Battlefield 2142 (2006)

I absolutely fell in love with Titan mode. With every Battlefield game since, I have hoped against hope that they'd do it again. They mostly did it again with Carrier Assault in... BF3 I think it was? I had so many game sessions staying up super late with friends playing the hell out of this. Progression felt great. I loved it being set in the future and seeing all the cool gadgets and evolution of technology. But it really came down to how complex Titan mode was. For those who don't know, it was the staple Conquest mode, but each objective was a missile system that would attack the opposing team's Titan (a gigantic airship that you could spawn on with turrets you could sit in, helicopters you could take away) when under your team's control. Once enough missiles struck, the Titan's shields would go down. At that point you could get in a special ground transport vehicle, park it near the enemy Titan, and you and your teammates could launch yourselves in pods up onto the enemy Titan. Then you had to battle it inside taking down 4 shield generators protecting the ship's core, which you then destroy. And then in a hilarious and super fun last few moments, everyone on the Titan would have like 20 seconds or something to run back out and jump off the side of the ship to avoid dying when it blew up. It was absolute mayhem and insanely fun. The different phases forced different kinds of playstyles in every match. God, I loved it.

And having a team commander to coordinate each team's response was amazing (as well as dropping supplies to the team, moving Titans, etc). I played the iPad-only BF4 commander mode a lot. I think such a role adds a lot to each team and adds a layer of gameplay and teamplay that just can't be found in other games. Wish they'd bring that back too.