So i finally played Titanfall 2, and yeah, it's a lot better than what i'd expect from a military shooter single-player campaign. Of course i knew this going in, having heard about it before, but what can i say? Good game is good

At it's core it's still a military shooter, but it adds a bunch of extra mechanics to shake things up and differentiate itself. For starters you can double-jump and wall-run, and i'm not sure, but it felt like a proper momentum-based system, rather than the controlled animations i'd expected. The guns are pretty traditional in design, with a few energy weapons sprinkled in, but grenades seem a bit more inventive. From the start of the game, you have an active-camo ability, which adds that one extra layer of tactical choice around firefights

Then of course, there's the Titans. During the campaign, your character only interacts with the one - and his AI character is arguably the star of the show - but you can change load-outs to your liking. Battles inside a Titan are different beasts - it's slower and more deliberate, and they each have a set of abilities on cool-downs, as well as an ultimate that charges through damage. A little bit more of a back and forth, push and pull, when battling titan vs. titan. You are also free (in most cases), to simply exit the titan and take your chances on foot, but i found no reason to do that besides for achievements. A slight missed opportunity there, i think

All these mechanics, used in spectacular set-pieces during the campaign, is what made the game stand out back in the day - of particular note is the level Effect & Cause, which uses a time-travel mechanic to great effect (heh). I'm glad i finally played it, and it's a shame it didn't last longer