Empulse is the Splitgate Team's Take on Titanfall 2

[00:00] I really loved the original Splitgate. I

[00:02] thought that game was a cool like

[00:03] scrappy little small project that uh was

[00:06] really interesting and I was very

[00:08] excited about Splitgate 2, but

[00:10] unfortunately that game was kind of a

[00:11] big miss. And the developer uh 1047

[00:15] Games uh acknowledged as such. But now

[00:17] they are back with a new game, Impulse,

[00:20] which if you've seen any footage about

[00:22] it, you might notice takes a little

[00:24] inspiration from a game called Titanfall

[00:26] 2. Well, I got hands-on with the game

[00:28] and talked with Ian Pru, CEO of 1047

[00:32] Games. So, let's talk about it. So,

[00:34] before I actually talk about the

[00:35] gameplay itself, I want to talk about

[00:36] the context of this game uh in

[00:38] relationship to Splitgate 2. Uh talking

[00:41] with Ian, he acknowledged that Splitgate

[00:44] 2 was a big miss for the studio and uh

[00:47] they took a lot of lessons from that

[00:48] that they were then bringing uh to

[00:51] Impulse. Uh now, this game has actually

[00:53] been in development since February of

[00:55] last year. So before uh Split K2 came

[00:58] out, but this is still kind of a a a

[01:00] small project that came together uh with

[01:02] a relatively quick turnaround, and

[01:03] they're really wanting to kind of go

[01:05] back to the roots of the way they

[01:07] approached Splitgate and bring that kind

[01:10] of uh scrappy energy to Impulse. So

[01:14] Impulse is not a free-to-play game. It

[01:17] is a release product. It'll cost $20

[01:20] entering early access on June 24th.

[01:23] They're actually going to have a uh demo

[01:26] as part of Steam NextFest on June 15th.

[01:28] So, you can check the game out and then

[01:29] if you like it, you can buy it. It's a

[01:31] boxed product. Talking to Ian about why

[01:34] they decided to go with that over freeto

[01:37] play. Uh he kind of had two major

[01:39] points. The first was that he just

[01:40] admitted that he and a lot of the team

[01:43] don't really like free-to-play games.

[01:45] Like they that's not the kinds of games

[01:47] they play. And so, uh, thinking about

[01:50] like, well, we want to make games that

[01:52] we enjoy playing, that we like, that

[01:54] kind of like fit like our ethos and our

[01:56] our, uh, style. They kind of realized

[01:59] that freeto play isn't really quite what

[02:01] they are comfortable uh, and best at.

[02:04] And for them, it's like having like a

[02:06] more cohesive game that you just buy

[02:07] once and it's there uh, and and that's

[02:10] it. And you don't need to like worry

[02:12] about like feeding into these uh, sort

[02:14] of like free-to-play systems. The other

[02:17] aspect is that you acknowledge when you

[02:18] make a free-to-play game, you have to

[02:20] devote a lot of your resources to

[02:23] feeding those free-to-play systems. You

[02:25] have to spend money and time uh

[02:27] developing skins for your shop. you have

[02:29] to uh put a lot of resources into

[02:32] seasonal battle passes and that takes

[02:34] away uh precious developmental resources

[02:37] that could go towards other things like

[02:39] new maps, new modes, just new uh

[02:43] mechanics and systems and you know like

[02:45] other things that players would want. So

[02:46] they kind of realized that they don't

[02:48] want to spend their development time on

[02:50] those free-to-play trappings and rather

[02:52] just put them towards uh the game as a

[02:55] whole instead. So, when uh Impulse

[02:58] launches in early access, it will not

[02:59] have a cash shop. There will be no store

[03:02] in that game. It'll just be the game

[03:04] with the modes and you play it. And then

[03:06] from there, they're planning to see what

[03:08] players like and enjoy about it and then

[03:10] start building off of it from there,

[03:12] which I find really exciting and

[03:14] appealing to me. It was what I liked

[03:16] about Splitgate. It was kind of one of

[03:18] the things that turned me off about

[03:19] Splitgate 2. So knowing that it's just a

[03:21] game I can buy and play uh is I think

[03:25] pretty cool. But all that doesn't matter

[03:27] if the game itself isn't actually fun.

[03:29] So let's talk about the game. Uh it is

[03:31] heavily inspired by Titanfall. Although

[03:34] of course uh Ian did stress that he

[03:36] obviously wants you know you to like see

[03:38] the game for what it is and and and you

[03:40] know they weren't trying to specifically

[03:42] just copy Titanfall. So, I would say if

[03:45] there were a couple big differences is

[03:46] one is the shooting itself actually is

[03:48] more in line with that splitgate kind of

[03:51] like Halo style of gunplay versus

[03:53] Titanfall 2 which has like that Call of

[03:56] Duty ADS feel. So, uh you're not doing

[04:00] like sweaty aiming down sights the way

[04:02] uh you do in Titanfall 2. If you've

[04:04] played uh Splitgate and the know how

[04:07] that game like plays and feels, Impulse

[04:09] is going to feel very comfortable and

[04:11] familiar to you where it is taking the

[04:14] stuff from Titanfall is the movement. So

[04:17] things like the slide, the uh grapple

[04:20] hook, the grapple hook feels fantastic.

[04:23] Um just like super on point with that uh

[04:26] while running, the general speed of the

[04:29] game uh and of course the mechs

[04:31] themselves. The uh biggest change with

[04:33] the mechs is that it's not like

[04:35] Titanfall where everyone has their own

[04:37] individual mech. The mech is more of a

[04:38] power weapon type drop and where it'll

[04:42] you'll they'll appear on the map and uh

[04:44] the teams will kind of fight over

[04:46] control of it. Uh this will also change

[04:48] depending on the different modes. So,

[04:49] like in a team deathmatch, yeah, it just

[04:51] shows up as like a power weapon that you

[04:53] fight over. But then there's also other

[04:54] modes like um uh there's capture the

[04:57] mech, which is essentially capture the

[04:59] flag with a mech where each team has a

[05:01] mech and you need to go like steal their

[05:03] mech, bring it back to your base, but if

[05:05] they also steal your mech, then you have

[05:07] to make sure to destroy that other mech

[05:09] before you can score a point. Uh the

[05:11] mechs themselves feel pretty good.

[05:13] They're pretty simple. Um, they kind of

[05:15] function exactly as you'd imagine. Just

[05:17] this big hulking uh machine that can

[05:20] just kind of like rip through enemies

[05:21] really quickly. It has like a bubble

[05:24] shield. It has a uh cool down missile.

[05:28] And then it also does this move where

[05:29] you can like launch up in the air and uh

[05:32] do like a power slam down that'll like

[05:34] completely destroy enemies. Uh but

[05:36] they're also pretty vulnerable. One of

[05:38] the big things that uh players have is

[05:39] they have their main weapon, but then

[05:41] they have this like giant hammer, which

[05:42] is like a onehit kill uh on enemies. It

[05:45] reminds me a little bit of the gravity

[05:47] hammer from Halo 3. Uh but it also is

[05:50] very very powerful against mechs. It'll

[05:52] like completely break the shield and

[05:54] disable it. And like a good few swings

[05:55] on it is enough to take down a mech. So

[05:58] there's a lot of speed and like things

[06:01] change in this game very quickly. Like

[06:04] you die fast, you reload quick. the

[06:07] mechs can like come in and get destroyed

[06:09] easily. Like it's very chaotic. I will

[06:11] say that um in my time playing it, uh

[06:14] because it was just a demo, I didn't get

[06:16] to kind of fully experience what a match

[06:19] could be like in the sense that I was

[06:21] mostly playing against bots. It was like

[06:23] me and one other real player on the

[06:24] other team and then bots just kind of

[06:26] filled out our matches. So, I got a

[06:28] sense of kind of how things could, you

[06:31] know, feel and move. But um in terms of

[06:33] like how sweaty it can get with players,

[06:35] that's something I'll have to kind of

[06:36] wait and see uh when I get to check out

[06:39] the game in a few weeks. So overall, I

[06:41] came away like pretty pleasantly

[06:43] surprised with Impulse. Like I said, uh

[06:46] Splate 2 kind of left like a a weird

[06:48] taste in my mouth. I just like didn't

[06:50] really vibe with that game and and I

[06:52] didn't really like the direction uh that

[06:55] 1047 was kind of taking with like freeto

[06:57] play and it just it didn't feel uh like

[06:59] it had the things that I really liked

[07:01] about Splitgate. I'm excited that they

[07:04] seem to kind of themselves realize that

[07:07] that wasn't really the right direction

[07:08] for them and they're kind of going back

[07:10] to what they feel like worked about

[07:12] Splitgate. um while also trying

[07:15] something different because hey man,

[07:17] like no one has still captured quite the

[07:20] vibe of Titanfall 2. It's been 10 years

[07:22] since that game came out and there's

[07:24] still nothing quite like it. And while

[07:25] they're not trying to necessarily

[07:26] recreate Titanfall 2, I do think this is

[07:29] capturing some of that momentum and

[07:31] speed that Titanfall had. So I am

[07:33] excited to check it out. If you want to

[07:35] check it out yourself, there is a Steam

[07:37] NextFest demo on the 15th and then the

[07:39] game will go into early access on the

[07:41] 24th. For more things on Impulse or

[07:43] Summer GameFest, uh, check out

[07:45] gamesspot.com.