How Would Single Player Titanfall Work, Anyway? - Article
by Jake Weston , posted on 08 April 2015 / 5,934 Views
I’ve been playing a lot of Titanfall lately, for a myriad of reasons. 1. I didn’t own a machine capable of playing it when it first released in March 2014. 2. I decided to jump back in when EA and Respawn Entertainment made its season pass free for everyone last month. And 3. the game is actually pretty great. It’s a shame that Titanfall has struggled to hold onto its PC community, as every match I play is consistently a blast.
PC community struggles aside, Titanfall was a huge commercial success, with a sequel all but officially confirmed, and multiple statements from Respawn to the effect that this sequel will be coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC (the first game was originally exclusive to Xbox One and PC, with a delayed Xbox 360 port following). I’d be happy with Respawn simply expanding on the original mutliplayer-only concept, but many have criticized Titanfall for its multiplayer-only approach, especially considering Respawn is known to have the chops for great single player campaigns, with most of its employees originally leading development for Call of Duty 1, 2, 4: Modern Warfare, and Modern Warfare 2 when they were back at Infinity Ward.
So with Titanfall 2 on the periphery of many minds, let’s talk about how a single player Titanfall would work. To be honest, at first glance, I’m not certain it’s a great idea. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 have some of the greatest FPS single player campaigns of the modern era, but they are also very linear and funnelled experiences, heavily directed by the game’s creators. While this approach has produced many great set-piece moments for Call of Duty (as well as its contemporaries in Battlefield, Homefront, Killzone, and the like), it relies on extreme linearity and lack of player mobility to make sure these sequences elicit the desired result.
On the flipside, Titanfall is the antithesis of the modern linear shooter. Looking past the obvious difference of single player vs. multiplayer, Titanfall places a heavy focus on player mobility, not only with the addition of a double jump, but also the ability to wall run. Combining both means you can traverse the entire diameter of certain maps in a matter of seconds. Throw in the addition of the Titans themselves, which completely change the scale of each map, as well as jettison your Pilot hundreds of feet into the air upon destruction, and it becomes clear that Titanfall leans on verticality and mobility more-so than any other modern shooter series.
Of course, if you’ve played Titanfall for any period of time over the last year, you already know all of that. The point I’m trying to make is that Titanfall’s focus on mobility, verticality and player empowerment is at odds with the linear design model that has dominated shooters for the last decade or so. Even if drawing inspiration from single player games with larger maps, such as Half-Life 2 or BioShock Infinite, the inclusion of the Pilot’s freerunning abilities and Titans would make the traditional model simply feel *too small*. And in a game series where “Titan” is part of the name, that’s a problem.
So Respawn is left with a quandary. If a sequel were to answer the biggest criticism of Titanfall - the lack of a proper single player campaign - they’d have to sacrifice their original vision to make it work. Seemingly, anyway. I’m not a professional game designer, as much as I like to armchair as one. I was originally planning on writing this article as, in true listicle fashion, “5 Ways to Make Titanfall Single Player Work”, but the more I thought about and researched the issue, the more I realized such a thing was a truly mammoth task indeed. I eagerly anticipate the eventual release of Titanfall 2, but whatever form it may take, the developers at Respawn Entertainment have their work cut out for them.
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What? I would RATHER have a game with a solid single player campaign than a half-assed multiplayer only game. That was one of the things that turned me OFF about Titanfall actually... and Evolve, for that matter.
Titanfall is so boring. I can't believe it's by the same company that designed MW2. WTF happened?
I'm not gonna buy the series without a single player mode. But, if they made their money back. And are happy. Why do they even care about people like me. Stay MP only.
Just make a regular single player game, and add a good multiplayer.
That sounds very easy in theory but it;s quite hard to execute, COD has great multiplayer but their stories suck and no one remembers or plays COD for their singleplayer campaigns, same with Battlefield (except BC1+2).
They should just make a good multiplayer game with more maps, weapons, abilities, titans, a few more player slots, plenty of maps and make maps free this time and focus on cosmetic DLC, that way no one is even gated from playing with one another.
@Chazore
Really, the only FPS that really needs a good story in my opinion is Halo (well at least the ones I play anyway). Halo has always had very good campaigns, but for games like BF and COD (well at least since COD 4 and World at War) its really about multiplayer. I think just make a "good enough" campaign, but make a good multiplayer, and they'll be set for success.
I personally need a reason other than "its just fun" to engage in a multiplayer match. Call it motivation, but it adds a lot to the game. I also need objectives, something that explains why we deployed on that map, other wise its just brainless shooting. I know brainless shooting sells a lot nowadays and that maybe I'm getting old for questioning why I fight for, but I will love to see a different approach in multiplayer in this gen.
Who is down-voting all the people saying it's possible to do a single player campaign? No one is saying take away anything from the multi-player mode. But to think that making the game multiplayer only didn't restrict Titanfall's sales to some degree is ridiculous. There are plenty of people who don't pay for Xbox Live Gold that would have bought the game if there was a mode for them to play. To question the feasibility of a single player campaign is equally ludicrous. I recall playing my first mech-combat game on the SNES for crying out loud. And as many people have pointed out, HALO: Combat Evolved combined vehicle + on foot combat stages rather well. Adding a decent single player mode would only increase sales of the franchise.
Titanfall is amazing the way that it is. I've been actively playing it since launch last year. I think that a singleplayer would work by each mission being effectively a huge map. You'd have to traverse it, blow stuff up, and what not. Hit checkpoints and everything like that. I dont think that the game needs a singleplayer campaign, but I do think that the next game will have one, just because of the massive ammount of people requesting one.
Just like Splatoon single player does. You should look into it. It doesn't look as good as the multiplayer, but it still looks like it's worth playing on.
There is already a model for this in the original Halo. Many of the game's levels featured expansive areas that provided multiple ways of tackling an enemy position, connected by smaller, more linear areas that allowed for more focused corridor shooting segments. The areas that allow for all the fancy footwork and titans would be these expansive areas. I imagine they could do things like allow for non-linear objectives that are similar to or ripped straight from the multiplayer arena areas. It'd be part corridor shooter, part sandbox.
Very interesting read.
I'll buy it if it has a decently long single player, since i rarely ever care to play multiplayer.
They really shouldn't sacrifice their original vision of the game to appeal to singleplayer only people, the game is practically multiplayer anyway and is better for it like how Planetside 2 is all online multiplayer only, COD's multiplayer is it's own bread nad butter like TF is for it's own, hell Team Fortress 2 has some back story but really it's entirety is a multiplayer online game, I don't see why Titanfall has to be the one to change when it started out with rgeat multiplayer mechanics and gameplay.
I;m also enjoying the PC version myself, I don't see it as much of a struggle though since I;m always finding matches to play with me being from the UK.
That said I think Titanfall 2 should definitely focus on it's multiplayer, last thing I want is a yet another droll half baked military shooter story with half assed less fun multiplayer, trying to focus more on singleplayer alone could kill the series and then a certain crowd is to blame for that.
I LOVE Titanfall. I just want the "Story Mode" to be a bit more fleshed out, I don't want it necessarily to be single player though.
A linear story does not necessarily mean a corridor shooter. I can see huge potential for a great story mode (SP or Co-op) that contains battle arena type missions, but also smaller scale missions where the Titan gets left at home. Just because you have Titans in the game doesn't mean they have to be part of every mission. Wall running and double jumping, otherwise known as platforming elements, certainly have their place in SP campaigns. Perhaps the folks at Respawn should have a chat to the folks at Insomniac.
Ever played Mechwarriors and Starsiege? Huge expansive areas like those for Titan segments. Then include objectives that require footwork like getting inside buildings to save/deactivate/steal whatever target. Basically all the parts have been done before. They just need to weave them together.
