Exploring what made the 'Doom' and 'Titanfall 2' campaigns tick
A reminder of what can happen when a game ignores the 'rules.'
The new Doom was almost one of my favorite games last year. While it was edged out at the last minute, there's no denying how refreshing the game was. Developer id's laser-focus on speed, making the player throw caution to the wind and tossing modern shooter conventions out the window was incredibly exciting. Titanfall 2 on the other hand took a major complaint levied at its predecessor and delivered one of the most unique shooter campaigns we've seen in an awful long time. As Mark Brown of YouTube channel Game Maker's Toolkit points out, the story modes put fun ahead of everything else.
As per usual, the video is rife with insight into each respective game's design decisions. Doom, for example, not only encourages players get up close and personal with the many demons they'll face on Mars, it encourages them to do so by offering precious health packs they wouldn't get otherwise.
For Titanfall 2, Brown calls out how [spoiler] is used to ratchet up the tension when wall-running, shooting dinosaur-like creatures and an army of soldiers -- sometimes all three simultaneously. And once that sequence is done, the [spoiler] is thrown out and never seen again.
That's not to say either game is perfect.
Doom's combat loop can get repetitive after a bit, and Titanfall 2 doesn't actively force you into playing with the tools you're given. Meaning, it can easily turn into a typical shooter where rather than sliding around, using a jetpack and [spoiler] you're just crouching and taking potshots at enemies from behind a bit of cover. You know, stuff you'd typically do in Battlefield, Call of Duty or Random Military Shooter 2017.
If you loved either game's campaign mode but couldn't put your finger on what made it special, maybe giving the video embedded below a spin will help solve the mystery.
