"Titanfall" Review

Prepare to be Amazed With "Titanfall"

If you’ve become weary of modern shooters such as “Call of Duty” and “Battlefield,” “Titanfall” may be the answer to your woes.

With “Titanfall,” Respawn Entertainment brings something new to the table — the change that gamers and the gaming industry needed.

In “Titanfall,” you can either play as free-running pilots or operate giant mech-style machines — Titans — to complete team-based missions. The two teams are called the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation and the Militia. However, keep in mind that this game has no single player, so if you buy this game looking for a good story, you will surely be disappointed.

At the beginning of each match, all 12 players choose their pilot types and are dropped on the map. A timer provides a countdown to when a Titan can be deployed, a time that can be reduced by killing other players. Once the Titan is deployed, it is protected by a force field for 30 seconds, giving players time to get into the Titan without having to worry it about being destroyed or stolen by other players.

There are three different Titan styles: the Ogre, the Stryder and the Atlas. The Ogre, a conglomeration of weapons and sheer power, is slow and bulky, but packs a punch. The Stryder is for those who like mobility: it is agile and fast, making it difficult to get a clean shot. The last but most popular is the Atlas, which is a mixture of the two, making it the best overall option.

“Titanfall” is great in terms of gameplay. I’ve never played a game that plays this fast without things getting too complicated — it’s just plain fun. The pilots are extremely agile, and wall running has never felt any better. One thing that worried me before playing this game was the lack of balance between the pilots and the Titans, but Respawn Entertainment did a better job than I ever could have imagined.

There is a solid balance between the two opponents: Titans don’t rule the map while the pilots hide from them. Instead, the pilots’ mobility allows them to attack the Titans by climbing atop of them. But Respawn Entertainment again allows the Titans to counter the pilots’ attempts, making the gameplay more complex in a positive way.

All of the maps in the game adapt well to each of the game’s modes. The maps and environments come in many different varieties, and are detailed in a way that makes the game modes fun, interesting and intense.

Something that disappointed me about this game was its lack of different game modes. For most of the time, people play the Last Titan Standing mode, because it is the most common and familiar. Hopefully this problem can and will be fixed with a few patches in the near future to add a wide variety of game modes. Also, modification in this game is rather scarce.

If you are looking for a game with a strong storyline, or any story at all, look elsewhere. However, the game does have one of the strongest multiplayers I have seen in a long time. If you like fast-paced action and fun, as well as exciting maps, then you’ll be sure to love “Titanfall.”

8.5/10
+maps
+balance between pilots and Titans 
+fast gameplay
-lack of game modes
-no story

"Thief" Review

Not Such A Sly Thief After All

Back in 1998 a game named Thief: The Dark Project came to PC’s all across the world. This game was widely loved and managed to produce two more sequels. But the attempt to reboot the series comes as a failure as it leaves fans with disappointment as it strays away from the formula that made the original series great.

Thief is set in a victorian fantasy world inspired by steampunk aesthetics. It follows Garrett, a master thief, who returns to his hometown ‘The City’ to find that it’s controlled by an oppressive ruler named ‘The Baron’. A plague has swept across ‘The City’ and the rich live with much fortune while the poor struggle daily for survival. Garrett follows the Robin Hood way of life and helps the poor by stealing from the rich.

For starters, this game isn’t bad. Something that Thief does well is make you use your head. This game requires you to think before you steal, whether you should use this shadowy path or if you should go head on and use brute force against the guards. These types of scenarios made the game worth finishing while the uneven story and excruciating dull characters provided nothing to the game.

Something else that made this game enjoyable was your ability to control the difficulty. You can play through the game as a true thief with levels being near impossible, to playing the game where all of your enemies seem oblivious to everything. Playing through a master-level with auto-save, crosshairs and focus turned off makes this game incredibly difficult, and long, giving you the bragging rights you deserve.

Story was always an important factor for the Thief series, but in the reboot there’s nothing there. It’s all the same; go steal this, go steal that, it eventually becomes a mundane process that leaves you asking why? What’s the motive behind all of this? Along with the disappearance of a story there is also the lack of interesting characters, even Garrett himself doesn’t seem like a the proper thief that he’s supposed to be.

The level design in Thief is at times good, but when it’s not good it’s really not good. The level design in Thief is very linear and simple forces any thought of creativity to fly out the window. Thief is a hard game to begin with and with there only being one way to complete most levels it becomes incredibly difficult. You’ll find yourself saving and reloading the game constantly as you have to keep forcing yourself to push head first through the level.

I’ll be honest, Thief isn’t worth it’s $60 price tag, if you still really want it wait for the price to drop down. Inconsistent is the word to describe this game and everything, for the most part, it stands for. When Thief is good it’s really fun but this feeling of enjoyment is quickly washed away with the boring level design, choppy story and awkwardly lame characters.

5/10
-weak characters
-weak story
-weak level design
+good difficulty settings