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Review: Prepare for marvelous shooter in 'Titanfall'

Brett Molina
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A Pilot and Titan rush into battle in a scene from 'Titanfall.'

There's a lot riding on the shoulders of the Titans, the massive stars of Electronic Arts' first-person shooter Titanfall.

For starters, it's the first big game for Microsoft's Xbox One since its launch last November, as it pushes to catch up to front-runner PlayStation 4 in global sales.

It's also the first title for Respawn Entertainment, co-founded by the duo that created Call of Duty, which is the most successful first-person shooter to date. As expected, the hype stands as tall as the mechanical beasts that players wield in the game.

Fortunately, what Respawn has delivered in Titanfall is a refreshing, exhilarating action game that could push some video game holdouts into the next generation.

Along with Vince Zampella, Respawn's co-founder, several other key developers who helped make Call of Duty an interactive juggernaut helped birth the world of Titanfall, based in the deepest parts of outer space called the Frontier.

Titanfall — out now for PC, available for Xbox 360 later this month — features two factions, the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation and the Frontier Militia. They repeatedly come to blows over the opportunities and riches that undiscovered sections of the Frontier offer.

That's about as far as you get with Titanfall's plot, for the most part. It's a loose structure that glues together what is primarily a multiplayer first-person shooter. Instead of the standard single-player campaign and online competitive options found in many shooters, Titanfall focuses solely on competitive combat, both in its Campaign mode and Classic multiplayer mode.

Players take the role of Pilots, certified through a Training program that breaks down moves such as jumps and wall runs, weapons and use of the Titan, a mechanized assault exoskeleton that a player controls in combat.

A Titan scoops up a Pilot in the video game 'Titanfall.'

Pilots boast the typical gear found in similar games, including primary and secondary firearms, grenades, and tactical abilities. They also carry an anti-Titan weapon to fend off the behemoths while on foot. Titans can be customized with different chassis, primary weapons, secondary strikes, tactical abilities and Titan Kits that add special perks.

The pace of the game is fast, and maps are set up to give players the freedom to jump and wall-run across landscapes very quickly.

All players start on foot, fending off enemies as they "prepare for Titanfall." When ready, a Titan hurtles down from the sky, encased in a protective bubble awaiting its pilot.

The inclusion of Titans adds a fresh layer of strategy and helps foster some of the game's greatest moments. During a battle of Attrition, the equivalent of team deathmatch, I found myself embroiled in a straightforward clash of the Titans with an opponent.

We whittle down each others' shields, but a melee strike weakens me and "dooms" my Titan, a warning that the exoskeleton is about to be destroyed. With alarms blaring and the chassis shaking, I furiously tap eject to shoot hundreds of yards into the air.

Although my opponent seems to think he's won this battle, he forgot the art of "the rodeo," a move that allows players to mount a friendly or enemy Titan.

A pair of Titans battle in 'Titanfall.'

I line up my descent following ejection to land directly on my opponent's Titan. After ripping open a panel, I frantically blast away at a weak point in the Titan, blowing it up with the pilot inside.

Titanfall is so balanced that players never feel as if they're at a disadvantage, even when confronting Titans on foot. There were matches where I turned big-game hunter, stalking Titans on rooftops and waiting to pounce. A player can also use a Titan as a decoy, allowing it to engage on its own like a giant guardian while a player sneaks around to flank enemies or ambush another Titan.

Players will see a diverse selection of weapons, attachments and other items to tailor Pilots and Titans to their style of play. Tactical abilities and Kits let players run faster, carry more explosive devices or turn invisible. Titans have weapons such as cannons, chain guns and quad rocket launchers, as well as abilities such as the Vortex Shield to redirect enemy fire, and electric smoke that shocks foes and deals lots of damage.

Matches not only feature enemies controlled by regular people, but computer-controlled Grunts and Spectres. In matches such as Attrition, teams win by earning the most Attrition points. Grunts and Spectres net a small reward, but human targets offer more value. Other match types include Hardpoint (capture and hold points on a map), Last Titan Standing (survive with one life through a series of smaller matches) and Pilot Hunter (team with most Pilot kills wins).

Titanfall pulls off a difficult feat in the oversaturated first-person shooter genre: delivering a video game that feels unique and as thrilling as those first times you picked up a Call of Duty or Battlefield. For Xbox One owners, this is spring's must-own title.

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Respawn Entertainment

Platform(s): PC, Xbox One

Price: $59.99

Rating: M for Mature

Release Date: March 11

Score: 4 out of 4

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @bam923.

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