Well... saying that Titanfall has a lack of story is a vast understatement. It does have a story, but I have to agree that it is poorly depicted in the campaign itself. I have not played the campaign, but I've heard from many people that the story is hard to get just based off of the campaign. The story of Titanfall can get very complex, but when it comes to the basics... it's similar to the story of Team Fortress 2, but instead of RED vs BLU it is IMC vs Militia.
Main story:
The game takes place in an area called the Frontier, in which the Militia live, and the IMC is what Hammond Engineering has become. Hammond Engineering are the ones who built the Titans and Spectres, and they needed more resources for their projects, etc... They end up finding out that the Frontier has those resources, so they are basically taking the land from the Militia in order to gain resources to expand their commerce, and build it up.
Conflict: One of the things that many people are creating controversy over is who the protagonist is, being either the IMC or the Militia. It may seem obvious now, but that will change as I explain further.
Contains Spoilers: Highlight faded text/void to view story clarification.
Refueling Raid: Refueling Raid is the name given to the first mission in the game. In this the Militia are going into an IMC fuel repository and are trying to take fuel from the IMC due to the fact that the Militia are, at the time, herding for fuel. In this mission, you receive a distress call from James MacAllan: executive officer of the IMS Odyssey, whom led an open rebellion against IMC authority 15 years ago, which makes him hated by the IMC. Now, due to the fact he sent out a
distress signal, both the IMC and Militia had picked up on his signal, and it was traced back to a place called the Colony.
MacAllan Search: After this, both the IMC and Militia will go to the Colony in search of MacAllan, but neither the Militia nor the IMC want either side to gain hold of him, because the Militia think that he can help them stop the IMC, and the IMC simply want him because he went against their authority. Meanwhile, the citizens of the Colony want nothing to do with this fight... for it has nothing to do with them. After much fighting, the Militia do end up getting their hands on MacAllan, and he joins up with them. Now, the Militia go to the IMS Odyssey, to get resources to fight the IMC, meanwhile the IMC are following them to get their hands on MacAllan. Regardless, both sides get supplies from this event.
Barker Search: Now the Militia are in search of a guy named Robert "Barker" Taube. He is needed to take the supplies that the Militia have and use them against the IMC. Barker is in Angel City at the time, and that is where the Militia go to find him. And such as earlier, the IMC are trying to stop the Militia, and a battle breaks out in Angel City. Now the IMC begin to think the Militia are a terrorist group, because the Militia are going to different IMC areas and destroying whatever these areas contain. Meanwhile, the Militia think that the IMC are heartless corporation that are trying to take their homes. Also, while at this battle in Angel City, the Militia damaged an IMC ship called the Sentinel. Due to damages done to this ship, the IMC have to repair it at the IMC Dock. While being repaired, the Militia decide to attack the ship to make sure it gets destroyed, and they succeed. So the Sentinel is gone, meaning that one of the IMC's base ships are no longer available.
Militia Plan: At this point the Militia have many supplies, MacAllen, Barker, and have destroyed one of the IMC base ships. The Militia decides to continue with their plan, and this is the point of to when their plan becomes clear. The objective of the Militia was to reverse engineer the repulsor, which keeps the dragons on the map Boneyard away from the settlements on the map. So the Militia want to use this repulsor technology against the IMC at another one of their bases. The IMC still follow them, trying to stop them, but yet again the Militia succeeds and gains the technology.
Three Towers: At this point, the IMC are trying to defend their repulsor technology, and the Militia figure that if they disable the repulsor, then they wouldn't even need to fight the IMC because the dragons would fight the IMC for them, remember the repulsor kept the dragons away from the IMC facilities, so without the technology enabled, dragons would be all over the IMC. In the end, the Militia do manage to disable this technology and win the battle at Three Towers. Also, reason for the capturing of Three Towers, is because it is a gateway to Demeter.
Demeter: Demeter is a big refueling base for the IMC, and is needed to get their ships to where the Militia are held up at, being the edge of the frontier. So the Militia's plan is to overload the reactor at Demeter, and that will take out the station, meaning the IMC will be stuck to their area of space, and cannot send more forces to the Militia. The Militia go to Demeter, and MacAllen goes into the reactor and encounters a man named Sergeant Blisk. While in the reactor they quarrel and cannot fire their weapons, for that would surely set off the reactor. MacAllen manages to overload the reactor, and in the process, MacAllen speaks with Vice Admiral Marcus Graves. At this point, it is found out that Graves is the one who told MacAllen to lead the rebellion against the IMC. This kind of proves MacAllen may not be the "Benedict Arnold" that the IMC once thought he was. MacAllen convinces Graves to join the Militia, but sadly, what happens is while he may have convinced Graves to join the Militia, the core is unstable, and takes out MacAllen, and others in the area.
Final Straw: Now that the IMC are pretty much unable to touch the Militia, due to their many losses, the Militia decide to take out a Spectre production facility. Due to the loss of the IMC's leader, Graves, Spyglass takes over. Spyglass is basically a physical entity of the vast computational network of the IMC, you can think of it as an AI basically. Now, because the IMC is in such a terrible state, after the losses they have had, etc... Graves decides to negotiate a peace treaty with Blisk. He basically says that he wants to end the war, but Blisk takes it personally, and says that this fight will end with war... The Militia however to succeed in taking out certain Spectre production facilities, but after this point, not much else is known.
My Opinion: Even after knowing the story of Titanfall, which I've yet to play... I still believe that Halo's story has much more to offer, because I feel that Titanfall is a beautiful depiction of war based on modern day, and past examples, and when I say beautiful, I mean believable, for it sounds exactly how war would go. Meanwhile, with Halo, it actually gives a more futuristic feel of war, I don't feel like I am playing a war game in the year 2014, I feel like I am playing a war game in the year 2552. Not only that, but the weapons in halo, I feel that they have a more unique and genuine design to them, each weapon
distinctly stands out in it's own way. Although, Titanfall's weapons blend in with the other. I am not saying that they all look the exact same, but I feel that there could have been more variety between their designs. And when it comes to gameplay, I really cannot say, I have not played Titanfall, but based on what I have seen, it seems like a Call of Duty replica.
So to sum it up:
Halo:
- More futuristic.
- More content distinction, weapons, etc...
- Customization of armor, to suit players' desires.
- Unique story.
Titanfall:
- More modern day feel to it.
- Nothing really stands out involving weapons/character design.
- Feels as if it is a replica of Call of Duty.
- Amazing graphics. :rolleyes
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