Level Design Analysis – Titanfall 2
Titanfall 2’s single-player missions are well known by fans as being great, especially the 6th chapter ‘Effect and Cause’. It has been praised heavily for its level design and also for how it makes use of the fun gameplay mechanics of the level. Articles have been written about this such as Kotaku’s article ‘Let’s Talk About Titanfall 2’s Best Mission’.
This mission starts you off by throwing you down a vent, which takes you to a hallway with one way to exit – through the broken fans. The player comes across some signs, which are framed directly at where they need to go next, and they tell a story about this place by showing it visually rather than explaining it during dialogue. The sign is additionally lit up by a fire, drawing it even more to the player’s attention, and it says that time is unstable in this area which foreshadows this level’s mechanic.
In the next room, we are suddenly shown a glimpse into the past which further enforces what the sign told the player, and gives them a safe environment to be introduced to the new mechanic. The shift from a run-down facility to a clean and functioning area creates interest as to what may have happened in this area and compels the player to move onward and helps maintain their interest in the level.
The player finds their way into a hallway, which contains a notable set piece. This set piece shows an alien lizard creature being taken away through a window by a dragon-like predator. The player is prompted to follow due to the narrow hallway with no other exits, which leads to a grand reveal of an open area with foliage and numerous buildings. This grand vista is immediately contrasted by the flashback, seeing it in both past and present. The clean-looking past being swiftly taken away and returning to the run-down present leaves the player wondering what happened which holds their attention. During the wide open view, we see what Walt Disney would call a ‘Weenie’, which is a visual element that draws the player’s attention and acts like a waypoint. This comes in the form of the big rings in the middle of the screen. It is additionally the thing that changes most between the time switch, as we see it functioning perfectly fine in the past but in the present, it’s all broken, on fire, and surrounded by flying animals that draw further attention to it. This is also the first place where the player finds their titan in this level. He is placed right next to the weenie and that is done as the player needs to be near him for the story to continue. The player has also been conditioned in past levels to go to the titan as they fight alongside him and form a bond with him, so it comes naturally to the player to head to their titan when they can.
When the player reaches BT (Our titan), they are told that they need to check the reception to find who they’re looking for: a man named Anderson, who was the player’s mentor at the very beginning of the game. Upon entering this room the player is shown another great example of framing. In the very centre of the reception area, the player is shown some stairs and right above those stairs is Anderson’s body stuck in the ceiling. additionally, the player gets drawn to this as there’s a red flashing light and also some sparks coming off an object, the player is prompted to remove this sparking object, which is Anderson’s helmet, and return it to BT who replays a hologram memory contained within it. The player learns that Anderson was given a wrist-mounted time shift device when he was sent on a mission to infiltrate this area and gather data on why a massive blast of energy and time distortions were happening around here.
The player is soon tasked with finding Anderson’s upper body – which we hope to still have this time shift device, so we can use it to continue to scout out the area. BT, the player’s titan, throws a telephone pole to allow the player to access a room with a flashing white lite. This white lite was included to draw the player’s attention to it and make them want to investigate.
After a couple of fights and a couple more time shifts, the player finds Anderson’s body in a hallway. This hallway is filled with fire and electricity and so the player won’t be able to proceed without inspecting his body and acquiring the device. when they grab the device a small scene is shown of Cooper, the character you play as, putting the device on and switching from present to past then to present again all while looking at the fire. This shows the player how the device is used and teaches them that obstacles in the present may not be in the past. This is a brilliant way of showing this and it will not let the player progress if they don’t get a basic grasp on how time shifting can be used to get around obstacles in the environment. Even if they still don’t understand how it can be used, after the big fire they passed, they will find themselves in a room that has a door with lasers on, which aren’t there in the present, allowing the player to figure it out themselves.
At this point, our titan BT installs some of his AI in our helmet so that he can still communicate with us through time shifts.
The player is then introduced to how this gameplay mechanic interacts with the first-person shooter gameplay of the game. They get put in a room with some enemies in the past, and if the player shifts in this room they will soon realise there is a blue mist that appears in the enemy’s place for around 5 seconds after a shift. This was included to give the player an idea of where enemies are while they are battling between times, allowing them to sneak behind enemies unnoticed for sneak attacks and it also lets the player escape behind cover while they’re in a different timeline. The combat will eventually be expanded upon, making the player fight to stay alive in the past and the present simultaneously.
During this room the player is given important information too, in the past, they can hear guards communicating about an invader who has a “special cloaking device” which they are talking about the player. This shows that the player isn’t just a person witnessing the past – you are actively involved in the past, and the actions they take affect the present.
the next important room is also set up in a very clever way to showcase to the player some rules of time travelling. This part of the level is very particular about what time they need to be in at any given time without removing control from the player. The player first enters the room from the past to see a laser door they need to get through by switching to the present, But there’s a computer in there that can only be used in the past so the player is made to switch again, sealing them in the room as they activate the computer and open a door. Once the door opens, the player sees turrets start shooting at the room the player is in, but they are protected by glass. They must switch again to leave the room, which opened the door in the present as their past actions have altered the room. This leaves the player with a fire pit to cross by wall-running to get behind where the turrets were.
This approach of making sure the player is using their new abilities is effective as it doesn’t outright tell the player what to do, it uses techniques shown before and changes them slightly to get them more used to it.
In the next room, the player is tasked to go up a broken lift. Instead of taking the actual lift, they climb into the lift’s shaft and scale their way up from there using a combination of ziplines and wall running. The room itself is quite thin and yet long to show to the player that they have space to wall run-up. Having this verticality keeps the player involved in the platforming and movement, as having the same way of moving around can get boring in a fast-paced movement shooter, it’s good to use level design to keep the player interested and carry on to the next area.
More verticality can be seen after this one too as the player comes across a room that has a dead end. The room itself has a glass floor in the past, but in the present, there is a fire pit with the glass smashed. When the player looks through the glass floor they will see enemies that they want to kill. The way to pass this room is to time shift to fall towards the fire pit, then shift again to go through the glass floor, but don’t fall into the fire. The use of the glass floor is effective to show that there is somewhere underneath the player that they can access. Additionally, there are no enemies in this area so the player has a safe space where they can understand that the ability can be used to add to a level’s verticality.
The level utilizes all of what the player has started to understand about this new mechanic in the next room. There is a wall running sequence you need to shift between jumps back to back. In the past, there is a wall on the left and there’s a wall on the right in the present and so the player is required to shift mid-jump to continue. Once done, the player is greeted with yet another look at the big rings, which was the weenie they saw earlier in the level. The player is told that this is a weapon that the enemy is trying to activate earlier than they planned due to the player breaking in through shifting to the past, which leads to a shocking revelation – all this destruction the player has been seeing throughout the level is because of their actions by tampering with the past.
The part after this expands upon the verticality utility of the time shift mechanic, as the player finds a vent that they must fall and have to shift numerous times to reach the bottom. As before, the player has already been given a safe space to test this out and now is ready to do it a few times consecutively to progress. This is a good example of taking things the player has already encountered and shaking it up a bit to keep it still feeling fresh to them.
This level ends with the player reuniting with BT and running towards the big weapon we have seen a few times now, and then time and space come to a halt. Everything freezes and only the player can move. The player must use the frozen debris to wall-run and jump towards the core and access the data, disable the weapon and stop it from doing damage to a whole planet, which we find out was its initial purpose had they not activated it before it was ready. Freezing the time surprises the player and creates a lasting, very memorable moment as you platform through all these enemies.
In conclusion, Titanfall 2’s level ‘Effect and Cause’ Contains lots of clever level design that ties in with the mechanics introduced in this level. It teaches the player its mechanics through its layout and uses lighting, verticality, framing, vistas and weenies to tell a story, point the player to where they need to go and also deliver good gameplay at the same time.
References :
Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku (2021) “Let’s Talk About Titanfall 2’s Best Mission” Available Online: https://www.kotaku.com.au/2021/03/lets-talk-about-titanfall-2s-best-mission/ [Accessed 28/11/22]
Ben Plays Games (2021) “Examining Titanfall 2’s Time Travel Masterpiece” [Video] Available Online: https://youtu.be/CnnknQkEkis [Accessed 27/11/22]
GDC (2018) “Designing Unforgettable Titanfall Single Player Levels with Action Blocks” [Video] Available Online: https://youtu.be/CkHGuHd9BgU [Accessed 27/11/22]
Game Brain (2020) “The Making of Titanfall 2’s ‘Effect and Cause’, Revealed by Respawn Entertainment Senior Designer” [Video] Available Online: https://youtu.be/hPczwsRkVGk [Accessed 27/11/22]
