Titanfall 2’s New Update Changes the Pace of the Game

One of the biggest reason I gravitated to Titanfall 2 rather than Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was the promise that DLC and updates will be free. So far Respawn has been true to that – updating regularly, adding new abilities for Titans, and new maps. Yesterday was the release of their new update – Live Fire. This update gives players two new maps dedicated to the new Live Fire mode, they’re also changing the way mixtape finds a match. Along with these major updates are smaller bug fixes and improvements that would improve the overall experience.

New & Improved Modes  

Meadow

Stacks

This update was centered around the new modes, the first mode is Live Fire, and second is Private Match (still in beta). I didn’t experience Private Match and didn’t get a sense of why it’s in beta. I expect that it would work exactly like a custom match, but Respawn might want to add to it.

The meat of the update is from the Live Fire mode. Live Fire is a new mode where two teams of six must win five rounds to win the whole match, there are two ways to win a round. You can either kill everyone on the opposing team or gain control of the flag when the time runs out. Each round is a minute short, but this adds to the flow of the game. In this mode, the pace of the game changes a little – because everyone has one life you must meticulous think about your next move.

Live Fire has two exclusive maps – Meadow and Stacks. These maps are designed to be tight and close for short matches, but gives more freedom to maneuver. The maps aren’t made to fit Titans, so Titans are excluded in this mode. Because there aren’t any Titans available in Live Fire – pilot abilities feel more impactful.

Respawn also improved mixtape by making it customizable, yes you can now choose which mode to add or remove from the mixtape. Now players can use mixtape to play the modes they want.

Changes and Updates

Respawn had some balancing and improvement changes that doesn’t change much in terms of overall gameplay, but is necessary as new modes are added and must adapt to abilities and Titans.

The first set of balancing changes are for the Titans: 

•          Tone - reduce Salvo Core, reduce projectile of 40mm, removed fall damage from Salvo Core
•           North Star - removed fall damage from Flight Core, increase dash rate
•           Scorch - ADS’ing with primary will display path
•           Ion - Fixed shield reflecting bullets causing massive splash damage

There are improvements that involved the Holo pilot ability. Holo pilot was a useless ability before this update, once the ability is active you create 3 decoy pilots – this seems like a useful ability to distract your enemy, but these decoy pilots don’t do anything and once it hits an object or is in the air they disappear. This update changes this ability dramatically, the Holo pilots are more resilient with walls, terrain, and a zip-lines. Now these pilots aren’t going to disappear when running into the walls. Finally – Holo pilots can now be detected by a sonar pulse. These changes make the ability more effective, it’s tougher for enemy players to detect your current position.

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Respawn’s updates are constant and well designed, every new map they add brings a new dynamic to the game. Live Fire is designed for a more close quarters combat type of mode, even Angel City’s Most Wanted is different, it’s a more open and fast pace mode. If Respawn keeps updating Titanfall 2 it can live well beyond before the next Titanfall.