At the beginning of each match, a four-minute countdown begins. Once that timer reaches zero, you can call down a Titan, a cutting-edge battle-ready war machine. Titans are fast, resilient, and powerful, as capable of sniping pilots and crushing them under feet as they are of entering brutal fisticuffs with other Titans. The timer can be shortened significantly by killing other pilots, but even lesser skilled gamers will have the opportunity to use these at least once in a game.
By looking at them, you'd think that Titans were unstoppable. But the game seems to be incredibly well-balanced between pilots' enhanced mobility and verticality and the wealth of anti-Titan weapons and tactics they can employ to bring them down. Pilots who are confident enough in their movement skills can clamber onto the back of a Titan; friendly ones can offer rides and shielding benefits, and enemy Titans can be "rodeoed," a process that involves tearing off the shielding on its neck and firing into its internal systems, causing serious damage. It's a risky strategy, but it's amazingly effective when it works.
I could say so much more about this game and why you should be excited for it, but I'll hold off until the official review. To make a long story short, I completely sympathize with anyone who suffers from shooter fatigue. It's a totally rational response to the kind of saturation we are now seeing in the market. This game might be the first serious shot in the arm since, well, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Every console needs its killer app, and as far as the Xbox One goes, I'm convinced that Titanfall is it.
