I remember reading the reviews of Titanfall 2 before I decided to purchase it in 2017. Everyone was celebrating its game play and creativity in a market of increasingly bland first-person shooters. However, its campaign, while a welcome addition, was always categorized as “decent” despite not feeling “unique” or “original”. When selecting a difficulty for the campaign missions the description for Hard Mode is, “You like an immersive story and a challenge to go with it”. If the story is as immersive as it self-proclaims, what is the reasoning behind its mediocre reception? In his book, “The Anatomy of Story” writer, Author, and Hollywood story consultant John Truby claims that “A story has a minimum of seven steps from beginning to end.” These steps are: Weakness and Need, Desire, Opponent, Plan, Battle, Self-Revaluation, and New Equilibrium. Does Titanfall 2 contain all seven steps, or is it deserving of the mediocre reception of its narrative? Keep in mind, while this game is from 2016, there are major story spoilers ahead.
Our main protagonist is Jack Cooper, a rifleman in the Militia fleet, supposed protectors of freedom in a sparsely inhabited section of space known as the Frontier. Think, the rebel alliance from the Star Wars trilogy. After being ambushed by the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation (IMC), a heavily implied “evil” corporate force, Cooper is attacked, only to be saved by his mentor, Captain Lastimosa and his Partner Titan BT-7274, or BT as he likes to be called. Cooper’s rescue results in Lastimosa’s death. Compelling Cooper to work with BT to stop the best laid plans of the IMC and protect the freedom of the frontier.
Step 1: Weakness and Need
Truby describes “Weakness” as something the protagonist lacks that is holding him back, while the “Need” is what the hero must achieve to have a better life. It could be argued that Cooper has a “weakness” in that he is severely untrained and lacks the confidence for conflict he is thrust into, and that his “need” is to live up to the memory of Lastimosa. There is evidence of this in Cooper’s tones of uncertainty as he comments on his achievements, and how BT gives him praise, reassuring him that Lastimosa would be proud. Even some of the riflemen feel relieved to see Cooper because of what he represents, but don’t realize exactly how little training he has received. If this topic was explored more through dialogue options, where Cooper could express his uncertainty, communicate that he is doubtful of his worthiness, and potential guilt of Lastimosa’s death, Cooper would have been a much more relatable and complex character. As a result, Titanfall 2 just meets this requirement, despite the potential for it to go unnoticed by the player.
Step 2: Desire
A key point of the desire step is, “Your hero’s true desire is what he wants in this story, not what he wants in life”. By the closing of the opening cutscene the player knows that Cooper wants to become a skilled pilot so that he may preserve the freedom of the Frontier through combat, but his desire is to live up to the honor of the pilots before him. During the first mission of the game Cooper achieves his goal of becoming a pilot and acquiring a Titan companion. However, this is at the cost of losing Captain Lastimosa, which should only further Cooper’s desire to honor the pilots before him, specifically his fallen mentor. While the desire is clearly communicated, additional dialogue between Cooper and BT would further the player’s empathy to the characters and investment in Cooper’s goal.
Step 3: Opponent
Titanfall 2 struggles with its two main antagonists, the IMC leader General Marder and the Kuben Blisk, leader of the mercenary group the Apex Predators’ hired by Marder to protect Titanfall 2’s maguffin, the ARK. Truby writes that, “A true opponent not only wants to prevent the hero from achieving his desire but is competing with the hero for the same goal.” The IMC is in direct conflict with the Militia for control of the frontier. Therefore, General Marder is in direct conflict with Cooper as Cooper tries to stop his destructive plans. However, Marder is always present in the background as Cooper never even comes into direct conflict with Marder. The only dialogue, (using that term liberally), directly between the two characters is during a minuscule time travel sequence, of which there are no consequences.
Marder’s motivations aren’t even part of the main story. They’re in an optional audio log that can easily be passed up by players that aren’t looking for it or lack the patience to listen to the entire monologue. Marder believes that if order is not brought to the Frontier, humanity will collapse as it over indulges itself on finite resources, which isn’t an unrelatable perspective. Very similar to Thanos of Marvel’s Infinity War. If these beliefs were communicated to the player by naturally weaving them into the story instead of one long optional monologue, Marder would have been a much more compelling villain. Unfortunately, he never reaches Thanos levels of strength or impact.
The second antagonist, Kuben Blisk is motivated by money, and money alone. This is made very clear to the player based on the things Blisk does during the campaign, such as referring to his contract with the IMC, using phrases such as, “I don’t pay you to mess around” and even sparing Cooper’s life because killing him wasn’t in his contract. Blisk does have a stronger presence during the campaign than Marder, as confrontation between Cooper and Blisk exists in interactive dialogue and cutscenes. However, in a game where opponents are defeated using an array of weaponry and giant robots, there is never a physical confrontation between Blisk and Cooper, despite him clearly being equipped for combat. Blisk’s goal is to deliver the ARK, the power source to the IMC’s doomsday weapon, the mysterious Fold Weapon, a device that bends space and time, and collect his payment. Cooper’s goal is to stop the ARK from reaching the fold weapon. While there is conflict between Cooper and the members of the Apex Predators, which results in indirect conflict with Blisk, his presence is not dominant enough to make him a strong antagonist.
Alternatively, If Blisk was directly responsible for the death of Lastimosa instead of side character ASH, there would be more emotional weight to every interaction leading up to a final fight against Blisk in the story’s climax. Cooper and BT would have a personal agenda in avenging their fallen comrade. Include some heated dialogue between Blisk and Cooper and some reflective dialogue between Cooper and BT, and all characters would be more compelling and interesting.
Step 4: Plan
The plan of Titanfall 2 is clearly displayed by BT halfway through the first mission in the form of BT’s three protocols. Protocol 1: Link to Pilot, Protocol 2: Uphold the mission, and Protocol 3: Protect the Pilot. After establishing the neural link between the two, BT and Cooper set off to carryout Lastimosa’s mission of rendezvousing with Major Anderson at an IMC research facility. This plan gradually evolves into stopping the IMC from activating the Fold Weapon and destroying Cooper and the Militia’s home planet of Harmony. This plan coincides with Cooper’s goal to protect the Frontier and conflicts with the goals of the two antagonists. Well done Titanfall 2 narrative designers.
Step 5: Battle
Truby states that, “The battle is the final conflict between the hero and the opponent and determines which of the two characters wins the goal”. In Titanfall 2, the final battle equates to the final boss battle between the team of BT and Cooper, (the BTeam as I like to call them) against Blisk’s second in command, Sloan. The fact that this fight is neither against Blisk or Marder is why it feels so anticlimactic. Sloan isn’t a main antagonist and is barely present for the majority of the campaign. Defeating her is supposed to earn Blisk’s respect for which he spares Cooper’s life in return, but it leaves the final boss battle, the narrative climax, lack luster and underwhelming. If the BTeam had fought against some iteration of Blisk or Marder or against both, the battle would have been far more satisfying. An alternative narrative could incorporate Blisk realizing the error of his greed driven ways and end up working with the BTeam to foil Marder’s plan, establishing a true antagonist to the story. Unfortunately, Titanfall 2 fails to achieve this step, and despite a mechanically interesting boss encounter, the narrative is unsatisfying.
Step 6: Self-Revelation
Truby writes, “for a good self-revelation, you must first be aware that this step, like need, comes in two forms, psychological and moral. In a psychological self-revelation, the hero strips way the facade he has lived behind and sees himself honestly for the first time. This stripping away of the facade is not passive or easy. Rather, it is the most active, the most difficult, and the most courageous act the hero performs in the entire story.”
The most courageous act the Cooper performs is launching himself and BT into the ARK to destroy it and cause the Fold Weapon to collapse. One could argue that Cooper’s self-revelation comes just before this, in realizing that honoring the Pilots the he looks up to has no value if the Militia is destroyed and the Frontier falls under IMC control, which pushes him to make the ultimate sacrifice. While it is emotionally touching to hear Cooper’s loyalty to BT in his final moments, whether he achieves this self-revelation is ambiguous.
Step 7: New Equilibrium
According to Truby, at the new equilibrium everything has returned to normal, except the hero has transitioned to a higher or lower level as a result of going through his crucible. In Titanfall 2, while the Fold Weapon is destroyed, Cooper is saved through BT’s self-sacrifice, and the combined efforts of the Militia command. Everything returns to how it was before the story campaign began, but Jack has now moved to a higher position. He is now a respected Militia Pilot, responsible for saving the planet Harmony and 40 Billion lives, defeating the IMC in this space sector and saving the Militia fleet. However, as the Militia fleet returns to the planet harmony, Cooper is reminiscent of BT and misses his companion.
In conclusion, I believe that the franchise of Titanfall is left in a strong place narratively. There are many potential directions the sequel could head in. I believe the most obvious would be a vengeful IMC and General Marder launching an attack on Harmony, but that story could be saved for later. Titanfall 2 does many things well, however it does suffer from underdeveloped main and side characters. I believe providing more defining dialogue between the main characters would remedy this issue, and while having dialogue options is fun and provides replay ability, it is at the cost of consistent character development. All this said, playing through Titanfall 2 again was a welcome experience and an exciting first step in my creative journey. For more on Titanfall 2 check out the Titanfall 2 page.
Channel Cousin 