Summary
The reveal earlier this year that fans almost got anotherTitanfallgame before it was canceled and turned into the excellentApex Legendscame as a shock to many, especially those that holdTitanfall 2as the gold standard of single-player FPS campaigns. While the news is certainly disappointing and no doubt creates “what-if” scenarios about theTitanfall 3that could’ve been, in what is becoming a trend among indie developers, a smaller studio is stepping up to fill the gap left by the absence of a proper sequel.Sprawl, the new indie FPS from developer MAETH, absolutely scratches the itch for moreTitanfall.
Taking place in a cyberpunk dystopia with more than its fair share ofGhost In The Shellinfluence,Sprawlis a new entry into the growing Movement Shooter subgenre of FPSes. And while it’s not technically a Boomer Shooter per se, it definitely carries a lot of the same DNA of some of the best in the genre. But aside from its genre characteristics and aesthetic,Sprawlabsolutely nails the feel of some ofTitanfall 2’s best moments with a cleverly implemented wall-run mechanic that rewards players for using momentum and positioning to their advantage in combat.
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Sprawl Draws From Its Collective Influences to Become a Must-Play FPS
Sprawl’s opening moments smartly emphasize the importance andutility of the wall-run mechanic, cementing into place its importance as the protagonist’s main means of both traversal and survival. Thanks to an intuitive gamepad control scheme that uses the shoulder buttons to jump and allows players to have three successive jumps before falling, it’s possible to get quickly acclimated to the system and start zipping aroundSprawl’s brutalist future metropolis in no time. By the time the first mission starts folding in the actual shooting mechanics, players already have a strong grip on the game’s movement.
While theTitanfallcomparisons shine through in the game’s movement and wall-running, Respawn’s legendary FPS is far from the only major influence onSprawl’s gameplay. Similar to bothDoom(2016) andDoom Eternal, successive non-lethal hits on enemies result in foes becoming stunned and surrounded by a glowing aura. And justlike the newerDoomgames, this is the perfect opportunity for players to rush in and use a melee attack to instantly drop foes and get rewarded with a confetti-style shower of health and ammo pick-ups. Not only doesSprawlabsolutely nail its primary movement mechanic, but its use of push-forward combat feels just as satisfying.
Movement inTitanfall 2was certainly smoother than that ofSprawl, but one factor that the game edges out its inspiration on is its sense of speed. Very much in the same vein as othermovement shooters likeUltrakillandTurbo Overkill, the sheer speed and velocity of the protagonist once players get into the groove of wall-running, jumping, and shooting is almost dizzying. Thankfully,Sprawlaccounts for this by giving players a bullet-time mechanic in the form of Adrenaline. Taking down foes rewards pick-ups that refill the player’s Adrenaline meter, rewarding players' efficiency with a consistently full meter to perfectly line up headshots.
Sprawlpulls from a variety of influences to become something greater than the sum of its parts. The developers at MAETH clearly have reverence for some of the greatest games in the genre, and that reverence shines through in the polish and precision ofSprawl’s gameplay. Even though the leads at Respawn have expressed thatTitanfall 3is a possibilityfor the studio down the line, nothing has been revealed as of yet to suggest that the title is actively in development or even on the radar. In the meantime, games likeSprawlare here to provide the same momentum-based thrills afforded to players in the best moments ofTitanfall 2andDoom Eternal, reminding players why these franchises are so revered in the first place.
