Titanfall 2 multiplayer hands-on – The grappling hook changes every move you make

My experience with Titanfall 2 didn’t last but a few minutes, but it was enough to tell that the experience is going to be different enough to pull me back in when the sequel hits this fall.

The biggest hook is, well, a hook.

When you’re not encased on a monstrous steel robot, you’re painfully vulnerable, so fast movement is key. The original Titanfall sped up the standard shooter pace and took it skyward with jet boosters and wallrunning. Suddenly, there was a whole new set of options when it came to getting out of a rough situation, and just as many ways to get into one.

With Titanfall 2, pilots are now equipped with speedy grappling hooks. Pick your poison – Batman, Just Cause, or whatever else – you’ll be zipping around the map in no time.

Combined with the boosters and wall running, the mobility that helped Titanfall stand apart from the competition now feels absolutely precise. By the time my short session finished, I felt like I’d only scratched the surface of what the grappling hook could do.

It’s not a replacement for the boosters, though. It actually makes them more useful. You can use them in concert to get even higher into the air, and then use the hook to pull yourself back down on top of an enemy titan initiating one of a number of new takedowns. You can pull an enemy pilot into melee range for a mean finisher.

One round of multiplayer with pre-built character loadouts wasn’t enough to get a real idea of what all Titanfall 2 will have to offer, but glimpses of the new mechs in action, brief as they were, were promising. I got to play as a Spectre, one of the robots from the original, meaning we can expect even more character customization.

I enjoyed the original Titanfall, but elements like these and the addition of a single player campaign have me more excited than ever to check out the game when it hits PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 28.