Titanfall review: the first real reason to buy a next-gen console

WITHOUT a doubt, Titanfall is the most anticipated game of 2014. We've been playing it, and here's why it's also the best game of 2014.

Relaxing after a hard day's killing.

WITHOUT a doubt, Titanfall is the most anticipated video game of 2014. Why wouldn't it be? It's made by the guys who created Call of Duty and you get to play inside giant fighting robots in a battlefield from the future.

With all of this anticipation, though, does Titanfall live up to the hype? We've been playing it, and you really should believe every bit of hype. Here's why:

Fight on the ground or in a Titan.

The premise of Titanfall is this: you're fighting a war in the future on battlefields throughout a human-occupied space, where revolutionists are fighting against their corporate-funded government. The battle is fought using Titans, the giant weaponised suits of armour that give the game its name.

It's online multiplayer only

Let's not kid ourselves, you only play Battlefield or Call of Duty for the multiplayer. The developers for Titanfall know this and have taken the awesome cinematics from single player, a great storyline and have woven it in with the type of awesome gameplay that you get in multiplayer. This results in you watching some brilliant clip that draws you into the game then rips you back out into a battlefield fighting against a real person.

You get to fight inside a giant weaponised robot

Throughout the game, you can play as Titans. These giant combat robots let you stomp around while you try and take out anything in your way. They look amazing. They're fantastic fun to control, and how they're spread out lets any amateur chump become a mega killing machine. Plus, the effect when they "fall" (get it.. Titan... fall) is awesome. You have to be careful in a Titan though, because like a tank in Battlefield you soon become everyone's favourite target.

Running around is just as fun as being a Titan

I don't think the game gets any better than when you've just run around, flown down a zip line, done some sweet parkour and taken out an enemy before they even realised you were there. Everything from the way you control your character to the design of the maps have this in mind, letting you do things you've never done in a first person shooter before.

Luke Plunkett from Kotaku described it best:

"Think of each map not as a killing field, but as a Tony Hawk's stage. Every billboard, fuel dump and window exists not to dress up a level, but to encourage you to try and string together combos, only instead of getting a score at the end, you get a kill."

The maps are built for both Titans and those on foot

Use the walls to take down a Titan.

The fact that you can be as dominant as a Titan on foot if you play the map right sets up a more even playing field. Unlike perks in Call of Duty where you essentially have to hide for a few minutes from air support, you actually have a fighting chance and are presented with a challenge to find the best way to jump around and take out a Titan before they get you.

It is the first and only real next-generation game

If we use shooters as an example, there have been three key games that have spawned the next generation of gaming - James Bond Golden Eye on Nintendo 64, Halo on the original Xbox and most recently, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in 2007. The brilliant graphics, groundbreaking way of having a campaign built into the multiplayer and the way you control your character and Titans leave you with a feeling that this is the start of something huge.

Titanfall is released on Xbox One and PC in Australia tomorrow, with Xbox 360 to follow later in the month. Our verdict? Grab it immediately.