Titanfall: people need to be broken in to its verticality, Respawn suggests

Titanfall's community manager Abbie Heppe has suggested that if you play it like a flat, boots on the ground shooter then you're going to have a rough time. She's explained why you'll need to think vertically in a new interview.

Speaking with OXM Heppe explained that Respawn's internal testing phase revealed some interesting play-styles. In short, people were playing it like Call of Duty. "We do tests with random players internally too, so you get that sort of usability feedback," she explained and added, "I've been working on the game, I know what this icon is, I know why this is happening - but does the average person who picks up the game understand that this means this? Stuff like when there's somebody on the back of the Titan, what you can do about it."

Dispensing some pointers, Heppe continued, "I still watch everybody come in and play it like they're playing a less vertical shooter. They come in, they hide behind cover, they pop out and shoot a dude, they run for the next cover. When we play we're immediately on the walls and roofs, running around like crazy.

"You have to break people in a bit, and then I see them jump into a wall and they're like 'oh, I just ran along it' - and by the end of the match they're going crazy and playing more like how I would play.

"Even if you tell them, 'No no no, you should do this', it takes them doing it themselves to realise that - 'oh, you really can! Even after seeing the trailers and the gameplay videos we've released, you'd think [people would know], but it's about breaking people out of how they've always been playing."

To be fair, Titanfall's base control scheme feels a lot like Call of Duty, but as I said in my own hands-on preview, once you realise just how vertically adept your pilot is, you'll never want to return to street level again. It's a blast.

Did you manage to play it at Eurogamer Expo last week? If so, let us know what you think below.