Titanfall 2 Tech Test: What's Bad and What's Good

The Titanfall 2 multiplayer tech test is in it's second weekend and we've been on it hard.  As someone who played A LOT of the original Titanfall I've been anxiously anticipating the release of Titanfall 2 (especially since hearing about the single player campaign).  Titanfall's multiplayer has always been fast paced, in your face, parkour action.  It had it's flaws but it was still incredibly fun.  I was very curious to see how Respawn would build upon Titanfall's strengths and correct it's weaknesses.  After playing much of the tech test over the past two weekends I'd say it is a mixed bag.  Some stuff we really like.  Some stuff we don't like so much.  So let's get it at it.  Let's start with what we like.

The Grappling Hook is God.  No.  Really.  I love that thing.  Once I got the hang of using it I didn't want to use anything else.  The pulse dagger is decent but being able to grapple to a friendly or enemy Titan or grapple up rooftops to escape or engage enemies is the shiznit.  Love it.  It really adds to the traversal elements.  It's almost TOO good.  It's one of the best additions to the game.

No more Smart Pistol.  The smart pistol is not in the test and seems to have been removed from the game.  GOOD!  It was arguably the lamest weapon in FPS history.  Holding your crosshairs over a player for a couple seconds for an instant kill was and is garbage.  Not only that but players quickly learned how to protect themselves and combat this weapon.  So it was useless.  It's only function was to get a cheap annoying kill here and there from people who may not have saw you.  Good riddance.

Certain Weapons Have Been Balanced.  Respawn had the good sense to balance certain weapons and bring them in line.  Close quarters no scope Kraber kills are gone(thank God).  The C.A.R has been tightened up to make it more efficient.  Your sidearm is now very effective(almost too effective in some cases). 

The Game Looks Great.  The graphics and visuals have seen a nice improvement.

Now to some of the stuff we DON'T like:

The Game Is Slower.  The pacing of Titanfall 2 has been slowed considerably from it's predecessor.  That's not a good thing IMO.  One of the things that made Titanfall fun was the up tempo action.  Slowing it down takes away from the experience instead of improving it.  Battles no longer build to a crescendo of mechs and pilots going all in.  The thrill of battle isn't nearly as high as a result.

Titan Rodeo Has Changed Significantly:  Titan rodeo used to be fun.  It was high risk high reward.  Climbing on a Titan and bringing it down without getting punched, shot, electrocuted, or cluster bombed made you feel like a giant slayer.  Titans couldn't ignore you if you were on top of them.  You had to be dealt with or you'd bring their Titan down.  Now, players are forced to leap off of Titans after removing batteries and dropping grenades.  It takes several rodeo attempts to bring a Titan down.  Now don't get me wrong.  I get WHY they did it(given the power of the almighty grappling hook).  But it's just not as fun.

Now this is still an alpha tech test so we still haven't seen a lot of things.  Also don't get it twisted we're STILL having a lot of fun.  The game has improved.  But there also have been some steps backwards.  We'll see what's really good when Titanfall 2 drops in a few weeks.  In the meantime, the tech test is still live until the end of the weekend so get in there and try it.