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(Opinion) Polygon: Titanfall is the perfect game for people who are terrible at FPS's

erawsd

Member
I've played the game for a few hours and I'm not sure I agree at all.

The game is very much all about killing opposing players and titans. If you're doing nothing but killing grunts/specters then your contribution is almost useless since the opposing team is likely farming you for far more points.

Battlefield is a great example of a game where you don't have to be a great FPS player to compete.
 
I agree with this. This is essentially what i have noticed from reading impressions. As much as I don't particularly like Titanfall, I think the point is for the game to be fun. Being the best, top of the charts, having highest KD ratio, doesn't matter in this game. It strictly about the objective and having fun with it. Watching people get obliterated or crushed is cool. For people who get frustrated with COD and BF where it sometime doesn't reward their bad doings (especially COD) this is a game that they can play and feel like everything is fair.

I've played the game for a few hours and I'm not sure I agree at all.

The game is very much all about killing opposing players and titans. If you're doing nothing but killing grunts/specters then your contribution is almost useless since the opposing team is likely farming you for far more points.

Battlefield is a great example of a game where you don't have to be a great FPS player to compete.

This is a lie. You will get your ass handed to you in BF. It's not easy to play, since there's bigger maps (and if your used to COD small scale maps) you don't know where to go or how to find people. Driving the vehicles aren't easy especially the jet and helicopter. Titanfall is literally a game you can jump in a play. Its really simple from what I've seen. Stay vertical and keep moving. Battlefield isn't a game you can do that.
 
On the face of it, this appears to be a good thing. I'd be worried about the longevity of the game though, because it's not going to be much fun to feel like you'll always be able to get easily nailed by a lower skilled player no matter how much you play and improve. It removes a lot of the incentive to better your playing skill.
 

zod18

Banned
Must be tons of fun killing stupid bots. But I somehow agree with the article, it seems like it's not hard to enjoy this game.
 

pompidu

Member
I'd really like a console game where there is a high skill curve. cod mechanics, even though i love the games, really give people with low skill levels a fighting chance. i want competition and a challenge.
 

blazeuk

Member
I agree with this. This is essentially what i have noticed from reading impressions. As much as I don't particularly like Titanfall, I think the point is for the game to be fun. Being the best, top of the charts, having highest KD ratio, doesn't matter in this game. It strictly about the objective and having fun with it. Watching people get obliterated or crushed is cool. For people who get frustrated with COD and BF where it sometime doesn't reward their bad doings (especially COD) this is a game that they can play and feel like everything is fair.



This is a lie. You will get your ass handed to you in BF. It's not easy to play, since there's bigger maps (and if your used to COD small scale maps) you don't know where to go or how to find people. Driving the vehicles aren't easy especially the jet and helicopter. Titanfall is literally a game you can jump in a play. Its really simple from what I've seen. Stay vertical and keep moving. Battlefield isn't a game you can do that.

I agree that BF is harder to just jump into, but you can't say Titanfall is strictly about the objective and having fun with it and then pretend BF is anything different. BF is more objective based than either of those games, anyone can do well in it if they're helping their team out, they don't actually have to be good at killing other players. From what I've played of Titanfall it does not reward bad doings, it just gives players who aren't good at it something to do on their way to getting killed by better players. You'll still lose if you have a team who aren't very good.
 

erawsd

Member
This is a lie. You will get your ass handed to you in BF. It's not easy to play, since there's bigger maps (and if your used to COD small scale maps) you don't know where to go or how to find people. Driving the vehicles aren't easy especially the jet and helicopter. Titanfall is literally a game you can jump in a play. Its really simple from what I've seen. Stay vertical and keep moving. Battlefield isn't a game you can do that.

It is not at all a lie. In Battlefield the emphasis on personal K/D ratios is totally diminished.

Thats not a insult, its a compliment to the amazing support system and "playstyles" the game has. You can go 0-10 and still be a huge asset to your team.

Maybe I misunderstood the Polygon article but they aren't saying this because Titanfall is easy to pick up and play.. they're saying it because (they believe) you don't have to be good at shooting other players to enjoy the game.
 
Most people are awful at games, so this was probably the smartest decision on respawn's part.

It's a shame it had to harm the games design as much as it did.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
I think the trend has been clear with modern competitive FPS in general, it's why I started disliking them more and more, where before this gen, they were frequently amongst my favorite types of games. They've been ruined by challenges, perks and constant increase of features that specifically target the coddling of skilless players, turning me off. Modern gaming is about trying to make games as inoffensive as possible, so that everyone gets a pat on the head.

Titanfall from my play so far has been this turned up to eleven. Every element possible that can be funneled toward making shit players get their little celebratory dings here and there is implemented. Shit A.I. players so they can get satisfactory little kills and quicker Titanfalls so they can bombard for a few easy kills; cloaking and auto aim weapons that kill instantly with proper lock on, no recoil and insane mobility.

Used to be we play a competitive FPS and it was pure skill vs. pure skill. You had your weapon, but none of this superfluous nonsense. You had to fucking aim true, and you had to do it consistently. You had to compensate. There were no perks you had to worry about that turned shotguns into snipers or gave the enemy combatant just that much extra health so that all else being equal they're the ones who walk away. These days with all the add-on nonsense, balance just begins to go right out the window, until it's a complete crapshoot. It's not like half a thought is even paid to really making these systems smooth out, they just expect everyone to play long enough so everyone has access to the same perks as if that solves the issue.

Great players will always inevitably win - usually even in the least balanced of games - but in unbalanced games the problem is always you have to walk around with the sinking feeling that that last encounter you just didn't win because some shit player had some 3 second invincibility perk on or some shit.

Seriously. That fucking smart pistol seems like the most noob shit I have ever seen.
 
I agree that BF is harder to just jump into, but you can't say Titanfall is strictly about the objective and having fun with it and then pretend BF is anything different. BF is more objective based than either of those games, anyone can do well in it if they're helping their team out, they don't actually have to be good at killing other players. From what I've played of Titanfall it does not reward bad doings, it just gives players who aren't good at it something to do on their way to getting killed by better players. You'll still lose if you have a team who aren't very good.

I guess that's true but what i'm saying is, at the end of the day, In titanfall you have something to shoot. It may not be always pilots but grunts are there, Titans are there. In BF you don't have that. You can die a 100 times without killing anything. You get no reward and your barely helping even if your team is losing or winning. Titanfall from what I'm seeing still give people a chance to do something. They don't just run around with nothing to kill. They don't get dominated by one team only because there is always something.

It is not at all a lie. In Battlefield the emphasis on personal K/D ratios is totally diminished.

Thats not a insult, its a compliment to the amazing support system and "playstyles" the game has. You can go 0-10 and still be a huge asset to your team.

Maybe I misunderstood the Polygon article but they aren't saying this because Titanfall is easy to pick up and play.. they're saying it because (they believe) you don't have to be good at shooting other players to enjoy the game.

To continue on my above post.... I'm saying that versus Titanfall, BF is still not easy to jump in and play as Titanfall is. You can walk into a Titanfall game, due to the pacing, speed, recoil of the guns to kill something and walk away satisfied. You just can't do that in BF. You can't. Plus TitanFall is sort of a fresh start so for all players, veteran FPS crowd and New FPS crowd, its a place they can all fit in. I may be explaining it weird but I guess with there being more to shoot at in Titanfall even a huge titan and AI, its more pick up and play friendly than BF.
 

erawsd

Member
To continue on my above post.... I'm saying that versus Titanfall, BF is still not easy to jump in and play as Titanfall is. You can walk into a Titanfall game, due to the pacing, speed, recoil of the guns to kill something and walk away satisfied. You just can't do that in BF. You can't. Plus TitanFall is sort of a fresh start so for all players, veteran FPS crowd and New FPS crowd, its a place they can all fit in. I may be explaining it weird but I guess with there being more to shoot at in Titanfall even a huge titan and AI, its more pick up and play friendly than BF.

Again, I don't think Polygon's opinion has a whole lot to do with whether the game is easy to pick up and play. I agree that Titanfall and CoD are both easier to pick up and play. The point they are trying to make is that if you are not good at killing other players, you can contribute in other ways. My point is that BF is an even better game for that type of play. Even though Titanfall is friendlier than CoD in that respect, theres still heavy emphasis on your ability to kill others.
 
This is a good thing for the industry. There needs to be something a little different in the space. Going after markets that are already established and serving happy customers isn't the smartest route. Making something a little different is.

I'm burned out on most other shooters and only play Ghosts to spend some time with friends. I'm tired of the game and don't find it particularly enjoyable anymore, plus I've gotten worse at it over time because I have to play it more casually due to life.

I welcome the chance to actually enjoy a game again even though I suck at it.
 

AgentP

Thinks mods influence posters politics. Promoted to QAnon Editor.
I hate modern FPSs. Bring back crawling through the field inch by inch to get the drop on the enemy in Ghost Recon. I guess that genre is dead?
 

Amir0x

Banned
Seriously. That fucking smart pistol seems like the most noob shit I have ever seen.

In action, the smart pistol is probably not the smartest weapon to use if you're going up against people with shotguns and a. rifles, but especially for example if you're playing hardpoint captures, it's so easy to sit in a proper corner and pick off pilots trying to take down your point.

There's so many ways to abuse the game to make it just silly easy to the point it's just distracting. I really do like the mobility though, although it's no Tribes.

AgentP said:
I hate modern FPSs. Bring back crawling through the field inch by inch to get the drop on the enemy in Ghost Recon. I guess that genre is dead?

Time to start a kickstarter to develop a true skill based FPS that shows these clowns how it's done! The field is wide open for such a game! (There's still a few, but they're usually only on PC, so they don't get wide play)

I always said that a KickStarter that brings back true skill based competitive FPS play ala RTCW or Counter Strike and a Kickstarter that brought back true Tomb Raider gameplay would be quite successful. Someone should do it.
 
I'm having a ton of fun and I play call of duty and battlefield so while it may be "easy" its still good

repeating but the lack of people is the biggest fault of the game but oh well I can deal with it

I think they will add comps get mechs too at some point
 
I'm not convinced, personally. To be fair, I didn't do the two things Kuchera recommends in his piece (use the smart pistol and farm grunts) but I don't really believe him when he says killing grunts are an acceptable substitute. If every time you die, it's at the hands of a named player, and every time you kill someone it's a faceless grunt, you ARE going to feel bad about yourself because only idiots won't realize at some point that it's a sham. You might not feel as bad because at least you're contributing, but I personally wouldn't feel good if I'd killed a bunch of grunts but had a ton of deaths anyways.

Battlefield is absolutely better at giving people non-killing objectives than Titanfall, and even that I wouldn't consider an easy game for people who are bad at FPSes to get into. For that, I'd still put my money on Team Fortress 2, even with all the random weaponry and hats they've dumped into the game. You can contribute in many meaningful ways (even at a relatively high level) without having good aim or reflexes, and the game rarely makes you feel bad for performing poorly. Notably, it doesn't show you a K/D ratio so you don't feel awful when you die a lot. It's really about "what awesome things did you manage to do this life?"
 
The AI ruin the game for me. Being in a Titan relies heavily on waiting for bars to refill. I love the dynamic between pilots and Titans, especially because map control is very important.

Having spent the last year playing MOBAs seeing Call of Duty compared to a punching bag is hilarious. I just don't see what is fun about killing bots with the smart gun when you don't even have to aim with a regular gun. They're stupid. You spray and slay.

The Titan is a really cool achievement but I'm so disappointed by the format they've chosen for matches.

Don't be afraid to leave the human to human fighting to the more talented members of your team in favor of farming the AI-controlled Grunts and Specters;
wow.
 
This game is foooking easy, at least on PC. Reminds me of TDM Canals on BF3, (my PC runs that map at over 100 fps) super fast, hectic and fun.
 

Chindogg

Member
That was basically CoD in a nutshell so it doesn't surprise me that the creators of CoD made another super accessible FPS. It'll be designed for casuals and no one will care.

Nothing to get upset about.
 

Special C

Member
Meh, this game has a very high skill ceiling due to the intense maneuverability. I agree that it's noob friendly in some ways but there will for sure be those who excel far above the rest,
 

Victrix

*beard*
This article is so wrong its hilarious. The skill gap from the movement alone is huge. Burn cards benefit players who can survive longer with them. Players who can kill pilots rapidly can have constant titan presence on the field, far faster than anyone hunting bots. Good Titan pilots stay alive longer, unlock their core, then deal even more damage.

Titanfall is friendlier to bad fps players because they can always at least earn a Titan, and there are creeps to shoot, but it is not by any stretch the 'perfect fps for terrible fps players'. Players who don't use parkour or their tactical ability well are titan fodder in the open, and often pilot fodder for players using elevation and speed.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Meh, this game has a very high skill ceiling due to the intense maneuverability. I agree that it's noob friendly in some ways but there will for sure be those who excel far above the rest,

Man, the mobility is so simple though. I was completing parts of the tutorials before the guy could even finish his words it was so simple. I actually thought that was the most effective thing about Titanfall, how relatively simple they made the quite engaging mobility.

That mobility is really the draw to me, if it was in title with competitive gameplay I could enjoy it'd really be something.
 
Again, I don't think Polygon's opinion has a whole lot to do with whether the game is easy to pick up and play. I agree that Titanfall and CoD are both easier to pick up and play. The point they are trying to make is that if you are not good at killing other players, you can contribute in other ways. My point is that BF is an even better game for that type of play. Even though Titanfall is friendlier than CoD in that respect, theres still heavy emphasis on your ability to kill others.

Which in itself makes it and easy pick up and play. At the end of the day, if your good or terrible, you don't feel disdain by playing it at all. It's fun, and your never going to be in the situation where you can say, "Oh this game sucks because.. [insert excuses why I suck but blame that on other factors of the game or people]".
 
Yeah there is nothing at all difficult with the BETA Titanfall that is for sure. Movement is a breeze. Learning to use a Titan is a breeze.

Of course there is various skill levels for every player. Some people just have better minds then others. Some people wonder around aimlessly in their Titan, playing the lone wolf so to speak, while not paying attention to the surroundings much and get killed quickly because of it. Other guys know how to dash out of the way of missile fire, volley back and forth enemy bullets / rockets by timing the magnetic shield ability just right, move in for melee kills using dashes, etc.

Some people love that stupid auto kill pistols, other people like me love to use the speed of everything going on to get in close and one shot kill anyone with my shotgun. Sniping is non-existent in this game and really ... 90% of kills are face to face anyway, may as well go with a shotgun in my opinion lol. Burn cards do change a few things here and there, but nothing to extreme. I currently have longer wall running cards, faster shield recharge for Titan, stuff like that.

It is a fun game though. Still uncertain of a purchase and I do see that redundancy I originally worried about. Already pretty bored with Attrition. I like the capture nodes and Last Titan Standing modes. Objectives to me are always much better then mindless action.

The bot AI though lmao. Holy shit. It is sad. Seriously, if you die at the hands of a bot .... wow. You can be 2ft. from them and they will unload a clip at you, hitting nothing. Hell you can charge a group of them and kick them dead if you want. It is ridiculous. Which makes me wonder about those " single player style multiplayer " missions they keep talking about with this game. If the AI is horrible, it may as well be a 6 vs. 6 game anyway, bots be damned.

This may be FPS gaming on easy mode, but it seems some people are still having problems coming to grips with the basic tactics available to you as a combatant lol.

Oh, and lemme just say the enjoyment of on-foot combat is completely dependent upon the level design. I will just make that clear. Wide open spaces .. no .. not good for foot combat. It feels like CoD or Battlefield then and it is boring. But, when you get into a city area with buildings and tons of things to wallrun off of and hop around on, yeah that is fun.

So, depending on the layout of the maps, it will be either really fun for me either in a Titan or on foot .. or only fun while in a Titan.
 

Amir0x

Banned
So COD basically as suspected.

It's not Call of Duty.

The sum totality of its comparison to Call of Duty is that it has challenges/perks and that if you are on foot (and don't jump or wallrun at all), it feels sort of similar to CoD with the no recoil/iron sights and movement feel. That's where it starts and ends, outside of that the second you start playing the game the way it's meant to be played, it never feels like Call of Duty. If you're plodding around and not constantly wallrunning you're doing it wrong. It does feel like an extension of the "dumbed down" competitive FPS philosophy we've been discussing in this topic, but not in terms of the actual gameplay. It's just a different approach to coddling skill-less players.
 
Thats why my FPS of choice at the moment is BF4( Yes I hate the few bugs that are there) because the skill gap is pretty large imo. You have to work hard to be good at the game, and it is not easily accessible especially since the guns have actually recoil. TF seems pretty streamed lined from the pilot gameplay, but I feel like the skill gap between players will be during the mech combat. Im still not sold on the idea of AI as fodder, especially If the AI is bad.
 
Man, the mobility is so simple though. I was completing parts of the tutorials before the guy could even finish his words it was so simple. I actually thought that was the most effective thing about Titanfall, how relatively simple they made the quite engaging mobility.

That mobility is really the draw to me, if it was in title with competitive gameplay I could enjoy it'd really be something.
But the level design is decently complex. There is a good risk reward, between being exposed at higher levels, and using cloak to infiltrate enemy lines. Reminds me of why I found spy to be so compelling class to play in Team Fortress 2. I wouldn't say it has a colossal skill ceiling but at least it is something.
 

Dead

well not really...yet
I'm not the best fps player and I'm consistently one of the best players in match solo

Then again my fps skills have gotten way better since getting my new tv with ultra low input lag

I fucking can't stand cod tho. I love that I can get shot in titianfall and still have chance. I
Fucking hate how low player health is in cod.
 

Taurus

Member
Wow. There's so much wrong in this article. I'm currently playing the beta for 5 hours now and I'm getting my ass kicked really bad.

And I'm a top 3 BF player whenever I play BF4. This game is hard, fast and needs quick reflexes. The player's I've been playing against are very good already.
 
I could see the idea of burn cards and the smart pistol becoming so popular that other upcoming games begin working them in - especially burn cards.
 
I agree with this. This is essentially what i have noticed from reading impressions. As much as I don't particularly like Titanfall, I think the point is for the game to be fun. Being the best, top of the charts, having highest KD ratio, doesn't matter in this game. It strictly about the objective and having fun with it. Watching people get obliterated or crushed is cool. For people who get frustrated with COD and BF where it sometime doesn't reward their bad doings (especially COD) this is a game that they can play and feel like everything is fair.



This is a lie. You will get your ass handed to you in BF. It's not easy to play, since there's bigger maps (and if your used to COD small scale maps) you don't know where to go or how to find people. Driving the vehicles aren't easy especially the jet and helicopter. Titanfall is literally a game you can jump in a play. Its really simple from what I've seen. Stay vertical and keep moving. Battlefield isn't a game you can do that.

No, it's true. Just run from objective to objective and use all the land vehicles you find. Success! I know from experience. 200 hours in BF3, 160 in BC2.
Killing people is secondary, and land vehicles are easy to control. You may not top the scoreboards if you aren't also good in FPS, but you will be of great help to your team. More than snipers or some jet players, in fact. It's the equivalent of killing mobs in Titanfall to help your team score.
 

Alx

Member
I'm terrible at FPS, and I rather agree. Even if I get killed a lot and rarely appear in the top ranks of the match, I'm still having fun and find things to do. Especially when fighting titans, where you have time to try a few things before dying, there are less of those "shit, dead again, where did that come from ?" moments.
 
Well yea, anyone who expect it to be competitive is kidding themselves. These are the people who made COD which is another game that is fun but not competitive.
 

ironcreed

Banned
If it ends up being a cure for the usual kill, die, respawn, kill, die, respawn clusterfuck, then I'll be all for it. Looking forward to seeing for myself down the road.
 
Wow. There's so much wrong in this article. I'm currently playing the beta for 5 hours now and I'm getting my ass kicked really bad.

And I'm a top 3 BF player whenever I play BF4. This game is hard, fast and needs quick reflexes. The player's I've been playing against are very good already.

It's not hard at all, COD also needs quick reflexes and that game is easy.
 

ghst

thanks for the laugh
I'm still waiting for the day someone brings a RTCW+Enemy Territory HD+ Edition for consoles, where everything is kept exactly the same from the old days, but just got an overhauled visual engine. No fucking with what works perfectly in multiplayer!

That'll be enough for me. I'll settle for living in the past then :p

i really loved splash damage's approach to levelling. give everyone the sense of progression, but keep it within a single match (or micro-campaign) this is the standard model for the most popular games on the planet right now, but FPS seems intent on mimicking CoD 4 until death.
 
i really loved splash damage's approach to levelling. give everyone the sense of progression, but keep it within a single match (or micro-campaign) this is the standard model for the most popular games on the planet right now, but FPS seems intent on mimicking CoD 4 until death.

And there was always a reason to play the different classes. Medics, Engineers, Loots, Covert Ops... all had specific advantages and weaknesses which impacted the team.

I have no idea why the Enemy Territory formula has petered out as it has. ET:RTCW is still the game that reached closest to perfection, for me at least.
 
After just trying it out for two hours I really dont think this is true. Unless killing bots makes you happy, other players are gonna tear you up if FPS's aren't your thing
Yep.

What we have right now in TF is a bunch of people trying to get a feel for the game with maybe an hour or two under their belt. People are still using their radar poorly, playing like its CoD (not exploiting the verticality as they should), figuring out how best to use Titans, etc. People still don't recognize the danger in shooting bots (that is, alerting everyone that knows how to use the radar to your presence) or that real players appear differently on the radar. Once people get it, players who know how to play the game will separate themselves, just as they do any other game. There are no training wheels comeback mechanics here. The game doesn't appear noob friendly beyond the recoil-less weapons (which weapons also lacked back in the UT 99/QA "glory" days) and the burn cards, which scrubs will loose quickly anyway.

If someone is bouncing around the screen, jumping to a rooftop and keeping you in their crosshairs long enough to murder you along the way with their smart pistol, it's not because the game is poorly designed and they are scrubs; it's because *they're better than you* and figured out how to play this game faster than you did. Get better.

I'm not concerned in the least.
 
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