their own specific niche role. My time in the demo was spent using the tactical class, who comes armed with one of the more unique weapons being shown; a smart pistol that can target enemies around corners - Angelina Jolie’s got nothing on me. When armed with the pistol, a large box is displayed on your screen, and despite using it for the entire round I’m still not entirely sure how it worked. When a target was available to shoot around a corner, a large curve would appear leading towards their direction, so naturally I fired blindly and people died.

Alongside your soldier’s loadout, you also have the option of what kind of Titan you’ll be using throughout each round. Each Titan class sports a set of different weapons ranging from heavy machine guns to devastating rocket launchers. These giant mechs have a number of active abilities as well, two of which were available in the demo. The first is a barrier that can pluck incoming projectiles out of the air, suspending them for a short time and allowing you to return them to sender. The second ability was electric smoke, and although I didn’t get to try this one out, its goal is to help remove any pesky soldiers who are climbing on your Titan.

The Titans themselves are well designed and come with a sense of weight and devastation, and combining that with their boosters you’re able to perform quick dashes to evade attacks of catch-up to your enemies, which helps to make Titan vs. Titan combat feel much faster than two stationary units simply shooting each other. Respawn have been careful to make sure balance is kept between units and Titans, so don’t think that 10 inches of steel plating will save you from a beatdown. Despite that, it’s still buckets of fun to watch a frightened soldier scramble out of your way, only for you to click the melee button and watch as he paints the town red, so to speak.

If you’ve called down your Titan, but feel it necessary to clamber out and start going on foot, there’s also the option to allow for the AI to take control of your empty juggernaut, with simple orders available like “follow me” allowing you to provide your team with a valuable guard dog or extra firepower.

Titanfall feels solid, this much is obvious. Every aspect of player control has been given considerable attention to make sure the more unique features are implemented well, making it more inviting to the traditional military FPS player. Fans of giant mechs should also fit in well here as the Titan combat is as engaging as it is brutal. The story, for the most part seems to just be filler with no real purpose other than to explain why you’re doing things, which is okay, after all I don’t play a competitive shooter to learn about Ramirez’s long lost sister. The always online aspect is yet to be fully fleshed out, however it does leave room for concern, which is true for most games adopting that policy.

Final verdict: Microsoft are onto a winner here by keeping this exclusive to Xbox and PC, as this game is crazy fun, and sure to be a must buy for any self respecting FPS player. The history of the development team is visible in the inspirations and effort poured into Titanfall, and I can’t wait to play it.

(The version I tried was on PC)