Titanfall Eschews Single Player Campaign Entirely

[Gahars]

Titanfall was one of the more noteworthy (in a good way, at least) titles at Microsoft's E3 press conference. The mixture of first person shooting and mech combat in an online arena turned a lot of heads, and Respawn Entertainment's considerable pedigree (it was formed by the former heads of Infinity Ward) certainly helped.

However, any mention of a storyline or campaign for the game was conspicuously absent... and now we know why.

Titanfall will be online only.

"We make these single-player missions that take up all the focus of the studio, that take a huge team six months to make, and players run through it in eight minutes," says Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella. "And how many people finish the single-player game? It's a small percentage. It's like, everyone players through the first level, but five percent of people finish the game."

For Respawn's crew of 60-something heads, those numbers just don't add up. "You split the team," Zampella says. "They're two different games ... but people spend hundreds of hours in the multiplayer experience versus as little time as possible rushing to the end [of the single-player]."

The Escapist

"Titanfall? Sounds like a Titanic-Fail to me." -Chatrooms, everywhere

While I'm a bit iffy on their statistics (I remember the stats for singleplayer play time being much, much less dire than he claims, but I could be wrong), it's an interesting point. After all, if the campaign is just going to be tacked on anyway, why bother when those resources can be better spent on the game's core? And if you're still getting tons of hours of playtime out of the multiplayer, the value of the experience isn't necessarily cheapened.

But really, what do you think? Do you agree that this is the best option for the futuristic shooter? Or should Respawn have checked themselves before they online-only mech'd themselves?

 

[Dork]

"W-well it didn't need a campaign anyway, online multiplayer only is the f-future."

Did I get this right?

 

[Nathan Drake]

Although I understand that single player may not be the most appealing thing to a developer making a game primarily focused around the multiplayer aspect, it's still an important feature, especially if you want to avoid alienating the part of your player base that doesn't have high speed internet access (which, many tend to forget, is a lot of people).

 

[Rockhoundhigh]

If they're going to be banking on their Call of Duty pedigree anyways I really doubt most people will mind save for some initial whining, personally I don't. I just hope that when the game goes to retail they're clear about advertising that the game is online only otherwise some poor kid might be suckered into buying a game he can't even play.

 

[Taleweaver]

Boy, am I glad the xbone no longer has an online requirement! With a game like this, I can...

Wait...


But on a serious note: he's exaggerating. It's very true that I'm not representative in that I'm completing about 85-90% of the games I buy (and 100% if it's an actually GOOD game), but if it takes a huge team six months to make an eight-minute level (let alone campaign), they're not good at their job AT ALL. Perhaps they should look more to other competitive style games. The UT series and quake (3 and 4) had a single player campaign that was basically a bot roster. All the levels were pretty much fit for multiplayer, but you could play them in single player as well. Not to forget that decent AI made sure that teams could be balanced out. So every effort (or rather: over 90%) that went in the single player converted straight into multiplayer.

In other words: they could make it, provided that they cut some corners (eg. only a couple cutscènes and a storyline that's minimal or absent).

 

[stomp_442]

The game maker is right not to include a campaign, they aren't losing very much money in sales by excluding single player campaign, and it will save them tons of money to exclude it. Everybody buys cod games for the multiplayer ($60), and then the four mappacks ($15 x 4 = $60). These guys are in business to make money. I've not once completed a single player cod campaign, and don't think I missed much. As long as they include local multiplayer I'm fine with no campaign.

 

[jonesman99]

The game maker is right not to include a campaign, they aren't losing very much money in sales by excluding single player campaign, and it will save them tons of money to exclude it. Everybody buys cod games for the multiplayer ($60), and then the four mappacks ($15 x 4 = $60). These guys are in business to make money. I've not once completed a single player cod campaign, and don't think I missed much. As long as they include local multiplayer I'm fine with no campaign.

But who's to say that they will actually be making a profit with this action? People could see this as a cop out and then hope that the multiplayer will be everything and then some. Granted, Call of Duty didn't have an actual storyline, but it is still a decent single player experience. I myself have never played a FPS campaign, but I know that 8 minutes is an exaggeration, more like 5 to 8 hours is more like it. I know a single player mode on most games I play take me at the least a weekend to finish.

But I digress, their decision is made. I just hope that the XBOne gives them enough of a platform for them to shine on top of all the other FPS that will be releasing around the same time.

 

[Lanlan]

Good. At least someone's getting it right. No one likes these on-rails shooting galleries. Put those development resources to good use.

 

[pwsincd]

UT2k4, best FPS of all time imo, never had single player "story" mode and just an offline version of online with AI bots.. never harmed it at all..

 

[SSVAV]

But they said they are including story elements in the multiplayer, and it can be seen in their E3 demo, players instead of waiting in a lobby get to watch a cutscene of their ship jumping near the planet while they are being briefed of their mission.

I personally like this aspect, it adds more substance to the multiplayer games, the player feels badass when he wins cause there's also a cutscene for the end of the match, like for example the enemy mother ship crashing to the ground.

Also it adds much needed context, in COD games your only context is a one liner by the team announcer at the beginning of the match, like for example "take no prisoners" or "secure the flags"... At least now both the maps and the battle make more sense to the player (how the hell did two entities who kill each other on sight get in a private boat?...)

 

[Celice]

I could have sworn a staff member said there would be single-player campaign just a week ago...

 

[Clydefrosch]

I don't care because I don't play these games anyway. However I wouldn't want to miss single player modes in any game.

 

[FAST6191]

Bugger I have not played a good mech game in decades at this point (not made it to Japan to try out the fancy arcade machines) and this looked like they might have almost done it right. I can see the decision and might even get to applaud it in some ways but I do like my single player games and do not go in for multiplayer.

*hopes for the almost inevitable same engine single player respin*

 

[Bake]

>Microsoft removes always online
>No game has singleplayer

 

[Forstride]

Good. No point wasting development time and money on a campaign that the majority of players don't even care about. Titanfall looks pretty damn awesome, and seeing as Respawn is formed from the old Infinity Ward, I'm sure it will be a very fun game.

 

[Ethevion]

I guess they don't care about the few fans that like single player.

 

[chartube12]

My gamertag is filled with friends who don't like CoD beyond the single player. Guess this means they won't be touching this game with a 9000 ft poll.

Rewatched the E3 video above. She said they call it like campaign multiplayer. Probably not the official name for it.

 

[EnigmaXtreme]

Sooooooo what's gonna justify the 60$ price tag then?

 

[Metoroid0]

Who needs camping, I don't like online play anyway... hmm, that doesn't sound right o.O

 

[ForteGospel]

its funny that not a week ago nintendo said "no online multiplayers" for their game and it got to the front page...

then someone goes and says "no single player" and then you have people defending this crap