History VideoGame / Titanfall2

[[caption-width-right:231:''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXwdWuSuiYA From one fight onto the next, two outlaws ride with weapons flexed. One is quick, the other's tall - together, they'll kill them all]]''.]]

** The GEN7 multiplayer patch bears a certain resemblance to the N7 Stripe of ''VideoGame/MassEffect''.

* TookALevelInKindness: Blisk in ''Titanfall 1'' was a more AmoralAfrikaaner, endorsing the IMC's wholesale slaughter of civilian populations to root out the Militia and far more of a psycho who goes after [=MacMiller=] out of vengeance. Here, he's openly contemptous of the IMC involving civilians and trying underhanded tricks, and even [[spoiler:spares the protagonist both to spite the IMC and out of geniune respect for the protagonist's skills]].

** When Blisk is written out, he claims to be leaving the planet to go handle business elsewhere, but no explanation is made of ''how'' he plans to leave. That's a problematic PlotHole given that within the next 180 seconds Cooper and BT cause an EarthShatteringKaboom.

* EasterEgg: Loch Ness plushies can be found in the various levels. One particularly easy one to find is in the multiplayer map "Relic", hiding inside a toilet. On the opposite end of the scale, a plushie from the campaign level "Into the Abyss" requires scaling up a rock face not on the intended path and eventually climbing on top of the underground building you're supposed to enter.

* EasyLevelTrick: The achievements "I Know Kung Fu" (kill three enemies in a row while wallrunning in the campaign) and "Power Slide" (kill three enemies in a row while sliding in the campaign) are made vastly easier by using [[spoiler:the Smart Pistol you have for the first half of the last level. Killing enemies is far easier when your gun is basically a headshot aimbot.]]

** In the same level, once BT [[spoiler:is fitted into a new Vanguard chassis, players gain the Legion loadout, allowing them to tear through hordes of enemy Titans. Justified since the loadout is crucial to beating the level when the game pits players against four to five Titans at a time.]]

* FriendlyFireproof: Your weapons cannot harm your teammates, even if they can harm ''you'' if you get caught in their effects. This can lead to situation such as blowing yourself up with a grenade simply because another pilot stepped in front of you just as you threw or fired it. But you can also do tricks like sticking a burning Firestar onto a friendly pilot and having them "give the enemy a hug".

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Jack is heroic version of the trope. By the end of the game, [[spoiler: Rifleman 3rd Class turned Acting Pilot Jack Cooper has established his Pilot credentials, taken out the majority of the Apex Predator mercenaries by himself, defeated battalions of IMC infantry, mecha and Titans, cost the MegaCorp billions of dollars in losses and saved Harmony's 40 million citizens from destruction]].

** The rodeo mechanics have been streamlined in comparison to the first game. You don't have to pump mag after mag of [[ScratchDamage barely-effective small arms fire]] into the exposed hatch. Instead, the pilot will automatically pull out Titan's battery, or put a grenade into battery slot if it was empty.
* ArcWords: "Trust me."
* BackStab: Holding the melee button behind enemy infantry will trigger a brief execution from a third-person perspective. These executions are:

* BackFromTheDead: The multiplayer Faction profiles indicate that the multiplayer takes place after the single-player campaign, and that Ash is still around because the [=IMC=] rebuilt her after her defeat at your hands in the campaign. Which is quite a trick, considering [[spoiler: her Titan got blown up, then the facility she was in got blown up, and then the planet it was on got blown up shortly later.]]
** Even more absurd if you consider the alternate chain of events, where [[spoiler: she got ripped out of her Titan and crushed to death by BT, followed by the facility she was in blowing up, then the planet blowing up.]]

** The Titan roster have been expanded from original three to six, each with fixed loadout, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. This makes them more readable at a glance and allows player to adjust their tactics accordingly.

** The "Kraber-AP" SniperRifle: although it has one of the lowest magazine capacity of all bullet-based, non-Anti-Titan weapons in the game (4 rounds) and the slowest rate of fire for all sniper rifles, not to mention having noticeable projectile travel time a new bullet drop to compensate for on the fly, it deals a whopping 100 damage. To translate, that means that if you manage to hit a human-size target in any part of their body at any range they WILL die.

* DoppelgangerSpin: The "Holo Pilot" Tactical Ability sends out three holographic duplicates of a Pilot in different directions when activated.

* EjectEjectEject: In Multiplayer, if your Titan is in its doomed state, triple-pressing the Use key will eject your pilot and self-destruct the Titan, setting off [[YouNukeEm a nuclear explosion]] if the Titan has that kit. The ejectee is launched very high up into the air, making them difficult to hit with most weapons.

* {{Nerf}}:
** The suppressor attachment on primary weapons, which made the fast, mobile Pilots nigh-untracable in the first game, is absent in ''Titanfall 2''. Pistol sidearms still retain it, however.
** Players can no longer forcibly {{Self Destruct|Mechanism}} their Titan to activate its Nuclear Ejection kit like in the first game: the only way to do so is by having their Titan entering into its "doomed" state first, which puts them at danger of being executed by enemy Titans.

* TimeTravel: [[spoiler:The Fold Weapon the IMC created based on alien technology causes space-time disturbances, allowing Jack and BT to travel back in time when they research the Fold Weapon research base]].

* WeAREStrugglingTogether: An enemy version - it's clear the Apex Predators do not care much at all for the IMC grunts, openly considering them CannonFodder. Blisk, in particular, loathes [[BigBad Marder]] (unlike his professional respect for Graves), and [[spoiler:lets Cooper go because Marder hadn't paid him to kill Cooper, leading to the Ark's destruction.]]

** Although Sarah, Barker and Blisk return from ''Titanfall'', there's no mention of Bish, Marcus Graves or Spyglass in the sequel.

** Later, it's part of the reason [[spoiler:Blisk spares you in the climax - you slaughtered his comrades in fair battles, and he considers that an impressive feat, owing to his "you kill me, you're better" philosophy. He decides to let you live another day (to Marder's annoyance, since killing Cooper was NotInMyContract) and leaves you an Apex Predator calling card as a token of respect before he leaves.]]

* BottomlessMagazines: Played straight in Multiplayer, but averted in the Campaign. An odd version of it also happens involving [[ColossusClimb Rodeo Attacks]] in a SchrodingersGun way: Which form of attack (yanking the battery or InsertGrenadeHere) it takes depends solely on whether or not the attacking pilot is already carrying a battery. So multiple pilots can each take turns pulling out the single battery of the same Titan.
* BrainUploading: According to ''[[WordOfSaintPaul The Art of Titanfall]]'', Simulacrum are human minds in robot bodies. These characters include Ash and the other Spectre pilots playable in multiplayer. It's left unsaid how exactly it was done, or whether or not it means a human brain inside the chassis.
* CallBack: At one point Jack and BT come across a destroyed Militia Titan and its dead Pilot. BT mentions the Pilot fought bravely in the Fracture fuel raid, a reference to the first map of the single player "campaign" of the original ''Titanfall''. This could be interpreted as indicating the dead Pilot is the player character from ''Titanfall''. BT also mentions that Jack was one of the Grunts fighting on the ground during Fracture, but took a nasty head injury and can't remember it all that well.
** The ship the player initially arrives at Typhon on is named the ''MCS James [=MacAllan=]'', after the character of the original game [[spoiler: who sacrificed himself in Mission 8]]. His portrait is also on the Angel City multiplayer map wanted posters, [[spoiler: where he is listed as [[HeroicSacrifice 'deceased']]]].
** There's another subtle one fully contained within the game itself; at the unscheduled end of the tutorial sequence, you call in a Vanguard designated FS-1041. Later on, after [[spoiler:BT's primary/current chassis is rendered inoperable, the replacement you call in also designated FS-1041]].

** The very first time BT performs a FastballSpecial with you, he reassures you with "trust me, I have done the math." This line is repeated [[spoiler:at the very end of the game when he reassures Sarah that you will be at the rendezvous point even though she doesn't see how he could make it, foreshadowing that he will perform a HeroicSacrifice and throw you to safety.]]

* ChekhovsGun:
** In the training mission, after Jack is ejected from the simulation, one can see Captain Lastimosa putting a knife into the "head" of BT-7274 before handing it to BT's chassis and letting him attach it. [[spoiler:The "head" is BT's SERE kit, and Lastimosa not only had a knife but also a Smart Pistol in it, which come ''really'' handy during a sticky weaponless situation late in the campaign.]]
** [[spoiler: When Cooper travels through time, BT copies his AI functions into his helmet to continue providing assistance. As {{the stinger}} shows, BT's copied AI survived in Jack's helmet, creating a SequelHook.]]

** Players can no longer forcibly {{Self Destruct|Mechanism}} their Titan to activate its Nuclear Ejection kit like in the first game: the only way to do so is by having their Titan entering into its "doomed" state first.

* NoOSHACompliance: The manufacturing facilities used by the IMC are quite lacking of safety features, even if the facilities are staffed by mostly robots. Ash actually expects the giant underground factory to kill Cooper because of how hazardous the production line is.

** Two of the DLC gun skins are the [[Film/TropicThunder Lead Farmer]] and [[Series/ThePunisher Headhunter]].

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Like in the first game, Titans automatically bypass low cover or minor obstructions like Grunts' drop pod.
** Changes made to Rodeo mechanics could be seen as this in comparison to the first game. You don't have to pump mag after mag of [[ScratchDamage barely-effective small arms fire]] into the exposed hatch. Instead, the pilot will automatically pull out Titan's battery, or put a grenade into battery slot if it was empty.

* BossBattle: Several throughout the campaign, courtesy of the Apex Predators.

* GimmickLevel: "Effect and Cause" has you recover [[spoiler:Major Anderson's TimeTravel device. You have to [[Franchise/BackToTheFuture think fouth-dimensionally]] to navigate the complex, but you get to do it for one level before you discard the device, and it doesn't show up again.]]

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Jack, InUniverse. By the end of the game, [[spoiler: Rifleman 3rd Class turned Acting Pilot Jack Cooper has established his Pilot credentials, taken out the majority of the Apex Predator mercenaries by himself, defeated battalions of IMC infantry, mecha and Titans, cost the MegaCorp billions of dollars in losses and saved Harmony's 40 million citizens from destruction]].

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The [[TakingYouWithMe Nuclear Core detonation]] Titan ability can kill the ejecting pilot, if they are unable to clear the blast radius themselves. [[labelnote:Examples]]The usual reason for this happening is because of overhead obstacles, due to the ejection trajectory always being straight up. A properly timed and placed Gravity Star or Grapple can also keep an ejecting pilot from clearing the blast radius as well[[/labelnote]]

* JackOfAllTrades: BT's default loadout "Expedition" in the campaign mirrors the generic ''Titanfall'' arsenal, making it a good, all-around choice and a useful means of easing players used to the previous game into the current campaign. Subverted in multiplayer; the six Titans are specialized and have a specific theme; their basic abilities and weaponry can no longer be customized. Players can no longer have a Titan using a rapid-fire anti-personnel machinegun as a primary weapon with tracking missiles to use against enemy Titans, for example.
** Now double-subverted with the inclusion of the new DLC Titan, Monarch. Monarch is canonically based on BT's "Vanguard" chassis, and gameplay-wise, plays a lot like him, complete with the combo of machinegun and rockets. What makes Monarch different is its unique "Upgrade Core": while it starts off relatively underpowered, as Monarch gains kills it develops new abilities and improves its stats, choosing one of 3 improvements from each of 3 tiers. The right pickups can even give it the familiar homing missiles and extra-deadly electric smoke... Then again, other ones could turn it into a Titan ''healer'', of all things, stealing shield energy from enemies and dispensing it back to its teammates.

* KillItWithFire: Scorch in a nutshell: his entire kit is built around burning targets as efficiently as possible, creating walls of fire to ward off enemy movement and launching canisters of flammable gas to create explosions that leave behind pools of fire for continuous damage.

* MacrossMissileMassacre: BT's standard loadout gives him several lock-on missiles.

* {{Nerf}}

* PurelyAestheticGender: You can choose a female model for any of the tool personas in Multiplayer. It's hard to tell even in the heat of combat(females wear nearly the exact same gear, just look slightly smaller), so even the "Aesthetic" part is kinda moot, too.

* RobotBuddy: One of Respawn's goals for the campaign is to highlight the bond and relationship between a Pilot and their Titan. Exemplified when BT establishes a neural link with Jack when the latter uses the Titan for the first time.

* ShoutOut

* SmartGun

* SwordBeam: Ronin's "Arc Wave" creates a wave of electricity from where he slashes his sword onto the ground

* TeleFrag: A pilot coming out of Phase Shift on top of an enemy will kill them, though it's not easy to do this on the fly. One of the executions even has your pilot do this deliberately.

* ViolationOfCommonSense: Regarding submachine guns, these weapons suffer little accuracy penalties while hip-firing, thus using the aim down sights won't make much difference, making them practical for firing on the move.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Although Sarah, Barker and Blisk return from ''Titanfall'', there's no mention of Bish, Marcus Graves or Spyglass in the sequel.

* WorthyOpponent: The first IMC Titan you face compliments you when you start doing damage.

* ButThouMust: Because BT's original Pilot, Captain Tai Lastimosa, is killed early in the campaign, [[TakeUpMySword Jack is forced to fulfill their objectives]] after his mentor links him with BT; {{Lampshaded}} by the AI when questioned by Sarah on who authorized this, citing Lastimosa "had no other options" after rejoining the Militia fleet.

* The achievement for completing the Sideways Town level is titled [[Film/{{Inception}} "Incepted"]].

* PhyrricVictory: It's entirely possible to, at least in the context of the game's world, suffer one of these in multiplayer by winning the match only to be annihilated by the enemy team, have them all escape, and live to fight another day in the Epilogue.

* {{Animesque}}: More apparent than the first game. The setting, the more outlandish Titan designs and abilities, the use of the Pulse Kunai, shurikens in the grenade slot, subtly more bizarre weapons such as the Alternator, Jack being a rookie who [[FallingIntoTheCockpit fell into the cockpit]], and the over-the-top action certainly give off the vibe of an action anime at times.

* LimitBreak: Upon reaching 100% of the Titan Meter, all Titans can gain access to their respective "Core Ability".

* AbsentAliens: The wolf-like howlers from the first game return, albeit as actual enemies this time, as do the dragonoid creatures (albeit as background scenery), but sapient life remains unseen. [[spoiler:It's implied the power source for the IMC's Fold Weapon is some sort of ImportedAlienPhlebotinum, although there's no definitive proof.]]

* {{Animesque}}: More apparent than the first game. The setting, the outlandish Titan designs, subtly more bizarre weapons such as the Alternator, and the over-the-top action certainly give off the vibe of an action anime at times.

* {{Animesque}}: More apparent than the first game. The setting, the outlandish Titan designs, and the over-the-top action certainly give off the vibe of an action anime at times.

** The very first time BT performs a FastballSpecial with you, he reassures you with "trust me, I have done the math." This line is repeated [[spoiler:at the very end of the game when he reassures Sarah that you will be at the randevu point even though she doesn't see how he could make it, foreshadowing that he will perform a HeroicSacrifice and throw you to safety.]]

** The very first time BT performs a FastballSpecial with you, he reassures you with "trust me, I have done the math." This line is repeated [[spoiler:at the very end of the game when he reassures Sarah that you will be at the randevu point even though she doesn't see how he could make it, foreshadowing that he will perform a HeroicSacrifice and throw you to safety.]]]

** The ship the player initially arrives at Typhon on is named the ''MCS James [=MacAllan=]'', after the player character of the original game. His portrait is also on the Angel City multiplayer map wanted posters, [[spoiler: where he is listed as [[HeroicSacrifice 'deceased']]]].

* {{Hammerspace}}: You can change BT's loadout in Campaign at any time and he just pulls out his new guy from...somewhere. Likewise when you reload, he just spontaneously generates a new magazine of whatever gun you're using.