Watch: ‘Titanfall 2’ Single-Player Campaign Quick Look
Emphasis on quick, I guess.
When Titanfall 2 arrives this October, it will include something not found in Respawn’s debut game: a robust, narrative-driven, single-player campaign.
The goal of that story, Respawn says, is to give players a “more thoughtful,” roughly eight-hour campaign that takes what was “core and fundamental” to the Titanfall gameplay experience and build a single-player experience around it.
Titanfall 2 producer Drew McCoy said that building the game’s campaign was a two-year long effort that required hundreds of prototype “action blocks” to get right.
“After we shipped Titanfall, we had a lot of really good response from our players,” McCoy said during a presentation at Respawn’s headquarters last week. The speed, traversal and Pilot/Titan-based gameplay of the original resonated with players, and Respawn “had to figure out how we wanted to transition that to a single-player game. That was loud and clear from everyone that liked the universe [and] liked the gameplay but they wanted a story. They wanted to know more about this universe and the characters within it.”
Titanfall 2‘s campaign will build upon the freedom of mobility and the freedom to play in or outside of a Titan, as seen in Titanfall‘smultiplayer, in ways that may surprise players, McCoy said. Some of the campaign’s levels are almost platformer and puzzle-like. Players will have to use a Pilot’s abilities — jump jets, wall-running, ziplining, cloaking — to work their way through rooms flanked by electrified railings while also fighting off enemy soldiers.
“You would think it would a hyperkinetic game,” McCoy said, explaining that rather than create an adrenaline-fueled action game where players are funneled through corridors and flanked by explosions, Titanfall 2‘s campaign will have stretches of quiet and exploration. Players won’t be constantly barked at by a sergeant to go here or flank that. Instead, they’ll explore a hostile, alien planet with their faithful companion, the Titan BT-7274.
After explaining the design principles of Titanfall 2, McCoy presented a hands-off gameplay demonstration which featured segments from the beginning and middle of the single-player campaign.
Players will take on the role of Jack Cooper, a grunt-level rifleman in the Frontier Militia. Cooper has aspirations of one day becoming a Pilot, McCoy said, under the tutelage of Captain Lastimosa.