As the old saying goes, “bigger is better” although in the case of multiplayer shooter games this isn’t always true. While Titanfall may go big in terms of the giant mechs it features, the player count for Respawn and EA’s upcoming sci-fi shooter is a little on the smaller side.
While we’ve know for a while that Titanfall would contain a smaller number of players in matches (the E3 demo had 7 on 7), Respawn founder Vince Zampella confirmed on Twitter that Titanfall matches would max out at 12 humans, so 6 versus 6. The backlash to this news has been kind of over the top, as is the way with the Internet, but is 6v6 really that bad?
Many of the best competitive shooters out there, from Counter-Strike to Halo, have always had smaller matches because with more people things just get a little too hectic. Battlefield is one of the only games to pull this off because that’s their gimmick, but sometimes a full 64 player match can get kinda of crazy. Respawn additionally confirmed that the Titans, while capable of being directly controlled by a player, can also be automated to defend a specific area or follow a person around, so the matches are essentially 12 v 12 with some AI enemies padding things out.
I played Titanfall at PAX Prime 2013 and I honestly didn’t notice that it was a smaller game. With all of the AI enemies constantly dropping in, the action felt fast and frenetic and captured the feeling of being a small part of a larger battle. I’ll wait to actually play the game proper before making my judgement, but given how Titanfall felt at PAX, I imagine 6 v 6 will be just fine.
What do you guys think about this? Did the Internet overreact? Are more players essential, or do you prefer things to be a bit more…intimate?
Source – Vince Zampella Twitter
I’m so sick of the internet being armchair game designers. However it is safe to say that a lot of the hate and ridicule come from Sony fanboys who never intend on playing the game anyway, and want to have any reason to dampen the game’s glowing pre-release buzz. Personally I love the intimacy of a lower player count multiplayer game, and with the Titans and AI running around, I think this is very much a non issue.
I say it comes down to level design. After playing roughly 10 years of counter-strike, I can tell you there exists a very sweet duality between a “serious” and “casual” match. Maps that are arguably best suited to 5 vs 5 are still being played 16 vs 16. I’ve always hated a full 32 player server, but they’re still functional, just a bit crazy. 8 vs 8 has always been my personal sweet spot.
On the flip side, I recently played COD:Ghosts on the ps4 with my room mate and the maps felt very sparse at 8 vs 8. Lots of “Who the hell is shooting me?” only to realize it was a dude in a corner with a sniper rifle.
I think TitanFall can get it right, especially if they aim to treat “serious” and “casual” players separately.
I really don’t know if it is safe to say that it is Sony fanboys. I am sure there are some, but the Polygon comments I read were from a wide spectrum of people who think they know better than Respawn and I would hardly consider that trait to be exclusive to Sony fanboys.
That being said, it’s dumb for people to complain about something they have not played yet and Respawn knows a thing or two about balancing.
@Anthony Unfortunately I expose myself to IGN Facebook comments, which tend to run more fanboyish. Lots of “6v6? Haha, suck it X-Bots!” You know, that kind of idiocy.
I feel that Respawn can definitely pull off 6 vs. 6. I call back to @Mitch describing how the demo of it at PAX played and honestly, if they can make it feel that populated with only 12 total and the AI sprinkled in then I feel confident that it’ll work well. As for the complainers, I can’t understand the issue. There are number of popular FPS games that run 6s in competitve. Hell it’s a staple of competitive TF2. Just seems like complaining based on this whole Battlefield realism, grand scale of war movement, not that that’s inherently bad. As you said @Mitch, that is DICE’s gimmick for Battlefield because it works with that series
Drell,
Yeah, but’s trolling. There are people who are genuinely upset about this which is dumb. The trolls are irrelevant. Gamers need to trust that they don’t know everything and give Respawn a chance.
This is basically a non-issue, but because a few people get stirred up online, it becomes a firestorm, one largely made-up. The average gamer will not care at all.