Respawn Entertainment walked away from E3 2013 with numerous awards for its upcoming PC and Microsoft Xbox One ($200.00 at eBay)(Opens in a new window) first-person shooter, Titanfall ($10.49 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , and the accolades were well-deserved.

Those in attendance at Microsoft’s press conference witnessed armed-to-the-teeth Titans (the game’s term for “mechs”) shredding foes with heavy artillery, wall-running human pilots bounding from rooftops, and the cincher: pilots summoning Titans from the sky in order to hop in and take the battle to another level.

Eight months after that initial Titanfall reveal, the game entered a closed beta just weeks before its March 12 launch. PCMag tried it out, and the early verdict? Titanfall is the real deal.

I’m not at all a first-person shooter (FPS) guy. In fact, the only FPS to hold my interest for an extended period was Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon , but that was due to its wacky humor and ’80s aesthetic. Titanfall, however, feels like a fresh shooter even in its current beta state.

The multiplayer title (there’s no single-player here) pits two teams of six (plus their mechs) on one of two beta maps. Titanfall’s maps aren’t as sprawling and interactive as those in Battlefield 4 ($18.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), but that’s to the game’s benefit. I didn’t encounter extended lulls (thanks to A.I.-controlled grunts) or areas so overcrowded with soldiers that frustration set in. It’s obvious that Respawn Entertainment took a long, hard look at what works in a multiplayer shooting environment.

There’s a flow to combat that becomes apparent when Titans enter the fray. They become available to gamers every two minutes (you summon one by pressing down on the D-pad), and someone in HQ reminds you at regular intervals about much time remains before your mech is dropped into the battle. The more damage that you inflict on enemies, the shorter the wait time for the Titan drop. Titanfall favors aggressive play, in that regard.

Although the Titans are bullet sponges that can also dish out big damage, players controlling pilots are not at an inherent disadvantage. Pilots have cloaking devices, jet packs that let them wall-run and double jump across rooftops, and anti-Titan weaponry designed to bring the big guys down. There’s something particularly thrilling about turning a corner, spotting a hulking Titan a short distance away, whipping out homing rockets, and staggering the machine as a setup for a kill.

Titans aren’t just piloted walking tanks. You can assign them to guard specific areas or to follow as you trek the landscape on foot. This has the potential to open the door to many fresh gameplay strategies.

In my brief time with the Titanfall beta, I explored three beta pilot classes (Rifleman, Assassin, and CBQ) and two Titan classes (Assault and Tank). Gamers like me, who aren’t FPS diehards, will probably do well to start with the Assassin class, as it has an auto-targeting Smart Pistol that can air-vent multiple targets at once. It can even shoot around corners! The beta contains three gameplay modes (Attrition, Last Titan Standing, and Hardpoint Domination), which offers enough variety to keep you coming back for just one more match. Experience points earned via effective fighting lets you unlock several goodies for pilots and Titans.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first few hours playing the Titanfall beta, but there are a few niggles of note. Environments are detailed, but the firefights don’t put a scratch on the in-game structures. There’s no collapsing towers, burning shrubbery, or exploding earth. The epic battles have no impact on the game-world, which is disappointing.

Still, the Titanfall beta serves its purpose by whetting gamers’ appetites for the finished product’s March 12 release. For more, check out the slideshow above.