Last weekend, Respawn Entertainment held an open technical test for the multiplayer shooter Titanfall 2 on the Xbox One and Playstation 4. I enjoyed my own time with the game, but other players were a bit more concerned. Now, Respawn Entertainment is responding to critiques and discussing new changes coming to the anticipated sequel.
Major community feedback, including animated discussion here at Kotaku, shows that many players of the tech test were underwhelmed by what they experienced. In particular, players of the original game voiced dissatisfaction with key changes that altered game’s pace in relation to the original.
A major change from the original Titanfall came in just how often players were able to leap into their giant robots. The original game used a timer based systems that would slowly build and give players access to their mechs. Titanfall 2’s tech test boasted a kill based system that slowly built as players defeated enemies. Combined with rather large maps that made it hard to find opponents, this meant that players did not get to use their Titans as often as the original.
Luckily, it seems the folks at Respawn Entertainment heard that particular concern. The kill based system is being tweaked to also allow players’ Titan gauge to fill a bit over time.
“We observed the problem that players can try to play the objective but fail, resulting in slower than intended Titan acquisition,” Respawn explained in their statement.
In addition to this change, players will enjoy an increased mobility on ground and in their Titans. This will increase the pace of play even further, offering players a lot more options for navigating maps expediently. Titan’s will recharge their dashes faster and things like wall running and air speed are seeing unspecified tweaks.
Players who had concerns about Titanfall 2’s map design are in for a treat as well. While there will be open maps, such as the Homestead map featured last weekend, Respawn stressed there was more to see.
“Some of our Tech Test players have asked if the relatively flat and open design of Homestead is indicative of a new direction for Titanfall,” Repspawn noted. “And the answer is no.”
This change will also be combined with an alteration to how long enemies are highlighted when detected. The long highlights made it harder to sneak around and get the drop on opponents. While the highlight is not completely going away, it will not be as noticeable at long distances.
Kotaku reached out to Respawn for further questions but did not receive a response at time of writing. Hopefully, these changes will please players who didn’t quite exactly get what they expected.
Comments
31 responses to “Titanfall 2 Is Getting Big Changes After Fan Backlash”
And by “Backlash”, you mean “Feedback”?
“what will make this article more clickbaity?”
*changes feedback to backlash*
“perfect!”
I see where you’re coming from, but I think “This beta was fucking ass, they’ve ruined Titanfall” could be considered backlash.
Yeah, I would like to give you the benefit here…
But lets be honest, caps was prob the chosen font for the feedback.
This is good. Maybe it’s because I’m biased (as I shared a couple of these criticisms), but I feel these are good changes, not just fans acting “entitled” and not liking progress.
More mobile Titans = good (though I think part of the problem perception may have just been because both Ion and Scorch would’ve been considered “heavy” Titans in the original game).
Faster Pilot movement = very good. The movement in the original was probably some of my favourite movement in an FPS, ever, so this is an excellent change.
Return of the Titan timer = good. Even as someone that was pretty good at the original game, I feel the Titan timer was a good addition that guaranteed below average players a Titan at some point. For players that maybe aren’t as good, or are trying to cap objectives but not get anywhere, the potential for them to never get their Titan in a match is terrible.
There’s is still not enough chaos in the game though. And no Titan customisation and enemy titan Rodeo, just some lame animations 🙁
Oh, don’t get me wrong – I still don’t think the game will be perfect. But I’m happy they’re making these changes to the core gameplay.
I have to admit Titan-wise I was expecting generic Titans like the first game, but with more customisation options. Instead they went for more, and more unique, Titans but with set looks/equipment.
I’m also hoping the map issue is just because they chose poor ones for the tech test. Here’s hoping the other maps are smaller and less open.
When TF 1 came out, even for short time, it shook those COD developers to think something more unique. Now, I really don’t know what TF 2 impact will be on the market as I feel like all those COD elite will be quick scoping in this game as well.
Bright side is there are so many games to play and I have very little time. So, I think I will wait and see what changes Respawn brings in.
I don’t think the Titan timer is returning. I believe they are just tweaking the amount of kills it takes to get your Titan. Which I must admit, pleases me.
I played many weeks of the first game on Xbox One, and sunk another 10 hours into the Tech Test on PS4, so these changes are only good things, especially consider Titanfall has had the best multiplayer experience in the last few years. Fast paced action.
Sounds like it’s not a total return to the original system, but there’ll be at least some underlying charging going on. Possibly some tweaks to objective contribution as well – i.e. the bar charges if you’re in the process of capturing a zone, not just upon completion of the capture. Removes the possibility of 99% capping a zone and then dying, therefore getting nothing.
Kills will probably just influence the charge rate more than the original, but not be the sole source.
But we’ll see I guess!
My immediate reaction upon hearing about how the Titan acquisition was in the recent testing…
Well, I guess I won’t be buying it after all.
I’m not even that bad at shooters, but I sure as hell am not buying a multiplayer focused game based on giant mechs duking it out if there is even a remote chance I can go a whole match without getting to use said mechs.
So I’ll be keeping a close eye on how ‘tweaked’ the timer is before even considering a purchase.
Really don’t get what the problem was with the timer from Titanfall 1, but I guess there’s always someone trying to reinvent the fuckin’ wheel. “Muh innovations!”
So, I tried TF 2 last weekend just to check new changes . I kid you not, I had a blast playing TF 2. All the mechanics were working great. Pilots were faster, Titan’s were dropping easily and above all Titan felt like they were Titan, not same lame mechs. It was soooo much fun. I actually hunted down all those quick snipers and annoying campers and took some serious revenge. Also, destroying enemy Titan felt like a work and it was fun. The game felt like a non stop chaos in Bounty Hunt mode. I am so getting this game now 🙂
TF 1 was a unique game compared to other MP shooters. It had that fast pace run and gun mechanics, which I loved it. Gameplay was so balanced that it gave you the opportunities to play smartly and even take out those annoying campers and elite players, if you suck at shooting. And the Titans were just pure awesome.
However, TF 2 was ….meh !!! Felt very close to COD experience with giant robots that can get killed easily. They weren’t titans. I am glad that they are listening. Although, I still have doubts about TF2, considering only 2 months are left. There’s no titan customization and you can’t rodeo titan anymore and shoot the shit out of its brain. I don’t think they can change this or want to go back to old mechanics. …….back to grinding in Destiny !!!!
Funny, I personally felt the non-Titan gameplay from the first game was very CoD-like… And that it was pretty much the exact same deal where people who were good at twitch shooters dominated on foot just like they do in CoD.
Really ?? Wow. After playing TF 1 for many hours and completing all Gen challenges, I thought maybe I am not bad at MP shooting. So, I gave a shot to COD AW, thinking I can run and gun like Titanfall. I got smashed by people and end up giving up on it after few days. MY twitch reactions are slow, very slow and bloody quick scoping snipers…..I hate them !!!
Ah, the multiplayer gameplay strategy of rewarding good players by making it easier for them continues.
I’m sure there’s no better feeling than being owned in a match only to find that your opponents have been rewarded with a sudden jump in capability. Wouldn’t want to challenge your players or anything like that.
Why is it that there is kudos in playing games on “hard” but good players in multiplayer are chiefly rewarded by making play easier for them?
(Noting that I normally avoid multiplayer shooters, for this and other reasons.)
Yeah, It’s why I kinda enjoyed the GTA Online mechanic of making you a more attractive, and easy to locate target as you accumulated a streak.
It combined monetary and exp rewards while making it harder to continue your streak.
Sounds like a great system. Give the player a genuine reward while making it harder for them to win against other players.
I hate those stupid kill streaks !!!
A thousand times this.
I’ll never understand the logic of it… “Oh that guy just killed ten people without dying? Well then let’s give him another 5-10 kills from this ability, because of all the people in this match he’s the one who clearly needs it.”
Killstreak power ups are such a piss poor concept… The whole “Holy shit I just killed 10 people without dying!” feeling should be all the reward a player needs.
I’ve kind of missed everything relating to TF2, but have they fixed the Matchmaking system. That’s what killed TF1 for me, all I wanted was a server browser
There’s this whole Networking thing now where you can team up with people before a match but no server browser that I could see
ah that’s a shame to hear, you don’t need a server browser whilst a game is popular but as soon as the numbers start to fade, you need to be able to see what’s about, I’m happy to cue in a full lobby for 10 mins, I am no happy just watching a game try to find a room, when I have no idea if there are even any servers with people in them
Feedback
information about reactions to a product, a person’s performance of a task, etc. which is used as a basis for improvement.
Backlash
A strong negative reaction by a large number of people, especially to a social or political development.
Nice. I thought the multiplayer test was pretty well balanced and quite fun especially after going back to Titanfall 1 last night and seeing way too many Titans on the field at a time, but I can understand the frustrations.
The air speed changes interest me most. I noticed during the test when you eject most of the time someone will kill you before you make it to ground due to the accuracy of the weapons.
I really want to give another chance to TF 2. Anyone on xbox playing this weekend? My gamer tag is brav3one. Add me .
I’ll be giving the second tech test a go. But, I’m going in with lower expectations as compared to the first Titanfall 2 tech test.
Lower expectations?! Now that’s good strategy. I will do the same. If it didn’t deliver again, cool. one less game to play 🙂
I had a blast playing TF2. How was your experience ??
I had fun with it – I understand the angst about the changes but I do like that they’ve ditched burn cards as they never felt earned