Frontier Shield/Frontier Defense

Frontier Shield/Rise/Township

For many TitanFall fans, the return of Frontier Defense, or as its called now Frontier Shield, has been long awaited and Respawn did not disappoint!  Now I know that shooting AI isn't for everyone, but with the various difficulties and the various Titan upgrades it's well worth checking out.

The Bad:

1) It's players against AI.  For many this will be a turn off, however I would encourage you to still try it out.

2) There seems to be a 2-3 map loop?  I believe there are only 5 maps loaded currently for frontier defense but you will notice many repeats before you get a map you haven't played yet.  I played for 5 hours yesterday and managed to never play Forward Base Kodia and Homestead.

3) Titan Leveling is a bit slow.  Like I said I played for 5 hours and I was only able to unlock hard mode and 2 upgrades for Scorch.  I wasn't sucking either!  I was top of the chart, elite leader, and team MVP almost every round.  (Scorch is a beast in this mode FYI)

4)  It encourages you to stick with one titan.  With the Titan upgrades being so slow it does keep you from jumping between Titans.  You play for 2-3 hours to finally unlock scorches second thermite round and you hit something like Rise or War Games and want to switch to say Monarch since you have a higher volume of flying enemies, you can switch but you don't have any upgrades to Monarch so you may not provide as much support as you would like to help your team.

5) The bad guys drop in at the same place every time.  Unless you are playing on hard mode this gets a bit monotonous and to predictable.  I'll stand in this spot for 3 rounds then move and stand her for the last 2. With hard mode your friends will die more, you'll die more, and there are a lot more variables that keep it from getting boring.  But you have to play regular mode until you level up enough to play hard mode.

The Good:

1) It's really fun and the progression system adds a lot to continuing to play the game mode.  Currently I've only leveled scorch up twice in the Aegis system but he has gone from a G5.1 - G7.8 very quickly.  You still get pilot levels and weapon levels but often in this mode you are spending most of your time in your titan and not as a lone gun man, so you don't level up quickly here.

2) Completely changes the types of titans you play with.  Scorch in attrition, hard point, or even bounty hunt is completely out matched by other titans.  He's to slow, range is limited, and fire rate is to slow.  However in Frontier Shield he stands at the top.  Need to stop the tide from progressing? Firewall.  Have a choke point?  Fill it with gas and watch'em burn.  4 nuke titans lined up to give you hell? Scorched earth will damage all of them within an inch of doomed.  He's still slow though so you have to rely on your faster moving friends to take on mortar titans.

3) The bank system.  Being able to buy items to boost your defenses is a really nice touch.  You do well in the round you get a bunch of money and you can set turrets, arch traps, nuke batteries (new option, you put the battery in an enemy titan and it causes it to go nuclear but it doesn't hurt you or friendlies), amp'ed weapons (which stay on until you die), battery for your titan, or a temporary shield boost for the harvester.  You can also deposit money or withdraw money which helps others and yourself purchase much needed upgrades.

4) It's not boring.  Generally people feel this mode is boring since its all AI, however with the various upgrades for you titans and the various skill levels, as well as a soon to come Homestead insanity mode, you will be destroying hordes of bad guys and panicking at your screen just as much as you would be with an pvp mode.  This is also a quick way to level your titans, as most titans will go up 2-3 levels per defense match.

5) The new banners, weapon skins, and titan skins are all beautiful and yeah just check them out below.  The new weapon skins are limited time only and a bit pricey.  They do however have a 10% chance of providing you with double xp, but mostly they are just cool looking.  Banners come with leveling up your titan in Frontier Shield.  You also have to pay an awful lot for the titan skins which i did not purchase.