Review: Titanfall Assault

Cheap victories

I am closing in on level 11 in Titanfall Assault. During the past month, I boot it up in my spare time, clashing with people as we fight for control of the three checkpoints long enough to secure victory. I see success snatched from my hands in the final seconds of a match and I overwhelm my opponent with the perfect combination of cards to crush their army. There’s an incredible opportunity for dynamic back-and-forth on the beautiful battlefields but unfortunately, I obtain most of my wins by throwing strategy out the door and just being the bigger asshole.

Titanfall Assault (iOS, Android [reviewed on an iPad])
Developer: Particle City, Respawn Entertainment
Publisher: Nexon
Released: August 10, 2017
MSRP: Free-to-play w/ Microtransactions

For some games, there is no issue releasing a review prior to or shortly after launch. Titanfall Assault is not one of those games. While the core of the experience remains the same as it did when I first wrote about it, it’s now less frustrating. A community is starting to develop around the title. I no longer fail to find an opponent to play. At level 10, I find myself unable to play long enough to hit the daily XP limit that bothered me in the first few days of release. The pilots and Titans of my opponents are more diverse than before, and the variety in stage design gives a welcomed illusion of specialized strategies.

If you didn’t read my last post on the game, allow me to sum it up for you: Titanfall Assault is a more involved Clash Royale. Two players face off on a battlefield with three checkpoints, a home base, and home turret. Wins come one of two ways: either I control the checkpoints for a certain amount of time or I destroy my opponent’s home base, the latter of which is so rare I only recall two instances of it in my dozens of matches.

Each player has a deck of pilots, support cards, and Titans. Human characters are required to take over checkpoints but they needn’t stick around once one is claimed. Each card has a cost associated with it that is tied to a constantly refilling energy meter and pilots and Titans can only be in play one at a time. This keeps me from doubling up on overpowered Titans but allows me to play as many sentries as I can nearly anywhere on the map, whether I control the area or not. Matches can be four minutes long with Titans unlocked one minute in and a boost in the energy meter halfway through.

Right now I feel good about my main deck. Four weeks of playing Titanfall Assault off-and-on, reaping the benefits of loot boxes I win or earn through victory, early adopter perks, completing the daily quest, or simply logging in, allows me to build a team strong enough to win against those who obviously pay money to win. They are the people who come at me with pyro soldiers, using flame and fire to ignite the grunts and pilots too stupid to get out of the way. Or they have somehow been able to secure enough cards to make a level 7 rocket sentry, arguably the cheapest weapon I’ve come across so far.

If that sounds like you can pay to win here, that’s kind of the point I’m getting at. Know that good luck can help overcome many obstacles, including the pilot AI that is always trying to get itself killed, but sometimes there is no sound strategy that can compete with a barrage of high-level units. In my weeks of play, I fail to nab a single pyro Titan or pilot in any of the loot boxes I receive, though an ad lets me know I can buy some with real cash. There are also no shield units and no rocket sentries in my collection, but plenty of common pilots to act as fodder for the slow trudging flames of a combustible robot.

Sometimes I square off against teams that are arguably the Crimson Tide of the game, armed to the teeth with high level, nigh unstoppable cards. If the faceless person on the other side who holds such a deck is smart they’re able to wipe me out with no issue. Other times, through luck or their misfortune, I am able to find a way to squash them, literally.

For as much strategy as I want to believe is in this game, the same tactic keeps rearing its head: just crush the opponent. I can drop support cards, such as grunts, just about anywhere on the map. I drop it on an opponent and it hurts them. So that’s what I do. I drop support cards and Titans directly onto my opponents. I squish them and they do the same to me.

Perhaps this is a strategy, the ultimate key strategy to winning, but I just see it as me being a dick when I add another notch to my win column. I don’t feel smart or clever or tactical when I take control of a checkpoint because I just dropped some rocket grunts and a sentry on it. It’s too easy. No matter what map I play on — and I do love the beautiful variety I am given here — I never have to work hard to win. When I lose, I can see it coming from a mile away. A quick depletion of the energy meter early in the match can be difficult to overcome. But when I win, I get no feeling of triumph. Come-from-behind victories provide sufficient satisfaction but when I destroy my opponent because I was able to put two turrets, machine gun grunts, and rocket grunts in an area that prevents them from even challenging me, there is no thrill.

I never feel I actually earn my victories in Titanfall Assault, and that’s the reason I’m probably going to stop playing in a few short weeks. Strategies simply devolve into who can drop the most Titans and grunts on the other in the quickest succession, crushing them like a mighty Monty Python foot. I don’t think that is the intention of the developers, but it certainly is, from my experience, how most matches are won and lost.

_{[This review is based on a retail version of the game downloaded for free from the App Store.]}