“Titanfall will most definitely have an ending. It’s not a story if it doesn’t,” says Respawn

Respawn’s senior map designer Mohammad Alavi talks to X-ONE about Titanfall’s narrative ambitions, its influences, and how the campaign will meld with multiplayer.

[R00bot]

Wow, really? That's amazing..
I just hope it's not one of those endings that leave a lot unanswered to set up a sequel.

[christocolus]

Im a bit curious to see how the narrative here will be implemented.i wouldnt mind a good cliffhanger though.

[NewMonday]

what is the story anyway? did they ever talk about it?

[christocolus]

@newmonday

Nope.. they havent talked much about it..but it has been mentioned a couple of times. The story is supposed to be integrated into the multiplayer somehow. Im just as curious as you are.

[NewMonday]

I have been harsh on the MP, but if the SP ends up great I may change my mind and pick this up, I don't like the Halo MP but I bought every main Halo game for the SP.

[JokesOnYou]

SP???...I just thought there are story elements in the multiplayer, so now the story will end at some point but the multi/modes and matches of course are on going. There still is no standalone SP campaign as far as I'm aware...it will be interesting to see how the story exists in the multiplayer, personally I don't have my hopes up for anything good story wise because it's intertwined with the multi game that's unscripted= No seperate campaign missions. Basicly I feel like there will just be "explanation set pieces" and "communications chatter" to setup the background story for why all the fighting started, nothing more, anyway that's my guess.

**Edit**
I stand corrected, seems there is in fact a actual story campaign but with multi????

[NewMonday]

sorry I mean the story campaign

don't know how they will work it out but I will reserve judgment until we see more.

[JokesOnYou]

Well I got to admit I'm a bit confused myself because there is still no offline standalone story campaign but there is still a campaign story with the multiplayer, it almost sounds like some sort of multiplayer/co-op hybrid shooter, uhm or maybe not lol, here's the description in his words:

"So we’ve only really spoken about one way to play Titanfall. That’s Campaign Multiplayer. You can join a lobby by yourself or with a party, but here’s where it gets different. You and your party or enlisted into a faction, either IMC or Militia. You’ll play the campaign and progress through the narrative hitting the missions in order until you’ve beaten the game on that faction. You’ll then have the option to play through again from the beginning on the other faction. Once you’ve beaten the game from both sides, you’ll be able to play any mission on either faction you like. There are traditional modes as well that you’d expect from a multiplayer FPS game and you can start playing those from the first time you run the game. No matter what you play, you earn XP and progress." -Respawn

-Yeah it will be interesting to see how this works out. It *sounds good though.

[mdluffy]

Of course it will! you really think this will be the only titanfall game?
they are probably already thinking about titanfall 2 & 3!

[Summons75]

pretty sure, being the devs who created Call of Duty, that the story will be painfully childish, have the most simplistic plot, have one character archetype, and be centered around go here shoot s**t, go there shoot s**T, go there shoot s**t.

It's a multiplayer game thats all the people are gonna wanna do anyway.

[pandehz]

A simple story delivered well can be quite fun.

MW1 and 2 were pretty good campaigns and thats what these devs brought to the table. After that it was all downhill.

[KillrateOmega]

To be fair, a simple story can still be captivating if it is done well.

[TGF_Zero]

I just hope the story is great regardless if it ends with a cliff hanger or not

[AllroundGamer]

when all the stupid bots die...

[LordMaim]

I thought this was supposed to be multiplayer only.

http://www.gamesindustry.bi...

[CYCLEGAMER]

Yeah...I am so confused right now!!

[Eonjay]

No one really understands because no one has seen it played for more than one match at a time. We don't know if you stick with the same set of human pilots and go from locale to locale and engage in "story driven" multiplayer battles.

So its not just TD (which in my opinion is probably a good thing) and technically this game is a "co-op multiplayer death-match campaign".

[mdluffy]

It is a multiplayer only game, but it got a story.
I guess you can do story matches? agains other people or something like that.

[Fishy Fingers]

Multiplayer doesnt have to mean the absence of narrative.

[LordMaim]

Its usually a pretty strong indication of it's deficiency.

[Fishy Fingers]

Perhaps in its traditional sense. Times are changing, gamers are more connected than ever before, isn't it time games started to take advantage of that? Co-op gameplay is usually "multiplayer narrative driven", there's no reason that can't be scaled up from 2-4 players with a competitive edge.

[pandehz]

It is Multiplayer Only but with a story being played out in the multiplayer matches. Im assuming with intro cutscenes, small spread out dynamic events or something in the environment to slowly flesh out the story.

Escaping the zone in one of the videos is an example.

They are trying to weave in single player like story in multiplayer environment. Guessing certain objectives where plot characters are involved, protecting so and so, dropping off at certain maps to defend something etc etc.

Wish there's a mission on the moon or mars or something. Would be epic.

Curious as to how they play out.

[KillrateOmega]

Maybe there is a separate, multiplayer mode called Story Matches or something? Or maybe the intros and outros will change over time?

I'm just shooting in the dark here...

[maniacmayhem]

You can play Borderlands 2 with Multiplayers and still finish the whole game and watch the ending. I suppose it'll be something like in the lines of that.

[plaZeHD]

I am really getting confused with this game. What the hell is it?

[Pandamobile]

The best bits of Left 4 Dead 2 + Call of Duty + Mechs = Titan Fall.

[Fishy Fingers]

Interesting, at least they're trying something new, I cant really get my head round how it'll all work but then, that's not my job.

[MonChiChi]

It's not at all that difficult to understand imo. You put objective based missions or leveling (not sure on which obviously) as the core thing to unlocking new parts of the story. Most likely you would get a CS of sorts after the match that you completed said mission in. That is my guess.

[Ares84HU]

Did I miss something? Didn't they say that this game is mp only?

[MonChiChi]

It is. A story can be told via MP (though most likely not some innovative story). I am thinking somewhat along the lines of say warframe, that's just my guess though.

[Summons75]

yeah but it's through the multiplayer. SO my guess will be a cutscene before matches to justify why you're doing said objective (capture, bomb, get more kills) then a cutscene after for if you win and or lose.

Maybe a story match type for that then a couple others so you don't have to be annoyed by cutscenes or redo ones you already did.

Don't expect it to be a half way decent story to say the least. I'm guessing more a narrative to justify the universe with an end cutscene to all but tell you to wait for titanfall 2.

Think Shadowrun 2007 or Bioshock 2 online but with some sort of ending because these people don't know what a narrative is.

[skoorydook]

Haven't Respawn always said this has a story line, thought it was common knowledge

[LightofDarkness]

They have. I don't see why this is so difficult for people to understand, but it points to how many people simply misunderstand this game and the point of it, or what it's trying to achieve. This game, from what I can tell, is a lot like Diablo + DOTA/LOL + Big Budget Hollywood FPS + Old School Sci-Fi shooter. The MP story element functions similarly to Diablo's MP, the game itself then uses the "hero/legend" and "grunt/creep" dichotomy of DOTA/LOL, has production values and shooting mechanics of big budget FPS titles and the movement, speed, verticality and setting of an old-school sci-fi FPS. With mechs, because if you're going this far, why draw the line at giant murder bots?

I really can't wait to get this game. I didn't care about it at all until I played it at Gamescom, now it's easily in my top 3 most anticipated games of the year. Although I've noticed EA have the gall to charge €59.99 on Origin for this when I can get it from Gamestop on an actual disc with packaging for €39.99. Cheeky.

[hazelamy]

what about the Neverending Story?

daah daah dah dah dah dah dah daaah.
Neverending story.

don't pretend like you don't know the song.
^_^

[mhunterjr]

Glad to see a developer trying some new things with this genre. I can't wait to see how it actually plays out.