I have a wife and 4 daughters, yes 4, you read that right. So being on lockdown, all couped up together in our house, working from home, with the kids' school and activities cancelled for the foreseeable future, I sometimes find myself yearning to escape into the world of vidyagames. Well, that and thankfully my good pal Johnnie Walker is there to keep me company in the evenings, so thus far my sanity has been maintained. I love my girls, but sometimes daddy needs a break.   But being on the lookout for something new to play, I took the advice of someone whose opinion I trust, as he recommended Titanfall 2 to me as a good, fun, cheap game to waste some time with. After checking around online a bit, and seeing that I could get a brand new copy for all of $7 shipped to my mailbox, I figured it was a no-brainer and clicked buy buy buy hoping for the best.

Anyhow, since I mostly play classic games on old consoles from the 80s and 90s, my Xbox One is essentially a glorified 4k UHD player, which is fine as I'm just not all that into new games usually. I find that in most of the games I try, much of the “gameplay” involves occasionally pressing a button to move the long movie-like story sequences along, and I generally bore of them quickly. If I want to watch a movie, I'll do so, I don't need my games to be movies. But I've got to say, I genuinely enjoyed playing through Titanfall 2. While it has its share of the movie-style sequences to advance the story along, I didn't find them to be long or gratuitous as they are in so many contemporary games, and the gameplay itself is actually rather fun and varied.

You play as a soldier named Joe Cooper, and due to happenstance, you get a field promotion from grunt to pilot. But in this world, pilots don't fly planes, they control these big robot mech things called titans. And that's the bulk of the game really, trouncing around in a big super-powered mech, blasting enemies, traversing mazes with some light puzzle solving here and there. Sometimes you have to get out of the mech to get to certain areas, and that gameplay is similar to your standard FPS Call of Duty-type fare, but with some different gaming mechanics sprinkled in such as double jumping and wall climbing, which adds a platforming layer to the gameplay.

Your mech is named BT, and he's got some personality, and converses with your character. Not that BT's rapport with Joe is all that original exactly, but it is light-hearted and often touches on a sort of Abbott and Costello dynamic with malapropisms and such which I enjoyed. With the themes of the game revolving around killing everything and traversing through a post-apocalyptic world, the levity between Joe and BT is a welcome respite. Perhaps my favorite feature of the game revolves around the numerous boss fights which are sprinkled throughout the levels, because they involve some different strategy beyond simply blasting everything in sight as you do in battles with normal enemies. You see, your mech has numerous loadout options which you accrue throughout the game and can switch between at will, so trial and error for choosing between the best weapons for your opponent becomes part of the challenge. Think of it like in the Mega Man games when certain bosses are easier defeated with specific weapons which you pick up in different levels.

There was plenty to like here in Titanfall 2, and it kept me busy for a couple of days. I'm not one for online gaming, but the game does have some online modes for those who are into that. I, however, just played through the regular game, or campaign mode as they sometimes call it nowadays. Titanfall 2 isn't exactly a classic or anything, but it was a fun time sinker, and well worth the $7 entry fee.