---
title: 'Empulse is the Splitgate Team''s Take on Titanfall 2'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=MNB9rjDhzvs'
video_id: 'MNB9rjDhzvs'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 466
---

# Empulse is the Splitgate Team's Take on Titanfall 2

> Source: [Empulse is the Splitgate Team's Take on Titanfall 2](https://youtube.com/watch?v=MNB9rjDhzvs)

## Summary

The creator discusses Impulse, a new game from 1047 Games (the developers of Splitgate), which takes heavy inspiration from Titanfall 2's movement while retaining Splitgate's Halo-style gunplay. The game is a paid $20 early access title launching June 24th, with a Steam NextFest demo on June 15th.

### Key Points

- **Splitgate 2 was a miss** [0:00] — The developer acknowledged Splitgate 2 was a big miss and took lessons from it for Impulse.
- **Impulse development timeline** [0:53] — Impulse has been in development since February of last year, before Splitgate 2 came out, and is a small project with quick turnaround.
- **Pricing model** [1:14] — Impulse is not free-to-play; it costs $20 for early access, with no cash shop at launch.
- **Why not free-to-play** [1:34] — The team doesn't enjoy free-to-play games and wants to avoid devoting resources to skins and battle passes, focusing instead on maps, modes, and mechanics.
- **Gameplay inspiration** [3:29] — Impulse is heavily inspired by Titanfall 2's movement (slide, grapple hook, wall running, mechs) but uses Splitgate's Halo-style gunplay without ADS.
- **Mechs as power weapons** [4:31] — Mechs are power weapon drops that teams fight over, not individual Titans. They have a bubble shield, missile, and slam attack, but are vulnerable to a hammer weapon.
- **Chaotic and fast-paced** [6:04] — The game is very chaotic with fast kills, quick reloads, and mechs that can be destroyed easily.
- **Positive first impression** [6:41] — The creator was pleasantly surprised, noting Impulse captures some of Titanfall's momentum and speed while returning to Splitgate's roots.

### Conclusion

Impulse aims to recapture the scrappy energy of the original Splitgate while delivering Titanfall-like movement, and the creator is excited to see how it evolves in early access.

## Transcript

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