Freedom of movement requires few players in Titanfall

After the announcement that Titanfall had a player cap of 6vs6 human players, there was quite an outcry in the community, which took the news in a largely negative way. However, Respawn Entertainment reckons this is not the case at all; speaking with Polygon, Lead Designer Justin Hendry explained that the peculiar freedom of movement available in Titanfall makes higher player numbers simply uncomfortable.

The higher the player count, the more uncomfortable the game gets.

Unlike in most games where you can sit there and guard the two ways in, in Titanfall the guy can come in through the window right behind you, he can come from the window to your left, he can come from straight ahead, he can come in from the stairway and he can come in from the doorway, or whatever.

Essentially there are five directions you can get killed from and the higher that player count, the more likely you are to get killed from behind and the more difficult it is to kind of manage your surroundings

Having actually played the game at Gamescom 2013, I can see where they come from. Moreover, I wholeheartedly sympathize with the fact that bigger does not mean better at all - in fact, while in the past I used to yearn for mega battles such as the ones found in Battlefield or Planetside, right now I’m having more fun with Killzone: Shadow Fall, since having so many variables such as vehicles, huge player numbers can make battles effectively too chaotic.

At any rate, don’t despair, as the AI should provide the sense of a full-fledged battle, even though AI enemies aren’t nearly as threatening as human players from what I’ve seen in my Titanfall hands-on time. In a couple months, everyone will be able to make up their mind anyway after the release.