The Legacy of Titanfall 2
Apex Legends would not be the game it is today if it were not for Titanfall 2. Titanfall 2 is a first-person shooter by Respawn Entertainment that featured innovative gameplay mechanics and giant-mech fights. Titanfall 2 is the epic sequel to the critically acclaimed and innovative fps, Titanfall. Titanfall 2 quickly rose through the ranks as one of the generation’s most complete shooters. It featured something different, and it wasn’t just giant mech titans. Titanfall 2 shined in almost every aspect of its gameplay. Its shooting mechanics were innovative and fluid.
Like any other shooter you would pick your primary and secondary weapons, but what Titanfall did differently was introduce abilities/gadgets for players to choose from as well. Players could choose gadgets based on gameplay or mobility. They were built in a way that would compliment different players and the many playstyles. If someone wanted to be more agile around the map then they would choose to equip the grapple ability that allowed them to travel quickly and freely through the map. A more cautious player would endow the Cloak or Holo-Pilot to allow for more opportunities to run away in a firefight. But Pilot skills were only the beginning.
Titanfall 2 in-game characters are referred to as Pilots. Why Pilots? Because every player in Titanfall has the ability to call down their very own giant mech referred to as a Titan. This is what makes Titanfall 2 truly special and what made the battlefield so chaotic and memorable. Pilots would be fighting while Titans rained down on them. There were multiple Titan classes to choose from each with its own special abilities. The Northstar features long-ranged weaponry that packs a punch but has fragile armor while the Ronin possess a shotgun and sword combo to take the field.
Does any of this sound familiar? Respawn Entertainment took what made Titanfall 2 and implemented a lot of it into Apex Legends. What Titanfall 2 did was introduce the FPS genre to something different. It was a shooter that took risks and did things a little unorthodox, but it worked and it succeeded. That’s where Titanfall 2 really paved the way. It allowed developers to see that there was a market for this kind of game and that it could be tapped into successfully.
Introducing Apex Legends
When Apex Legends was first announced Respawn also mentioned putting all production on Titanfall 3 on hold to focus on this new free-to-play battle royale. Some people were hesitant because they felt because there was a surge in battle royales and they wanted to stick to the fundamentals of what made Titanfall so great. Respawn assured them that Apex Legends would bring back a lot of what they loved. And it really did.
Apex Legends brings back a lot of the same weaponry from Titanfall 2 and implements it into its battle-royale formula. They also bring back a lot of the pilot skills and implement them into their new character system, Legends. Legends are the characters a player can pick to enter the Apex battle arena. Each legend has its own set of skills and ultimate that makes it unique. Apex Legends features a battle royale of 60 people and your choices of three-person teams or duos. You’re not allowed to pick the same Legend as your teammate so players are encouraged to pick Legends that mesh well together to improve their teamwork. The map holds areas that will remind you of Titanfall 2. Some could say that the Apex Arena is an event held in the same in-game universe as Titanfall 2.
So how did it pave the way? Well, Titanfall 2 built up a community that stuck close together. It presented the gaming community with gameplay experiences that were chaotic and tactical. It allowed them to experiment with abilities in an FPS that already had so much going on but it made it work. This drew players into this sort of chaos and gameplay. So when Apex Legends showcased the abilities and the map it intrigued players and made them want to see just how similar it could be to the Titanfall experience. Not to mention that Titanfall 2 boasted some of the best gunplay seen in any recent FPS.
Will we see a Titanfall 3?
With the success that Apex Legend is seeing and the precedent set by Fortnite and Overwatch to support a game well past its release, the probability that we see a new iteration in the Titanfall universe isn’t looking too great. At least not this year. If there is anything in the works, we can only imagine that it is still in the blueprints and is still being pitched to some EA executives. If a new title was to be greenlit then best case scenario we see it at next year’s E3 or another similar event.
Bottom line is that Titanfall 2 truly revolutionized the FPS scene with its style of gameplay. It paved the way for shooters to take more liberties and think outside the box. Hopefully, we see more like it in the future, if not a Titanfall 3.
Facebook Prev Article Next Article About The Author Daniel Medina More from this Author My name is Daniel Medina and I have been gaming ever since I could pick up a controller. When I’m not missing open nets in Rocket League, I enjoy diving into JRPGs, reading manga, and cooking up new concoctions.