First Look to Titanfall Assault

There’re some studios that define new genres. In my opinion Supercell is one of them. With the release of Clash Royale they did it again, created a new type of mobile game. This new type is like tower defense in steroids, against another player. And of course, with the success of Clash Royale, lots of similar games release to AppStore. My purpose is not to directly compare Titanfall to Clash Royale, it’s to emphasize the differentiation of it from all other Clash Royalish games.

If you’re the inpatient type just head to the “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” section, it’s kind of a summary.

Titanfall Assault released to soft launch on May, as expected from a soft launch title, there were some silly bugs etc, but these problems didn’t able to hold the title back, and it’s launched worldwide on August 10th.

Main menu shows your squad

I know most of you will say that it’s a Clash Royale clone, but I’ll disagree. In fact the Starwars Force Arena is a much worse clone than Titanfall Assult. The game has some unique mechanics that I think it actually adds to the genre. All the familiar chest mechanics, upgrades etc. is in place. But the gameplay is actually quite different. There’re basically two win conditions, one is more like the “King of the hill” game mode. You capture Hardpoints (Marked A, B and C) and every 3 seconds you earn 1 point while you hold it. You can also destroy the two turrets your opponent has, never could do it yet :)

Also, the units that you can play have different types, from special infantry units (Pilots) to grunts and Titans. Basically, the Titans are the beasts of the arena, but they can’t capture any resource point, Pilots (special infantry units) are much powerful than grunts but still they’re kinda like insects compared to Titans.

Although there’re two different win conditions, what I never saw somebody win by destroying both turrets of the enemy. I think until you unlock higher powered Titans and some specialty burn cards (think like spell cards), you can really win a game by destroying both turrets. Your opponent will earn enough points to win the game.

The mechanics in the gameplay are quite familiar, if you played this type of game before. You have an automatically replenishing supply count (basically like mana) and each card you play has a supply cost. As usual the supply generation rate doubles two minutes in the game.

3 most left cards are Pilots. Which you can deploy one of each to the battlefield, until they die.

There’s a twist in the cards though. You can only have 3 Pilots in the game at a given time. The Pilot card that you played becomes disabled, until that unit dies. So, the three left most cards you have in hand are Pilot cards and they’re always available, not drawn. Also, Titans are not usable from the very beginning of the combat. They become available after the first minute of the combat.

Gameplay provides some strategy, for example one of the Pilots, named Gunner, is actually quite capable if you can protect him properly. The specialty of gunner is, the longer he’s engaged to a target the bigger the damage he deals. He can effectively destroy a Titan with some tactical play. Oh btw did I mention that you can actually change the target of an opponent Titan or soldier by dropping some grunts on them, that’s what I was referring with tactical play. If you’re one of those gamers that micro managed your troops in Starcraft, moved the lower health ones to the back of the horde to keep them alive, you’ll enjoy these tactical nuances in Titanfall Assault.

There’re different maps in the game, they’re tied to your character level.

Ok, so here is the TG, TB, & TU section.
The Good:

• Titanfall Assault actually adds some new mechanics to the genre. And I think these new stuff make it worth a shot.
• Did I mention that it has Titans in it :)
• Sounds are actually quite good, and at the same time very important part of the gameplay. The game warns you about lost Hardpoints, or even when you here the sky exploded, you know that a Titan is coming up.
• Even though the game is F2P, I didn’t find the monetization too intrusive.

The Bad:

• The matchmaking feels like it needs some more work. It’s kinda slow, and you sometimes play against some people that have much higher level cards.
• Did I tell you that the game is F2P. Although I still didn’t feel any pay to win structure yet, but I’m guessing going up on the trophy levels will put more pressure to the non paying players.

The Ugly:

• The game burns my phone and literally kills the battery. There’s a battery saver option in the settings, but I’m not sure how useful is that one.
• The menu doesn’t provide proper feedback, and kinda slow. So, most of the time you don’t understand if you pressed a button or not.

At the end, I think Titanfall Assult have enough newbies in it that it worth a try. I think it could even be successful without the IP.