E3 2016: 10 Things We Learned From Titanfall 2's Single Player Trailer

We all knew it was coming, but Titanfall 2 still managed to surprise the EA conference when it debuted on Sunday, and for good reason too.

Former Call of Duty developers Respawn Entertainment have been working hard since the first Titanfall graced the X-Box One and PC back in 2013, taking what once was a multiplayer-only experience and turning it into a truly heterogeneous IP, complete with what looks to be a fully fleshed out single player campaign that gamers everywhere thought was going the way of the Dodo.

Indeed, the presence of a character-driven sci-fi narrative in one of the year's biggest releases would appear to alleviate fears that companies and studios are doing away with single player experiences altogether, and that is extremely welcomed; you only have to look at the reaction to the trailer for confirmation of that fact.

Multiplayer is still clearly the main event in this case, so it remains to be seen just how long this campaign will be. Regardless, it's hard to argue that it doesn't look impressive, taking what was originally a very detached gaming experience and imbuing it with a sense of emotion extremely derivative of films like The Iron Giant. Heck, you can even see a few hints of The Last Guardian there, but whether or not Respawn can make players adore their wee mech like Team Ico do a Gryphon-Pup hybrid is an entirely different matter altogether.

What does matter is that this is one IP players are going to want to pay attention to, and as old heavy hitters like Call of Duty face an unprecedented level of backlash, time will only tell whether the franchises of yesteryear will be able to compete.

In Respawn's case, they may have outdone their old work and then some...

Military-techno jargon aside, the main mech of Titanfall 2 looks to be far more human than its tank-like predecessors were. Designated BT27274, this rebel mech has seen an awful lot, with the opening of the trailer depicting what can only be described as a massacre. Through narration we can infer that, in the fray, the AI inside the mech bonds with an ordinary infantryman and that's how the story begins.

What's particularly interesting though however is the fact that, in what sounds like a debrief, the robot seems to have defied some sort of protocol. Think of Asimov's three laws of robotics, but some twisted militaristic version. For whatever reason it would seem as though the chain of command is totally cool with AI Skynet-ing itself as long as it doesn't contravene with their goals, so, ignoring the moral implications of such a move, we can at least assume that this BT fella is an alright death mech.

While I very much doubt that BT will be delivering speech in an emotive manner, I'd be immensely surprised if some sort of friendship didn't form between the mech and its pilot. Let's just hope that Cooper will actually have a voice though, as I can't imagine that the silent protagonist trope will have endured this far into 2016, unless of course it's done in an ironic fashion.