Opinion: Titanfall 2 Pre-Alpha Test Weekend 1

The ‘Titan’ doesn’t fall far from the tree in this 'pre-alpha technical test' from Respawn Entertainment.
Long winded name for ‘beta’ aside I enjoyed my time with Titanfall 2’s online component; its sharp, fun, fast paced and the mechanics were bang on the money. The only bad taste left in my mouth was that I’ve already taken a considerable bite from this particular sandwich already.
A sequel always walks the line between the old and the new and much like the Call of Duty games before it, Titanfall has that same lather, rinse, repeat feel to it despite its grandeur.
For a ‘Pre-Alpha Technical Test’ (can we stop calling it that, it’s a beta, plain and simple) the game runs smooth and the visuals are great on both PS4 and the XBone. I just feel, haven’t we been here already? The improvements to gameplay are many though, such as the simply brilliant grappling hook which makes map traversal an absolute joy and makes for some brilliant and hilarious miscalculated gun battles, but the crux of the game is the ‘quickdraw’ twitch shooting which plays out as you’d expect. It’s easy to take in many a kill and most the guns feel and shoot the same apart from obvious ones like the sniper rifle and rocket launchers.
The big sell for Titanfall is of course the 'Titans’; giant mechanical assault robots that can be piloted by the player or can be sentient and fight for you.
This is the first weekend of 2 betas and the main game modes we were treated to were 'Pilots vs Pilots' your standard player vs player death match and 'Bounty Hunter' a mode in which teams of both real players and AI fight it out… I personally hated the AI in the first game and sadly still do here. I play single player to fight AI, when I’m online I feel they get in the way of the real satisfaction of taking down actual 12 year olds!
I digress, I actually enjoyed the pilots mode more for that fact alone.
A major change is that now, rather than the Titans being earned periodically they must be earned through skill in game.
I’m still unsure how this will balance, if a player or two is doing well, then gets a Titan, surely they will just stomp the opposing team and I felt this was the case on my limited time with the game.
I’m still not sold on TF2 after this weekend, maybe next weekend will change my mind or sink the nail in the coffin of Titanfall’s mechanical graveyard. I’m still holding out hope for the story mode.