Titanfall 2 is all about dynamics. It knows when to move at breakneck speed. It knows when to give us time to breathe. In both the single-player campaign and multiplayer, Titanfall 2 is more carefully crafted than its predecessor, making the build-up to the showdown as exciting as the event itself. In many ways, though, it’s just as dynamic and fluid as the first Titanfall; it’s a much better one-shooter.

Like Respawn Entertainment’s first game, Titanfall 2 revolves around two levels of combat: traditional gunfights between human combatants and clashes between giant bipedal mechs. For grounded pilots, Titanfall 2 feels more like a traditional shooter, albeit one with flawless controls and a fluid movement system. The first Titanfall started the trend towards motion-oriented shooters, and the sequel saw the series regain its place at the top of the pack. The loop of sliding, double-jumping, leaping over ledges and running along walls to flank enemies is exhilarating and intuitive.

Then it’s time to summon a mechanical ally from orbit. When he falls to the ground, everything changes. Because it’s when these two levels get caught in a tug of war that Titanfall 2 truly shines. What was once an evenly matched battle becomes a David vs. Goliath scenario. A pilot scurries for cover, fires a missile, glides along a nearby wall, dodges a barrage of missiles from an enemy robot, activates a cloaking device and enters a nearby canyon to give the command to his Titan.

This sequence is intense, but common in Titanfall 2. Momentum often shifts as one team seizes control of the battlefield, only to be put back on the back foot again when the other team finds a weak spot and attacks.

This is key in Titanfall 2. Today, combat requires more foresight and intelligence than ever before. Humans may sprint across the map with grappling hooks and phase-warping ninja mechs slice through laser-driven robot warriors, but beneath the surface lies hidden nuance. Despite the bombast and spectacle, Titanfall 2 is a thinking person’s shooter.

The sequel’s new Titans embody this feeling. Instead of the first game’s simple light, medium and heavy tanks, Titanfall 2 features six different walking tanks with their own weapons. They’re almost like superheroes: one attacks with a thermite launcher and flame attack, while the other fires at hapless foes with a chest-mounted laser cannon.

Titanfall 2 is all about dynamics. It knows when to move at breakneck speed. It knows when to give us time to breathe. In both the single-player campaign and multiplayer, Titanfall 2 is more carefully crafted than its predecessor, making the build-up to the showdown as exciting as the event itself. In many ways, though, it’s just as dynamic and fluid as the first Titanfall; it’s a much better one-shooter.

Like Respawn Entertainment’s first game, Titanfall 2 revolves around two levels of combat: traditional gunfights between human combatants and clashes between giant bipedal mechs. For grounded pilots, Titanfall 2 feels more like a traditional shooter, albeit one with flawless controls and a fluid movement system. The first Titanfall started the trend towards motion-oriented shooters, and the sequel saw the series regain its place at the top of the pack. The loop of sliding, double-jumping, leaping over ledges and running along walls to flank enemies is exhilarating and intuitive.

Then it’s time to summon a mechanical ally from orbit. When he falls to the ground, everything changes. Because it’s when these two levels get caught in a tug of war that Titanfall 2 truly shines. What was once an evenly matched battle becomes a David vs. Goliath scenario. A pilot scurries for cover, fires a missile, glides along a nearby wall, dodges a barrage of missiles from an enemy robot, activates a cloaking device and enters a nearby canyon to give the command to his Titan.

This sequence is intense, but common in Titanfall 2. Momentum often shifts as one team seizes control of the battlefield, only to be put back on the back foot again when the other team finds a weak spot and attacks.

This is key in Titanfall 2. Today, combat requires more foresight and intelligence than ever before. Humans may sprint across the map with grappling hooks and phase-warping ninja mechs slice through laser-driven robot warriors, but beneath the surface lies hidden nuance. Despite the bombast and spectacle, Titanfall 2 is a thinking person’s shooter.

The sequel’s new Titans embody this feeling. Instead of the first game’s simple light, medium and heavy tanks, Titanfall 2 features six different walking tanks with their own weapons. They’re almost like superheroes: one attacks with a thermite launcher and flame attack, while the other fires at hapless foes with a chest-mounted laser cannon.

Then there’s Last Titan Standing, a match that ends when the last mech is destroyed. This is the most methodical mode, as there are no respawns, forcing team members to assess the composition of the enemy team and approach gunfights carefully. Pilot vs Pilot forgoes the titular robots, focusing instead on fluid human-vs-human combat, but Titanfall 2 is wild and exciting even without the giant monsters.

That expert attention to pacing and dynamics carries over to Titanfall 2’s single-player mode. While the first Titanfall relegated the story to a dedicated story-driven multiplayer playlist, the sequel lets you take part in a standalone campaign with its own plot, characters, and set pieces. It follows paramilitary gunfighter-turned-pilot Jack Cooper and his sentient Titan BT-7274 as they battle the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation and the mercenary group Apex Predator.

Unfortunately, the writing style has a lot of room for improvement. The main antagonist is an outlandish villain, and the plot ends abruptly and unexpectedly. There is often humor and emotion between Cooper and BT, but the jokes become routine when too much focus is placed on the Titan’s inability to understand human language and idioms. There are moments where you feel a real connection with the Titans, and this story is full of heart. But those moments are few and far between.

But in terms of design and pacing, the five-hour campaign is brilliant. It starts with a failed mission on the planet Typhon, which takes a little too long to do anything out of the ordinary, but then the mission picks up speed and scope, culminating in ship battles in the sky, attacks of frenzied Titans, and an old school boss fight.

These boss fights pit you against other Titan variants, and as you progress through the missions, you’ll unlock all of Titan’s loadouts from Titanfall 2, allowing you to switch between them on the fly. This gives the campaign a dynamic that’s not present in multiplayer. You can enter the battlefield, assess the situation, and choose a different Titan depending on the scenario, all within seconds. Combined with the quality of Titanfall 2’s missions (which I won’t reveal here, but they are my favorite time-limited games), the ability to switch Titans on the fly gives the campaign a unique pace.

Titanfall 2 achieves a few things: It makes seemingly small changes to the multiplayer section, but the result is a smoother pace and a more intelligent gameplay loop. It adds a single-player campaign that picks up steam with each mission, culminating in an epic battle that pits both pilots and Titans against each other.

And finally, Titanfall 2 shows a vitality missing from its predecessor. While the original Titanfall maintained its ferocious pace throughout the duration of each game, Titanfall 2 understands that sometimes scaling back for a few seconds can be much more interesting in the long run. In many ways, Titanfall 2 feels like the game Respawn should have made in 2013. It’s a great sequel. It’s a smooth shooter. It was a fierce match.