Back at E3, a mere ten minutes with an early version of Titanfall 2 were enough. We were convinced that the grappling hook was a welcome addition that already felt like an integral part of Titanfall‘s rocket-pack-parkour-meets-mechs shooting action. Now, we’ve had a chance to put a few more hours into a “pre-alpha” version of the game during early access to this weekend’s “technical test” on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (which is available to the public starting today, running again August 26 through 28).

With the benefit of more time, we can confirm that the grappling hook changes the Titanfall formula for the better. Double jumps and zippy wall running are still nice, but they’re not always a feasible way to gain the height you need to clamber on to an enemy mech or gain an advantageous shooting position. The grappling hook is often just a simpler way to scale a multi-story vertical wall or gain a little speed boost while trying desperately to dash to a far off objective (or even to rocket forward toward an unsuspecting enemy to score a quick jump-kick kill).

The hook is so useful that we found ourselves cursing its limitations—after a couple of uses in short succession, you have to wait a few seconds for the hook to recharge. This is a necessary limitation to stop players from simply grappling around the map with nonstop abandon, but… actually, that nonstop abandon sounds like a lot of fun!