Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2 is a feast for the senses. The visuals leave no stone unturned when it comes to transporting you to a futuristic sci-fi setting which we have all seen, but does a fantastic job by making it wholesome and complete, filled with details which make it totally believable and genuine. The suits, armour, weapons and the Titans themselves are filled to the brim with details, sharp and intricate, decals are readable, damages are viewable and the effects are complete. The explosions are loud and bright, sparks fly off between metals, human bodies fall realistically when hit with bullets as blood sprays after the satisfactory sound of bullet piercing armour is heard. Visually there can be no complaints here, and nor with the sounds either. The plethora of violent sound effects of war assault your senses when you engage in warfare out in the open, the voice acting is great as the characters on either side of the battle come to life with their voices and the voice of BT 7274 is just like you would imagine it in your head, like a towering Transformer with years of experience in the battlefield protecting its pilot and shifting the tides of battle with its abilities. But it is the gameplay that hits the ball out of the park. If you wondered how Mirrors Edge would feel in times of genuine war, this is it. The protagonist, Rifleman Cooper is on his way becoming a Pilot, i.e the military position given to those who ride a Titan to battle, and parkour is absolutely necessary for the attainment of said position. Wall running, of Prince of Persia fame, has been perfected here in the first person, and it feels great. Especially when done in the middle of a gunfight to throw off the enemies and get a momentary advantage where you can use the slew of guns available to kill them off one by one. This coupled with some of the best levels designs in video game history, in my humble opinion, make the gameplay a blast. Levels where you are on a factory assembly line, on top of an assembly itself, and where you get a very important piece of equipment off an erstwhile captain (not giving away spoilers) are fun, memorable, well thought out and excellently executed. The game itself is designed for a fast playthrough with frequent checkpoints and a constant urge to sprint. Dying often doesn't feel a drag as you are at once dropped back from a very recent checkpoint. The story is standard off-the-mill sci-fi, where you aren't supposed to understand everything on the fly, but you'll know an exposition will make everything clear. World ending threat looming on the horizon. Survival of mankind, or at least what you think is left of mankind, falls in your hands. You know the drill. Yet what sets Titanfall 2 apart is the show of affection amidst nerve-numbing warfare between the typical faceless hero and a machine, a robot made to bring destruction upon all. The gradual building up of trust after passing trials by fire and the unsaid reliance on each others safety to ensure victory for both is well written in the story and unfolds very gently. But that is where the biggest drawback of the campaign lies. It is so short that it's over before you know it. All this goodness I talked about spreads over a meagre 7-8 hours on the first playthrough on regular. It is the video game adaptation of the common phrase "tell me the whole story, but skip to the important parts". There is no world-building before the first mission, there is no lore to dive into, it simple thrusts you into the battle after a brief tutorial mission and everything else you get to know about the world is from within the missions. There are no breaks in the narrative which is a good thing till you realise the entire main campaign is like the first chapter of a war story. There are no supervillains to complement the super large scale of events taking place and the ending although huge in terms of importance to the world you inhabit, is but the achievement of the hard work of 8 hours, which kind of takes away from the feeling of doing something incredible and doesn't do justice considering the adventure you go through to reach that point. It is not hastily made, but it is simply made short for the purpose of being brisk and non-stop. The upgrades you get for the Titan are quick and before you can fully experience the ins and outs of the current loadout, you are given another new toy to play with. It is a bombardment of ideas, slick in execution but brief in length.
There are no negatives in the campaign worth pointing out because whatever little you are given to play through is exciting, polished and fun. Leaving something more to be desired, both in terms of depth to the characters and meat to the story was inevitable with a setup like this, but this time it was a bit too much of it.