Released in 2014, Titanfall breathed fresh air on the old FPS genre with its mech-style gameplay. Developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by EA, the game style was fairly new for both players and developers. The game featured an online-only multiplayer mode and featured no single-player mode. Rather in place of single-player story developers implemented a tutorial mode that taught players about “Titans” and the different abilities of Titans.
Players played as free-running foot soldiers “pilots” who can command and control Titans. While Titans are used for the heavy-hitting due to their abilities, the pilots also had included tactical abilities such as x-ray vision, invisibility cloaking, and regenerating speed boosts. Pilots can also wield ten traditional customizable weapons including assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns, and pistols. Players can also run on walls, double jump with a jet pack, vault over obstacles, glide across ziplines, and chain together combos. Pilot and Titan controls are identical except where the pilot’s double jump becomes the Titan’s dash, as Titans cannot jump.
On its release, the game was praised by many media outlets and received “generally favourable” reviews. Among players, the game also received good reviews and praises for its fast-paced multiplayer gameplay. While the absence of a single-player mode always remained a negative point (especially for a new series), the multiplayer gameplay and its depth easily made up for the absence of single-player story mode.
Now that the game is almost 8 years old (7 years and 9 months), Respawn Entertainment has finally decided to pull the plug on the game sale and remove the game from stores. Respawn made the announcement out of the blue on 1st December over Twitter.
While the studio didn’t mention the reason for their sudden decision, we believe the constant hacking of servers and the current state of the game is the biggest reason for this decision. Plus, Apex Legends is pulling in more players than all of the games in the Titanfall series combined so the focus is more on supporting Apex Legends.
In the announcement, Respawn also said that the game’s servers will be kept online “for the dedicated fanbase still playing and those who own the game and are looking to drop into a match.”
The game has since been taken off sale from 1st December. However, the subscription services (EA Play and others) for Titanfall will be unavailable on the 1st of March, 2022. Respawn also assured that the Titanfall 2 will be supported alongside Apex Legends.
