Titanfall
Mech combat games, like Mechwarrior and Armored Core, existed long before Respawn Entertainment jumped into the fray. But there weren’t many games that let you switch between on-the-ground firefights with soldiers and in-the-cockpit bouts with gigantic mechanoids. Titanfall was that game, bringing the fantasy of the Gundam anime to the grittiness of a Call of Duty setting, creating something wholly unique for its time.
There were some questionable decisions here, including a complete lack of any real storytelling and an online-only solo mode, but the package itself was hugely innovative, and Respawn further iterated on it with Titanfall 2, which featured an excellent single-player campaign with one of the best missions in games ever. I’m bummed we’ll probably never get another Titanfall, but its metal-plated fingers can been seen in many other first-person parkour and shooter games. So, I take comfort knowing that we will, ideally, never forget what Titanfall has done. — LW
