Parents' Guide to Titanfall 2 (PEGI 16)

In collaboration with the Games Rating Authority, here’s our parent’s guide to Titanfall 2.

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Titanfall 2 is a shooting game featuring Titans, giant robotic ‘mechs’ piloted by human operators.

The game is played from a first person perspective and the player takes control of a Titan pilot, engaging in combat both as a human combatant and in control of a Titan. Gameplay revolves around the differing abilities of humans and Titans, with the humans small and agile while the Titans are large, powerful and slow. Unlike the first Titanfall game, Titanfall 2 has a singleplayer campaign, but the focus is still very much on multiplayer competitive combat.

Titanfall 2’s mechs draw comparison with other mech-themed games such as Hawken and MechAssault, but its asymmetric combat between humans and giant opponents is also reminiscent of Evolve.

In the UK and Europe, PEGI rates Titanfall 2 PEGI 16, suitable for age 16 plus, for realistic looking violence.

The Games Rating Authority expands on its PEGI details by saying that Titanfall 2 features ‘realistic and reasonably bloody violence’ and that the player is armed with weapons including ‘pistols, rifles and rocket launchers’. When shot, human characters will fall down with ‘a moderate blood effect’ while the titans ‘can use high-powered weapons to blast human characters apart into blood and generic gibs.’

The Titanfall series is set in a future where humanity has spread across the galaxy and a loose coalition called the Frontier Militia is the only defence against predatory intergalactic corporations. The single player campaign casts the player as Jack Cooper, a Militia rifleman who is thrown into the war with the Interstellar Mining Corporation along with a Titan called BT.

Respawn Entertainment developed the first Titanfall, and was formed by veterans of Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward.

Titanfall 2 is available for PS4, XBox One or Windows PC for around £40 or $60. All downloadable content for the game will be free. PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold are required for online play on consoles.

Titanfall 2’s campaign will take around six to eight hours to complete, dependent on ability, but the meat of the game is in the multiplayer. With levelling up, a variety of game types and the promise of further downloadable maps being made available for free, Titanfall 2 should last as long as the multiplayer remains fun and popular.

Titanfall 2’s universe is the wild west blown up to intergalactic scale, a vast frontier where life is dangerous, but the lack of laws also gives people freedom. There’s a certain amount of libertarian fantasy to this world without rules and government, where the only military force isn’t a standing army but a Militia brought together from disparate people and groups. In a deregulated universe the major forces, aside from the Militia, are corporations, either as predatory enemies or suppliers of weapons, corporate power being a theme of modern science fiction that doesn’t seem to be in any danger of losing its relevance soon.

Titanfall 2’s appeal lies in combining two complementary power fantasies, allowing players to take on the role of both fast, agile pilots, running, boosting and grappling around at high speed, and also seizing the controls of Titans to stomp and destroy with heavier weapons. That these two kinds of play work together, and can be fluidly switched between, creates inventive and exciting gunplay both in the extensive multiplayer options and a short but inventive single player campaign. The result is a game that’s not just a good sequel for fans but a strong jumping on point for newcomers.