Titanfall's big challenge is persuading players to be upwardly mobile

One of the biggest challenges facing Respawn, as the company prepares to introduce its highly anticipated shooter Titanfall, is persuading players to take advantage of its verticality and weaning them away from Call of Duty-style ground-based norms.

Talking about her experiences watching play-tests, community manager Abbie Heppe told OXM that players often begin the game with their feet too firmly on the ground.

"I still watch everybody come in and play it like they're playing a less vertical shooter," Heppe said. "They come in, they hide behind cover, they pop out and shoot a dude, they run for the next cover. When we play we're immediately on the walls and roofs, running around like crazy."

In our report on the game earlier this year, Polygon noted that Titanfall is all about "gravity-defying jetpacks that allow wall-runs, double-jumps and hops between walls. The more wall-running a player does, the faster they move and, ultimately, the harder they are to shoot."

Titanfall won multiple awards when it was shown at E3 in June. It's Respawn's first game since the company was founded by former Infinity Ward executives.

"You have to break people in a bit," said Heppe. "And then I see them jump into a wall and they're like 'oh, I just ran along it' - and by the end of the match they're going crazy and playing more like how I would play. Even after seeing the trailers and the gameplay videos we've released, you'd think [people would know], but it's about breaking people out of how they've always been playing."

Titanfall will be published by Electronic Arts next year on Windows PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.