[0:00] I really loved the original Splitgate. I
[0:02] thought that game was a cool like
[0:03] scrappy little small project that uh was
[0:06] really interesting and I was very
[0:08] excited about Splitgate 2, but
[0:10] unfortunately that game was kind of a
[0:11] big miss. And the developer uh 1047
[0:15] Games uh acknowledged as such. But now
[0:17] they are back with a new game, Impulse,
[0:20] which if you've seen any footage about
[0:22] it, you might notice takes a little
[0:24] inspiration from a game called Titanfall
[0:26] 2. Well, I got hands-on with the game
[0:28] and talked with Ian Pru, CEO of 1047
[0:32] Games. So, let's talk about it. So,
[0:34] before I actually talk about the
[0:35] gameplay itself, I want to talk about
[0:36] the context of this game uh in
[0:38] relationship to Splitgate 2. Uh talking
[0:41] with Ian, he acknowledged that Splitgate
[0:44] 2 was a big miss for the studio and uh
[0:47] they took a lot of lessons from that
[0:48] that they were then bringing uh to
[0:51] Impulse. Uh now, this game has actually
[0:53] been in development since February of
[0:55] last year. So before uh Split K2 came
[0:58] out, but this is still kind of a a a
[1:00] small project that came together uh with
[1:02] a relatively quick turnaround, and
[1:03] they're really wanting to kind of go
[1:05] back to the roots of the way they
[1:07] approached Splitgate and bring that kind
[1:10] of uh scrappy energy to Impulse. So
[1:14] Impulse is not a free-to-play game. It
[1:17] is a release product. It'll cost $20
[1:20] entering early access on June 24th.
[1:23] They're actually going to have a uh demo
[1:26] as part of Steam NextFest on June 15th.
[1:28] So, you can check the game out and then
[1:29] if you like it, you can buy it. It's a
[1:31] boxed product. Talking to Ian about why
[1:34] they decided to go with that over freeto
[1:37] play. Uh he kind of had two major
[1:39] points. The first was that he just
[1:40] admitted that he and a lot of the team
[1:43] don't really like free-to-play games.
[1:45] Like they that's not the kinds of games
[1:47] they play. And so, uh, thinking about
[1:50] like, well, we want to make games that
[1:52] we enjoy playing, that we like, that
[1:54] kind of like fit like our ethos and our
[1:56] our, uh, style. They kind of realized
[1:59] that freeto play isn't really quite what
[2:01] they are comfortable uh, and best at.
[2:04] And for them, it's like having like a
[2:06] more cohesive game that you just buy
[2:07] once and it's there uh, and and that's
[2:10] it. And you don't need to like worry
[2:12] about like feeding into these uh, sort
[2:14] of like free-to-play systems. The other
[2:17] aspect is that you acknowledge when you
[2:18] make a free-to-play game, you have to
[2:20] devote a lot of your resources to
[2:23] feeding those free-to-play systems. You
[2:25] have to spend money and time uh
[2:27] developing skins for your shop. you have
[2:29] to uh put a lot of resources into
[2:32] seasonal battle passes and that takes
[2:34] away uh precious developmental resources
[2:37] that could go towards other things like
[2:39] new maps, new modes, just new uh
[2:43] mechanics and systems and you know like
[2:45] other things that players would want. So
[2:46] they kind of realized that they don't
[2:48] want to spend their development time on
[2:50] those free-to-play trappings and rather
[2:52] just put them towards uh the game as a
[2:55] whole instead. So, when uh Impulse
[2:58] launches in early access, it will not
[2:59] have a cash shop. There will be no store
[3:02] in that game. It'll just be the game
[3:04] with the modes and you play it. And then
[3:06] from there, they're planning to see what
[3:08] players like and enjoy about it and then
[3:10] start building off of it from there,
[3:12] which I find really exciting and
[3:14] appealing to me. It was what I liked
[3:16] about Splitgate. It was kind of one of
[3:18] the things that turned me off about
[3:19] Splitgate 2. So knowing that it's just a
[3:21] game I can buy and play uh is I think
[3:25] pretty cool. But all that doesn't matter
[3:27] if the game itself isn't actually fun.
[3:29] So let's talk about the game. Uh it is
[3:31] heavily inspired by Titanfall. Although
[3:34] of course uh Ian did stress that he
[3:36] obviously wants you know you to like see
[3:38] the game for what it is and and and you
[3:40] know they weren't trying to specifically
[3:42] just copy Titanfall. So, I would say if
[3:45] there were a couple big differences is
[3:46] one is the shooting itself actually is
[3:48] more in line with that splitgate kind of
[3:51] like Halo style of gunplay versus
[3:53] Titanfall 2 which has like that Call of
[3:56] Duty ADS feel. So, uh you're not doing
[4:00] like sweaty aiming down sights the way
[4:02] uh you do in Titanfall 2. If you've
[4:04] played uh Splitgate and the know how
[4:07] that game like plays and feels, Impulse
[4:09] is going to feel very comfortable and
[4:11] familiar to you where it is taking the
[4:14] stuff from Titanfall is the movement. So
[4:17] things like the slide, the uh grapple
[4:20] hook, the grapple hook feels fantastic.
[4:23] Um just like super on point with that uh
[4:26] while running, the general speed of the
[4:29] game uh and of course the mechs
[4:31] themselves. The uh biggest change with
[4:33] the mechs is that it's not like
[4:35] Titanfall where everyone has their own
[4:37] individual mech. The mech is more of a
[4:38] power weapon type drop and where it'll
[4:42] you'll they'll appear on the map and uh
[4:44] the teams will kind of fight over
[4:46] control of it. Uh this will also change
[4:48] depending on the different modes. So,
[4:49] like in a team deathmatch, yeah, it just
[4:51] shows up as like a power weapon that you
[4:53] fight over. But then there's also other
[4:54] modes like um uh there's capture the
[4:57] mech, which is essentially capture the
[4:59] flag with a mech where each team has a
[5:01] mech and you need to go like steal their
[5:03] mech, bring it back to your base, but if
[5:05] they also steal your mech, then you have
[5:07] to make sure to destroy that other mech
[5:09] before you can score a point. Uh the
[5:11] mechs themselves feel pretty good.
[5:13] They're pretty simple. Um, they kind of
[5:15] function exactly as you'd imagine. Just
[5:17] this big hulking uh machine that can
[5:20] just kind of like rip through enemies
[5:21] really quickly. It has like a bubble
[5:24] shield. It has a uh cool down missile.
[5:28] And then it also does this move where
[5:29] you can like launch up in the air and uh
[5:32] do like a power slam down that'll like
[5:34] completely destroy enemies. Uh but
[5:36] they're also pretty vulnerable. One of
[5:38] the big things that uh players have is
[5:39] they have their main weapon, but then
[5:41] they have this like giant hammer, which
[5:42] is like a onehit kill uh on enemies. It
[5:45] reminds me a little bit of the gravity
[5:47] hammer from Halo 3. Uh but it also is
[5:50] very very powerful against mechs. It'll
[5:52] like completely break the shield and
[5:54] disable it. And like a good few swings
[5:55] on it is enough to take down a mech. So
[5:58] there's a lot of speed and like things
[6:01] change in this game very quickly. Like
[6:04] you die fast, you reload quick. the
[6:07] mechs can like come in and get destroyed
[6:09] easily. Like it's very chaotic. I will
[6:11] say that um in my time playing it, uh
[6:14] because it was just a demo, I didn't get
[6:16] to kind of fully experience what a match
[6:19] could be like in the sense that I was
[6:21] mostly playing against bots. It was like
[6:23] me and one other real player on the
[6:24] other team and then bots just kind of
[6:26] filled out our matches. So, I got a
[6:28] sense of kind of how things could, you
[6:31] know, feel and move. But um in terms of
[6:33] like how sweaty it can get with players,
[6:35] that's something I'll have to kind of
[6:36] wait and see uh when I get to check out
[6:39] the game in a few weeks. So overall, I
[6:41] came away like pretty pleasantly
[6:43] surprised with Impulse. Like I said, uh
[6:46] Splate 2 kind of left like a a weird
[6:48] taste in my mouth. I just like didn't
[6:50] really vibe with that game and and I
[6:52] didn't really like the direction uh that
[6:55] 1047 was kind of taking with like freeto
[6:57] play and it just it didn't feel uh like
[6:59] it had the things that I really liked
[7:01] about Splitgate. I'm excited that they
[7:04] seem to kind of themselves realize that
[7:07] that wasn't really the right direction
[7:08] for them and they're kind of going back
[7:10] to what they feel like worked about
[7:12] Splitgate. um while also trying
[7:15] something different because hey man,
[7:17] like no one has still captured quite the
[7:20] vibe of Titanfall 2. It's been 10 years
[7:22] since that game came out and there's
[7:24] still nothing quite like it. And while
[7:25] they're not trying to necessarily
[7:26] recreate Titanfall 2, I do think this is
[7:29] capturing some of that momentum and
[7:31] speed that Titanfall had. So I am
[7:33] excited to check it out. If you want to
[7:35] check it out yourself, there is a Steam
[7:37] NextFest demo on the 15th and then the
[7:39] game will go into early access on the
[7:41] 24th. For more things on Impulse or
[7:43] Summer GameFest, uh, check out
[7:45] gamesspot.com.