Game of the show? Perhaps even the first major next-gen system seller? Gamescom offered the first chance to go hands-on with Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall – the brand new sci-fi first-person shooter from some of the key creative minds behind Call of Duty, the franchise that defined the current console generation. Having left Infinity Ward and regrouped with new additions to the core team, Respawn is now ready to let us play its new game, and first impressions are quite overwhelming.
Technologically, it’s safe to say that the team’s first effort has an entirely different focus to its rivals. Titanfall looks stunning in motion, but it does so without using the latest in state-of-the-art rendering techniques. You can forget about the current vogue for materials-based physical rendering, sub-D tessellation or “levelution” dynamic environmental destruction. Titanfall uses established rendering techniques bolstered by next-gen power that work in combination with pitch-perfect art, design and action that combine beautifully to produce an experience that feels fresh and exciting. Titanfall’s mechanics and tech are geared towards the most important gaming commodity of all: fun.
Respawn’s debut works for us because it utilises next-gen power to more fully explore some of the classic FPS themes from yesteryear, when impossible concepts were realised in gameplay with little regard to the gritty realism that pervades most modern-day console shooters. While we have little doubt that both Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4 will be highly impressive in their own right, Titanfall has perhaps caught the imagination of core gamers because it marries up the most popular of genres with some of the magic that brought us into gaming in the first place – just the tonic for the franchise fatigue brought about by six Calls to Duty, along with their myriad competitors.
SOURCE: Eurogamer.net – Xbox 360 – Read entire story here.
