First thing I noticed was how good the maps were. They look and feel so amazing. I can tell that every crevice of these maps were thought out. Even if your pilot is out in Titan country, there is always some sort of series of wallruns that can quickly get you somewhere else. Partitions, billboards, buildings and whatever else are useful as cover for titans and for pilots to run on. This extreme balance being set in each map is a technical feat from clearly experienced designers.
The gun play is familiar and solid. Hit registration is fantastic, which is probably to expected being on the long developed Source Engine. While there isn't anything here that is surprising, it is exactly what it should be and a huge positive.
The movement is addictive and smooth. Much like the flow you feel in Quake with strafe jump, but completely different and far easier to learn. Once you realize that the developers engineered everything to be in your reach and trust your jump distance, you can glide around the map. This is what I wanted BRINK to be as far as movement in concerned.
Pilots and Titan balance somehow works. Pilots with an appropriate amount of effort can kill and/or harass a Titan. And Titans can be brutal when catching Pilots in the open. A Titan on its own in narrow spaces risks getting brought down by hop ons. Everything at this point feels fair. I will say as a warning to those less competitive folks that if you are on the clearly weaker team, that if the other team coordinated their Titanfalls and moves together, it is likely gg.
Visually I find the game gorgeous. I can't speak to the XONE version of the game, but its the type of visual design that just looks great sitting still and in motion. Even if the XONE's resolution is not 1080p, I assume it still looks great. The angles, art direction, variety(with cohesiveness), and visuals they squeezed out of the Source Engine is really beautiful. It may not compare to the fidelity of the Battlefield, but it is as impressive to me.And I say that being a huge BF3 fan.
My only grip at this point is the 90 second score screen. I think it is in place to have enough time to set your Burn cards and check your stats. But I think this needs to be reduced to 30 maximum and if need be allow you to set your burn cards in game. It needs a couple more game types and a few more weapons to extend its causal longevity. And it needs competition features to keep it relevant for many years.
Respawn is a talented Studio. Buy this game and support future projects.
For what it is worth, I have played FPS for around 15 years. I have competed in many tournaments in several games. (A good portion of those were in the UT series). On the other side of the coin, I have played more casually as a non competitor in tournaments. I still play around 600ish hours in the FPS's I like, but I have recently resigned to be a pub star as I have entered my 30's. I believe this game caters to pub players, but with some competitive framework added, this could be a huge game for the pro scene and twitch tv.