An announcement made by Respawn just a few hours ago revealed that Titanfall’s multiplayer mode will support 12 players, in a 6vs6 match-up (more on this on our Titanfall 6vs6 announcement coverage). This news was received with surprisingly negative fan feedback. Fans were unhappy with the small number of players involved in the game’s competitive multiplayer, expecting larger player numbers per match.
Respawn was quick to responds, and decisive enough to set things straight. According to their response on NeoGAF, they are confident that the 6vs6 mode is engaging and fun enough, and they argue that enough thought and design went into ensuring that the multiplayer of Titanfall provides a great experience. Which is logical, considering that the entire motto behind the Titanfall project is “Multiplayer is our campaign”.
“Lots of armchair game designing going on in here. I’d suggest playing before judging a something as insignificant as a number in a vacuum. Vince is right – we tried a huge amount of playercounts (all the way down to 1v1 and up quite high) and designed the maps, gameplay mechanics, and entire experience around which played best. If anyone wants to chase the numbers game, perhaps we’re not the experience they’re after? I dunno.”
Their defense is more than viable, as it’s hard to judge a book by its cover. If anything, most competitive multiplayer e-sport games are based around 5-man teams. You want an example of a successful shooter that follows that model? Counter-Strike! Like it or not, CS has been in the e-sports spotlight for over a decade, and it’s a testimony that you don’t need 32 players to have engaging fights online. Another good example would be Left 4 Dead, which is 4vs4 based, and still manages to be engaging, fun and brutally difficult without proper coordination.
And let’s not limit ourselves to FPS games. What about MOBAs? Dota 2, League of Legends or HoN are all prime examples of what 5vs5 multiplayer is capable of. There’s a good reason while millions of people are playing these games and can’t seem to be getting enough of them. And, frankly, efficient coordination between more than 5-6 people in a team is extremely hard to achieve, especially in a dynamic environment of a FPS such as Titanfall.
As far as the AI concerned (many Titanfall fans are worried that the AI will take over control of their mechs, and assume that the AI is the equivalent of a bot), Respawn also provides some answers:
“And FYI, for amount of stuff happening at once in a map you’ll be hard pressed to find a game that keeps the action higher. I literally have to stop playing every few rounds because my heart just can’t take it some times. Remember, you can get out of your Titan and let it roam on AI mode – meaning there can be 12 Pilots wallrunning around, 12 Titans stomping below, and dozens of AI doing their thing.Oh, and I keep seeing people thinking we’ve got “bots” when we talk about AI. Thats not how they are. The AI in Titanfall are not replacements for human players. Our playercount is not 6v6 because of AI – AI play their own role in the game and are a different class of character in the game.”
Now, I admit that I personally haven’t tried out Titanfall, and I don’t feel like I should needlessly defend Respawn (they seem to be doing a good enough job at that themselves). I can’t say if it’s any good or if it’s terrible. But I’m not going to get on the flame-train because the multiplayer supports only 12 players. It all comes down to how the gameplay is designed, how it’s balanced, and how level design influences that player count. We have had countless examples of great and poor level design. We will have to wait and see the game in action before we can reach a verdict. Until then, I see no point in debating whether or not Titanfall’s multiplayer will fail or not.