TITANFALL 2

You don’t get to the cult classic status without being good as hell

There are rare few games done dirtier than Titanfall 2. Sequel to a risky new IP, doomed by a release sandwiched between Call of Duty and Battlefield, usurped by its own battle royale spin-off, and nigh-unplayable for the last year thanks to an absurd conspiracy of hackers and DDoS attacks, Titanfall 2 was perhaps always destined to be a cult classic.

Of course, you don’t get to the cult classic status without being good as hell. And on revisiting Respawn’s 2016 mech-n-parkour-’em-up over the winter break, I was reminded just how joyous it is to slide, grapple and wall-run across Titanfall 2’s battlefields.

See, when Respawn debuted with wall-running soldiers, it tore up the FPS rulebook. The first game might not have set sales records, but when even is nicking your far-future acrobatics, you can confidently say you’ve made your mark.