Now to kick off my rather unusual choice as a film student, I’ll be looking in depth in the hidden medium of video game narratives. I decided to investigate this because the art of narratives in games isn’t really explored or looked at to anyone outside the main target audience (people that play the games). This hidden collection has lots of great stories just waiting to be unravelled. And today is no different.
I’ve brought you Titanfall 2. Which could be described as one of the best emotional experiences of the past ten years. My friend always begged me to play this game, and I never did. I thought he was crazy for the claims he was spouting, until I finally picked up that controller and pressed play. And I have never been the same since. The emotional imprint that it left on me was insane. I couldn’t believe I left it so long to experience something of this capacity and hope that you experience it for yourself. So, relax but remember SPOILERS ahead!
Titanfall 2, the apt named sequel to Titanfall 1, was released in 2016, developed by Respawn Entertainment, and published EA Sports. It is considered to be one of the best games for movement and all round a top game. This is helped by this article, where IGN talked to one of the level designers. But we aren’t here to look at the mechanics, we are here to delve into the narrative depth that this gaming experience shows.
In brief, the story of Titanfall 2 is simple. You start as a low-ranking member of the military, who finds themselves skyrocketed in rank due to being in the right place at the right time.
With you taking control of the main protagonist you are Pilot Jack Cooper (Riflemen Third Class) who soon gets accompanied by his titan BT-7274.
You go on many different adventures from helping the Militia, to stopping the International Manufacturing Corporation (IMC) and killing any Apex Predators you find along the way. The main goal is to stop the IMC from completing their new Fold Weapon, something which can destroy planets through time displacement. However, the weapon is only capable of working with power from something known as the Ark.
You immediately get thrown into the mix where you have to take over Captain Lastimosa’s mission, Special Operation 217. You then go on and with aid from your Titan help the Militia in many wars, suffering lots of causalities but all in the way to stop the IMC and the mercenary’s known as the Apex Predators.
Throughout the entire campaign, you are with help from BT-7274, or you are in control of BT-7274 doing a task to get to the final objective of destroying the Ark and the Fold Weapon. With every mission comes witty jokes from Jack and BT as the two get a closer relationship where you see tense moments form the pair when they always save one another. No matter whom you take on whether it be Ash, Richter, Kane, Viper, Slone or Blisk, the battle would be hard, but you always come out on top. When you look in depth at what is being built in from of you, the connection to these characters that you are building and seeing these magnificent locations shows the magnitude of the situation brought in.
Throughout the game you fight these different enemies in varying environments, ranging from sewers, to a simulation, to a massive ship, and on to the Ark itself. You are just fighting on such a large scale; it allows for you to feel fully immersed in each stage of the game. Seeing these giant structures and landscapes puts into the scale of things. Like seeing the Fold Weapon up close, just taking in the massive size of it compared to yourself, BT-7274, and the vast area around it. There are moments where you are fighting other titans as well, this is just showing the stage at which you are at by the size of these metallic beasts.
The one thing that is emphasised throughout the entire game is this connection that the pilot has to their titan and that you as the player form a similar bond with them as your progressing through the story to. It is stated at the very start that there are three protocols in which a pilot and a titan have, the pilot must answer these correctly to be allowed to use the titan. For the titan and the pilot to be on the same page. These are: Protocol 1 - Link to Pilot, Protocol 2 - Uphold the Mission and Protocol 3 - Protect the Pilot. This last protocol is the final limit.
Just as you’ve completed all these challenges and gone through the hardship. You finish the mission, the one that governed you and brought you and BT-7274 together. Destroying the Fold Weapon. BT-7274’s core can be destroyed and act as a tactical nuke destroying the Ark. So, as you step forward and load yourself into the catapult, you can assure BT-7274 that you are in this together. Until those disastrous words come on the screen. Protocol 3 - Protect the Pilot. BT-7274 grabs you and throws you to safety whereas he sacrifices himself for the greater good, to uphold the mission.
As you are sat in hysterics, witnessing the sacrifice made by your best friend (BT-7274), your team come to rescue you. The emotional Journey that Respawn are putting you through, just to try and quickly escape. Which was only made possible because of the opening that BT-7274 has made.
I know when I first played the game, these words haunted me. It might feel a bit strange, being this connected to a character, but for the time that you play the game, you envision yourself as the main character. Because the medium of gaming allows for you to fully put yourself in the shoes of the character, it’s not exaggerating to say that they are an exaggeration of yourself.
However, there is a somewhat happy ending in all of this. After sobbing through the credits, we see Jack Cooper’s iconic helmet start transmitting morse code, it translates to “Jack?.” This hints that BT-7274 is still alive, and living in Jack's helmet, because it is previously stated that he can upload his core, meaning we might see the duo back again.
Anyways, Titanfall 2 was made in 2016, and it's currently 2023, with all signs of a sequel being very low but still fans of the franchise still hold out to see these iconic characters back with a bang. There was a slither of hope left but it was shot down when EA closed off that avenue. With potentially seeing them in Apex Legends, Respawns latest game in the Titanfall universe.
This story really held a grip on me when I played it, and I hope that you can experience it as well, it’s too good not to!
(Roses are red, Suppressors are quiet, Protocol 3, Protect the pilot*)
Come back next week where I’ll be discussing The Wolf Among Us.
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