I finally realized why I loved Titanfall 2's campaign so much

[Lant_War]

And it's something so simple, it's because the campaign puts you in situations that you'll never see in the main game.

With COD (since AW and excluding IW) or Battlefield, the campaigns usually don't have much thought put behind the gameplay. It's always "walk through this corridors, kill whoever you see, watch a cutscene, move on, and while you could argue that Titanfall 2's the same, it also introduces an unique mechanic made exclusively for the singleplayer in each area. Time travel, insane speeds while wallrunning, fighting a Titan on top of a ship, it's just so fucking good.

Of course, there's the story too which is better than what I expected from a game like TF2 ("protocol 3: protect the pilot" gave me the big blue), but all the unique mechanics made the game for me. I wish more games did their campaigns like this instead of the multiplayer training mode that a lot of shooters have.

 

[Aurc]

It's honestly an all-around blast, it felt like playing a movie (in a good way). It's expertly paced, with diverse gameplay and levels, and Cooper and BT were likable. I see the time device level brought up frequently, but I also really admired the factory level with all the moving machinery. Pretty amazing stuff.

 

[zma1013]

I liked it because it reminded me of the Half Life games level design.

 

[Deleted member 2620]

With COD (since AW and excluding IW) or Battlefield, the campaigns usually don't have much thought put behind the gameplay. It's always "walk through this corridors, kill whoever you see, watch a cutscene, move on, and while you could argue that Titanfall 2's the same, it also introduces an unique mechanic made exclusively for the singleplayer in each area. Time travel, insane speeds while wallrunning, fighting a Titan on top of a ship, it's just so fucking good.

Click to shrink...

I think it was in the Half-Life documentary where the director said the campaign was initially planned by having an internal game jam of sorts, with different smaller teams making different proof of concepts that eventually got organized into one campaign.

It rules.

 

[Deleted member 3925]

Yeah, the campaign's awesome. That time travel level is one of my favorites in any FPS.

 

[wbloop]

That campaign was freaking stellar. Not only did I love the time travel level. The level where you get thrown across the flying ships at top speed near the end gave me a sense of flight I never had outside of a VR game. So fucking good.

 

[chanunnaki]

The campaign is not the main game? You consider the main game to be the MP?

 

[Deleted member 18742]

I liked it because it was just simply fun to play. I hope there is more of a budget to make the 3rd's campaign as stellar and I'll be there day 1 this time.

 

[NDWest14]

I just played it recently and christ it was awesome. Short, sweet and always giving you new insane set pieces. Dropping out of orbit in the last mission was a holy shit moment, and a hell of a way to start the last few hours.

 

[Lant_War]

The campaign is not the main game? You consider the main game to be the MP?

Click to shrink...

In games like CoD or Battlefield, the multiplayer is absolutely the main game. This applies to TF2 too.

 

[Heazy]

I was playing some multiplayer this weekend for the first time in a couple months and it's still super fun.

I think I'll replay the campaign whilst I'm waiting on RE2

 

[Blade Wolf]

In games like CoD or Battlefield, the multiplayer is absolutely the main game. This applies to TF2 too.

Click to shrink...

Titanfall 1 might be MP centered but TF2 absolutely isn't.

I would argue it's about 50/50

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Like the Half-Life series it's also a linear campaign which is pretty good at giving you a decent degree of personal agency (broad arenas where enemies can approach you in several ways and vice-versa) and the illusion of non-linearity.

 

[Braaier]

It was a lot of fun, but pretty short. I was legitimately surprised when the credits rolled. I was like, that's it?!

I really wish they had more of the time travel levels. That was a really cool aspect and they could have made some really great puzzles and combat scenarios with it.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

Crazy that this thread popped up at a time when I revisited the campaign to finally see it through.

The credits just finished rolling and I've got to say; I don't think I've ever experienced a better FPS campaign. Respawn is incredible.

 

[BizzyBum]

I liked it because it reminded me of the Half Life games level design.

Click to shrink...

This.

It was the closest we'll probably ever get to playing more Half-Life.

 

[Nexus2049]

This.

It was the closest we'll probably ever get to playing more Half-Life.

Click to shrink...

Have you played Resistance 3?

Also yes, TF2 is fan-fucking-tastic. Hope they make a 3rd.

 

[Spider-Man]

I liked it because it reminded me of the Half Life games level design.

Click to shrink...

This

 

[BizzyBum]

Have you played Resistance 3?

Also yes, TF2 is fan-fucking-tastic. Hope they make a 3rd.

Click to shrink...

I did, but it was so long ago I don't remember much besides a lukewarm feeling overall to it.

I actually really enjoyed the MP for that game, though.

 

[Mechaplum]

Yeah a really tight and engaging experience all throughout. The bossfights were fun but the level design is something to shout about too.

 

[Bung Hole]

And it's something so simple, it's because the campaign puts you in situations that you'll never see in the main game.

With COD (since AW and excluding IW) or Battlefield, the campaigns usually don't have much thought put behind the gameplay. It's always "walk through this corridors, kill whoever you see, watch a cutscene, move on, and while you could argue that Titanfall 2's the same, it also introduces an unique mechanic made exclusively for the singleplayer in each area. Time travel, insane speeds while wallrunning, fighting a Titan on top of a ship, it's just so fucking good.

Of course, there's the story too which is better than what I expected from a game like TF2 ("protocol 3: protect the pilot" gave me the big blue), but all the unique mechanics made the game for me. I wish more games did their campaigns like this instead of the multiplayer training mode that a lot of shooters have.

Click to shrink...

Say what now?
I have the game on my PS4 Pro and have not touched the campaign and just recently started the multiplayer mode despite having the game now for close on 5 months.

SHIT

 

[MonadL]

whoops

 

[YaBish]

Say what now?
I have the game on my PS4 Pro and have not touched the campaign and just recently started the multiplayer mode despite having the game now for close on 5 months.

SHIT

Click to shrink...

Oh boy... You're in for a treat.

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

I recently heard someone describe Titanfall 2's single player game like this:

"This shit was created by people who were PHYSICALLY ANGRY that Valve never made Half-Life 3."

Say what now?
I have the game on my PS4 Pro and have not touched the campaign and just recently started the multiplayer mode despite having the game now for close on 5 months.

SHIT

Click to shrink...

The TF2 campaign is the kind of FPS they "don't make anymore". Like the Doom 2016 and the current Wolfenstein series it is a bespoke game design for single player but it gets way crazier than either of those games in terms of creativity.

 

[nekkid]

I liked it because it reminded me of the Half Life games level design.

Click to shrink...

Definitely reminiscent of HL2, but the time travel bits invoked Portal 2 for me as well.

 

[Mona]

It felt like the Super Mario Galaxy of FPSs

 

[Z-Beat]

Eh, wouldnt say CoD is completely devoid of those moments. It had the sniper mission, space dogfights, free running through a favelas, becoming a juggarnaut, the nuke, the sinking ship, fighting on air force one, etc.

 

[Deleted member 11637]

Agreed, though I'm just as impressed that my favorite part of the game -- the grappling hook -- isn't used in either the campaign or even back in TF1. The sense of momemtum is outstanding, and with some practice you can actually vault yourself over and across rooftops. I never use any other loadouts.

 

[knightmawk]

I really love Titanfall 2s campaign, the ending had a surprising amount of heart and the level where you're running through the world factory and the level is building it's self as you run through is one of my favorite experiences in a game. It's just so fun and fast paced. I also really liked the way it expanded the Titanfall lore. Like the first game gave you an idea of a conflict between these two groups, but the campaign for Titanfall 2 shows you more of the people involved in that conflict and why they do what they do.

I really hope they double down on the campaign for Titanfall III. I would really love two different campaigns, one from each side, or one campaign with two playthroughs.

 

[Duxxy3]

In games like CoD or Battlefield, the multiplayer is absolutely the main game. This applies to TF2 too.

Click to shrink...

Man, I dunno about TF2. I loved TF1 multiplayer, but didn't like TF2's. I absolutely adore TF2's single player though. I bought the game on PS4, XB1 and Origin, all just to play the campaign.

 

[CopperPuppy]

A+++ level design

 

[Fancy Clown]

Yeah the variety they pack into those very Valve-esque levels is great, combining creative platforming with highly mobile shooting. The one big flaw with the campaign though is that playing in the titan just isn't nearly as fun as being on foot, largely because mobility is total ass. The balance is fine for a while, but later in the campaign there was a bit too much titan-ing for my tastes.

 

[sandboxgod]

I loved it for many reasons but one of them is there was no 'padding'. It just entertained you from beginning to end. I am uncertain if we'll see anything like it ever again, whelp

 

[TheBaldwin]

Every level offers something new, plus includes doing the usual stuff of shooting, titan, and of course moving at high speeds

All adds to create an incredible campaign. Its why i platniumed it

 

[Avitus]

It very much reminded me of Half Life and Portal, especially the level of polish they seem to have gone for. BT was great.

 

[Bung Hole]

Oh boy... You're in for a treat.

Click to shrink...

Yeah nah, i'm going to start this this coming weekend. Its a long weekend for me so its perfect time to get stuck in.

Btw, i love the frontier defense multiplayer portion of the game. Its so much fun having to defend against waves of enemy attacks

 

[Dommo]

There's nothing simple about what you're describing.

You're broadly saying they put hard work into the campaign to create a bespoke standalone single-player experience rather than re-hashing a multiplayer game and packaging it up into a quick SP campaign. It's neither surprising that that's what makes it good nor is it easy/simple.

And it's also more than that. It's not just that they're introducing elements that aren't present in multiplayer. It's that they're all pretty well conceived and implemented. It's that each mission swiftly jettisons the mechanics that came before and introduces something brand new each time so that it's constantly feeling fresh, breezy and consistently memorable.

On top of that, while I wouldn't call the story 'good' or particularly groundbreaking, the core relationship between the protagonist and the Titan is really neat and ties the whole thing together and gives the game a quiet confidence.

 

[Oreoleo]

Yeah games with set-pieces are pretty spiffy.

 

[Vilam]

Great fucking game. The idea of having a game jam to come up with ideas for campaign levels is brilliant, and it really shines through in the campaign. Every level has something different, something interesting going on. My personal favorite was the factory level.

 

[Valdega]

Titanfall 1 might be MP centered but TF2 absolutely isn't.

I would argue it's about 50/50

Click to shrink...

Titanfall 1 didn't have any single-player so I'm pretty sure it's 100% MP-centric. As for TF2, that was intended to be MP-centric as well. EA/Respawn expected people to spend 6-8 hours on SP and 1000+ hours on MP. That's the very definition of MP-centric.

 

[Bishop89]

It was fantastic.

Those ex-IW guys are extremely talented. They've never made a shit campaign.

I love games which have like a team of villains. The Apex Predators were fun.

 

[Bumrush]

This thread caused me to look on Amazon.

For those looking, it's $6 with no tax and free shipping

 

[Omanisat]

I got it in the holiday sale after listening to people hype it up for years and, after having played through it, I'm really glad I only paid about ten bucks for it. It's real short, has no characters or plot to speak of, and I never really found any of the set pieces particularly amazing.

 

[RedSwirl]

When you think about it it's the first campaign that team worked on since MW2, and it feels kinda like the true successor to the MW campaigns. It's the same thing those games were good at: Great controls, great level design, keeps throwing different things at the player, keeps the pacing varied.

To be honest I actually think almost all the recent COD campaigns except the Treyarch ones have been good at this. Probably not as good as TF2, but still pretty good.

 

[Raptor]

Put it down after I got the "Becomes the master" Trophy which took me like 5 hours straight and that was the tutorial, maybe I should finish it lol.

 

[Minamu]

People keep raving about tf2, do i need to have played tf1 to appreciate the story etc? Honestly i mainly stayed away out of fear of not being caught up.

 

[banter]

It's a blast from start to finish. It doesn't feel repetitive or tired. There was not a single point in any of my secondary playthroughs where I muttered "ugh, I hate this part" and not many games can say that.

 

[Springy]

People keep raving about tf2, do i need to have played tf1 to appreciate the story etc? Honestly i mainly stayed away out of fear of not being caught up.

Click to shrink...

There's no campaign in TF1. What little story there is is delivered through the "campaign" multiplayer mode which has talking heads deliver exposition during regular matches and no longer has anybody playing. It wasn't really in-depth, anyway. If you're worried, read a TF1 plot summary on its wiki, or just jump in cold, you'll be fine!

 

[Bansai]

People keep raving about tf2, do i need to have played tf1 to appreciate the story etc? Honestly i mainly stayed away out of fear of not being caught up.

Click to shrink...

It's like a complete non-issue.

The campaign in 1 was integrated into multiplayer [very poorly] and the story was pretty sparse. Don't even bother reading the summary, it's not worth it, just go for 2 and have fun.

 

[Dinobot]

That's what campaigns are supposed to be.

Do stuff in the campaign you'll never see or do in multiplayer.

Introduce one mechanic per level before all those mechanics culminate into a great endgame (last stage or two).