It’s almost too perfect, isn’t it? The studio heads that arguably turned Call of Duty into one of the largest yearly gaming franchises in the world are poised to be part of its downfall.
I bet Activision didn’t see that coming when they got rid of Vince Zampella and Jason West. When those two founded Respawn back in 2010, I don’t know if anyone saw them releasing something like Titanfall.
Yet here we are, a few short weeks away from Titanfall‘s release, and you have to believe Activision is feeling the pressure.
To Kill Call of Duty, We Must Become Call of Duty
The Call of Duty feel is sort of an inexplicable thing. It’s tight, it’s rewarding, it’s arcade-y and it never grows too far beyond its original purpose.
Let me be clear: I walked away from Call of Duty years ago. That game sort of wore a little too thin for my liking, and I got tired of playing a title with minor upgrades year after year.
However, for diehard fans, there’s nothing like Call of Duty. Battlefield plays like Battlefield. It’s a wonderful series, one that deserves every bit of praise for its multiplayer, but it does not feel like Call of Duty.
Titanfall does.
It brings mechs, parkour, minions and a whole slew of interesting dynamics to the table that Call of Duty does not; but, at its core, Titanfall feels very much like Call of Duty.
Call it anecdotal evidence, if you want, but during the beta, my wife assumed I was just playing a new Call of Duty game when Titanfall was on the tube. A minor point, sure, but there’s no denying that this at least looks like Call of Duty to the untrained eye.
I’m not saying these games are the same: they aren’t. I am saying, though, that Titanfall managed to capture that lightning in a bottle feeling that Call of Duty really began to showcase back with the original Modern Warfare.
And guess who made Modern Warfare… that’s right, the folks working on Titanfall.
It’s Just Different Enough
For me, though, the “Call of Duty Killer” potential is really earned by Titanfall for all the new stuff it brings into that same feeling I once loved.
Call of Duty‘s biggest fault, in my mind, was that it never changed enough to retain interest from players like me. It was the same game with new perks, maps and guns. The core play always felt exactly the same, while the tools and environments were tweaked.
With Titanfall, though, the feeling stays while Respawn managed to introduce a whole slew of mechanics and ideas that completely change the dynamic of play.
Everyone gets a Titan in each game, so we’re no longer racing to Kill Streak Rewards. There’s genuine balance between combatants, regardless of whether or not it’s Titan on Titan, Titan on Pilot or Pilot on Pilot.
And that threeway style adds a lot more strategy to the mix, too. You’re not just going to see campers and rushers. You’re going to see folks who prefer Titans, prefer Titans as followers, prefer being pilots or prefer being snipers.
Thanks to the parkour, though, actually moving about the maps is encouraged. Camping stinks in Titanfall because it isn’t fun. It’s fun to leap from buildings and use your jetpack, it’s fun to pilot a Titan into a group of minions and it’s fun to run towards the lumbering mechanical beast in Pilot form.
Activision Should Be Nervous
I’m not saying Call of Duty is about to go the way of the dodo. The franchise has way too many fans and way too many annual sales for it to disappear anytime soon.
You better believe Activision will enter panic mode and save the beast well before they let games like Titanfall wipe them off the map.
However, Titanfall is exactly what the doctor ordered for fans like me. It’s an arcade shooter, it promises the weight of a Call of Duty and it’s different enough to have my attention.
Do you think Titanfall could be the beginning of the end of Call of Duty as we know it? I do.
