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By Tom Phillips Published 24/10/2016
 
It's no secret that Watch Dogs 2 is a departure from its predecessor. It's been obvious for a while, just from glancing at trailers, that this sequel will be brighter and more playful than Ubisoft's previous crack at a hackable open world. Now, after nearly four hours with the sequel, it's clear there are big changes in how it feels, too.
 
Back at E3 in June I spoke with Watch Dogs creative director Jonathan Morin. He made a bold promise. "There are no towers," I remember him stating. "You just explore." I'll be honest - hearing this about a Ubisoft-made open world didn't really compute. Far Cry games, Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs 1 - they all follow the same map-clearing template of climbing/claiming/hacking/setting fire to a tower (or inhaling at a campfire if you're Far Cry Primal) to reveal more of the map and uncover fresh quest icons to hoover up. Was Ubisoft really about to jettison all of that?
 
Watch Dogs 2 doesn't do anything revolutionary with its progression systems - there's an XP bar which tracks your deeds by awarding you Twitter-style Followers and a quest log reminiscent of a to-do list on your in-game mobile phone. They are systems cribbed from any RPG, but which feel right at home as you progress. Activities sprout up as you explore and poke at the world. Purchase a snazzy pair of trousers? You'll get some Followers for that. Vandalise a big old billboard with a Donald Trump-alike's face up on high? You'll get some more. It's this system which sends new boy Marcus Holloway on further adventures around the San Francisco bay, with fresh things to see and do popping up once you hit milestone levels of social media reach. There are no towers. To put it simply: you just explore.
 
"We wanted to break a formula we felt was being used too much," senior producer Dominic Guay told me after my time with the game was up. "In Far Cry, in Watch Dogs, in Assassin's... it works - but we felt we wanted a structure which rewarded players for exploring the world instead of a structure where you got the feeling you needed to scrub the icons from the map. You feel like that's your only job, and yet humans don't work that way. If I'm exploring Paris, I'm going to look at a map and go straight to Notre Dame. It's the same in [Watch Dogs 2] - we value the places over the icons."

"We wanted to break a formula we felt was being used too much,"

The good
 
    Contrast of pilot and titan combat.
    Unique Titan classes.
    Bounty Hunt is an awesome mode.
    Fluid gameplay.
    Campaign is fun.

Overall, Titanfall 2 takes the great ideas of its predecessors and expands upon them to create a far superior experience. While the campaign is a little short, it’s still a lot of fun and incredibly replayable.

Titanfall 2 feels like a game where the developer has taken what makes a shooter fun right back to the starting point and added layers of detail and nuance that as a sum total is a spectacular example of an entertaining video game. It’s the culmination of an extra-ordinarily talented team who clearly understand what makes a shooting stuff fun. FPS games are always about the balance between your gun, grenades, and your melee which are all presented flawlessly by Respawn; and from that basic framework, the story has been draped over it to provide countless opportunities to experience the sheer joy of the freedom of movement and the base pleasure of feeling your bullets thud into the enemy. The presentation is effortless in its execution and it feels totally effortless in your hands. In a year of incredible shooters already released in Gears of War 4 and Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2 is another outstanding example which absolutely stands out from the crowd.

On the one hand, you have Respawn’s short, but fun single player that’s more free and open than most FPS campaigns, and on the other, a multiplayer that’s an iterative improvement on an already fantastic game. In other words, Titanfall 2 is as exhilarating and refreshing now as the original was back in 2014.

This isn't just a worthy sequel to Titanfall, but one that improves upon the original while adding a superb single-player campaign. The latter combines fast-paced action, pilot acrobatics, heavyweight Titan warfare and a surprising amount of heart in one of the most enjoyable solo storylines of the year.
 
And when you're done with that, the enhanced multiplayer is there to dazzle you with fluid motion, high-octane gunplay and those mighty mechs going mano e mano.
 
Now that it's hitting PS4 as well as Xbox One and PC, Respawn's giant-sized shooter is getting a second shot at the big leagues. Titanfall 2 richly deserves it: it's a masterful piece of work.