Titanfall is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games of the year. Created by a team of former Call of Duty developers at Respawn Entertainment, Titanfall puts single-player gameplay on the back burner in favour of a multiplayer format crammed with guns, jetpacks and giant robots. Valentine’s Day saw Respawn ruin romantic plans across the globe by launching the Titanfall  Beta to test whether the game will stand up in the hyper-competitive field of . The verdict? Titanfall knocks it out of the park.

Titanfall takes an interesting new approach, introducing giant weaponised machines, called Titans, to the multiplayer format popularised by Call of Duty. Players fight on foot for the majority of the battles, but are granted Titans at periodic intervals. Initial worries that the Titans might be cumbersome are completely washed away after just a few minutes. They’re surprisingly mobile and boast an impressive amount of firepower, but at no point do they feel indestructible.

The real joy is in finding the perfect balance between the Titans and Pilots. Pilots have dedicated anti-Titan weaponry and jetpack-aided parkour abilities that make it entirely possible for a Pilot to single-handedly take down a Titan. It’s a wonderfully balanced system and it’s common for players to actually pass up playing as a Titan in order to remain a more agile pilot.

One of the most contentious issues in the game has been the six-versus-six gameplay, and the inclusion of non-player controlled bots in the battles. Rather than detracting from the game, these bots serve as an easier opposition that can ease newer players into the game, and make the battles feel even more frantic. After a while, it does become clear that the bots are incredibly stupid and too easy to kill, but it’s one minor issues with an otherwise sensational experience.

Titanfall is an absolute joy to play. Titans are powerful but rightly limited, the parkour abilities are extremely smooth, and everything is so fast-paced that it’s easy to waste away hours without even realising it. Titanfall is dangerously addictive, and after only a few days, it’s already hard to imagine how life will go on now the Beta has closed. There’s no doubt that a lot of dissertations will suffer when the game launches on March 14th.

Joseph Thomas