Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2 arrived on PlayStation 4 in the fall of 2016 and very quickly earned a reputation as one of the best-designed shooters of the entire generation. To the fast multiplayer action, where nimble, lightly armed pilots clash with giant combat mechs called Titans, developer Respawn Entertainment this time added a full single-player campaign, something the first game lacked entirely. The player leads pilot Jack Cooper and his Titan BT-7274, and it's the relationship between these two characters that forms the surprisingly tender, human core of an otherwise very loud and explosive game.

The campaign is still cited today as a textbook example of level design. Each mission introduces one new idea, follows it through to its full potential, and ends before it can wear thin, whether that idea is manipulating time, shifting gravity, or a modular factory that assembles its own rooms right before the player's eyes. The core of the experience, though, is movement: running along walls, sliding, and double jumps chain together into a fluid flow that gives combat unusual verticality. Titans act as a slower, heavier counterpart to pilot agility, offering several distinct chassis with their own loadouts and tactics, so even multiplayer has two clearly separate layers of play.

Technically, the title was one of the most polished games of its time on PS4. It held high smoothness even in dense firefights, had clean environmental readability, and remarkably strong sound design that gives every step a Titan takes real weight. Unfortunately the game launched into a crowded fall season among several major competitors and commercially fell well short of its potential, though critics received it very warmly. Over the years Titanfall 2 has become one of the most frequently recommended tips for PlayStation owners, and its movement system left its mark on a whole range of later action games. Even today the campaign feels fresh, keeps its pace from the first minute to the last, and a length of around six hours is a strength rather than a shortcoming.