Titanfall, the debut First-Person Multiplayer Shooter by Respawn Entertainment, will be getting its first batch of DLC maps this May. Titled Expedition, the DLC pack will contain three new maps, and Respawn has detailed one them on the official Titanfall website.
The new map, called War Games, will take place in a virtual reality simulator that cobbles together sections from various existing Titanfall maps, namely Angel City, Rise and Airbase Sierra. Think of the Danger Room from X Men or the Holodeck from Star Trek.
Visually, the map will contrast greatly with other maps, with its smooth and abstract VR environments that look nothing like the gritty urban landscapes in every other map. “When brainstorming ideas for the first Titanfall DLC map pack, the concept of a level in the training mission simulator got a lot of people excited” writes designer Jason McCord, “Designers imagined a level that was smooth, clean and abstract – a perfect place to design easy-to-read battle spaces and wallrun paths.”
As McCord notes, War Games will feature many areas for players to perform parkour maneuvers, more so than any other map. Colored force fields in the map will allow for players to run along them, with arrows guiding them to key locations.
You can see from the image above that the map’s center is dense and features many tight spaces, while the surrounding perimeter is very open, allowing for Titan combat while infantry units do gravity-defying battles in the center.
The announcement also shows a heat map that compares the amount of parkour being performed in War Games (left) by playtesters compared to a regular map (right):
As testament of its diverse nature, War Games will have IMC players begin in an Airbase-style structure, while players fighting for the Militia will begin in an area based on Angel City, but in the cover of the night.
Aesthetically, the map will also have visual “glitches” to emphasize its virtual reality setting, with various parts of the map malfunctioning, revealing the innards of the artificial construct players are battling in.
The other two maps in Expedition are called Swampland and Runoff, and you can be sure that Respawn will have details on them in the days leading up to the DLC pack’s release. All in all, Expedition will cost $10, but players who own the $25 Titanfall Season Pass will automatically download it once it is released. The Season Pass will give players access to all Titanfall DLC down the road. Additionally, a new 2v2 Last Titan Standing mode is also on its way, though this new mode will be free for all players.
Titanfall was released for the Xbox One and PC on March 11, and the Xbox 360 on April 8. It was the highest selling game in the U.S. during the month of March, and received critical acclaim, with many hailing it as the next evolution in the First-Person Shooter.
Many employees of Respawn were former members of Call of Duty creator Infinity Ward, and defected from their Activision owned studio to Electronic Arts in 2010 over a legal dispute.