Summary
After years of silence,Titanfall 2and its servers were recently updated, much to the community’s delight. This marks the end of an era where it was risky to even attempt playingTitanfall 2’s multiplayer thanks to hackers, cheaters abusing bugged locations, and general server instability. Players finally had their beloved mechs-and-parkour shooter back, with a few new modes and features to boot. All of this sudden attention left some wondering if Respawn Entertainment had finally gotten the green light from EA to begin developing the fabledTitanfall 3, instead of focusing all of its first-person shooter efforts intoApex Legends.
Apex Legendsis famous for putting Respawn on the map in waysTitanfallnever could, despite how outspoken some of the latter’s fans are. While both games share a setting, the hero shooter battle royale has been Respawn’s sole FPS focus since its 2019 launch. However, arecent update forApex Legendsincluded a mysterious message referencing release dates for everyTitanfalluniverse title, and a leaked teaser, albeit an easily faked one, was found referencing a date in late October. All of these nearby events paint a picture ofTitanfall 3getting another chance, and it could prove its worth by bringing back one featureApex Legendssimply can’t have: a single-player campaign.
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Apex Legends Has Strayed Far From Titanfall’s Formula
While there are some obvious differences like the Titan mechs,Apex LegendsandTitanfallcan seem similar to an outsider. All of these games use their science fiction settings to justify player characters with impossibly advanced tools and, more importantly, extremely high mobility. Even as other big shooter franchises likeCall of Duty,Halo, andFortnitecycle through various movement mechanics,TitanfallandApexpride themselves on letting players move freely through their environments. It’s this unique focus on parkour and general traversal that really make Respawn’s games shine.
That’s just a few shared game mechanics, however.Titanfallis, first and foremost, designed like a traditional competitive FPS. Its multiplayer gameplay takes place in various modes with teams of players completing specific objectives, or just fighting each other on various maps.Apex Legendsis a hero shooter, making each player feelas distinct as theirTitanfallloadouts, with squad-based battle royale rules and loot on top of that. And in spite of the larger play space, there’s no room for Titans inApex Legends. That devotion to a live, shifting multiplayer service doesn’t just mean leaving old modes and mechanics behind, however.
Titanfall 3 Should Bring Back Its Popular Single-Player Campaign
Once,Titanfall 1tried to merge its campaign and multiplayer together. The main reason why no one remembers this is that it simply didn’t work, as players preferred regular matches if they were playing multiplayer either way. Not to be deterred,Titanfall 2tried again with a more traditionalCall of Duty-style campaign, and this time it became as big of a selling point as its refined multiplayer. To this day,Titanfall 2’s experimental and gripping story modegraces many lists of the best modern FPS campaigns, and serves as a pivotal argument for exploring more ofTitanfall’s universe with aTitanfall 3.
Apex Legendscan’t do that, and writing Titans out of its peacetime setting is just one reason why. Its own largely trailer-based narrative has already run into the same apathy problems asTitanfall 1, and even adding co-op story missions would just be emulatingOverwatch 2’s recent controversial updates. A full single-player campaign with major development resources behind itwould sellTitanfall 3to audiencesthat otherwise have no interest in multiplayer. Even ifTitanfall 3is never as profitable asApex Legends, a solid multiplayer suite and meaty single-player campaign is all it needs to make a name for itself all over again.
