EMPULSE Reviews

TL:DR - Extremely fast fluid shooter with an addictive weapon skin unlock grind. Many things I like, and some that I feel need to be fleshed out or reworked. A true movement tech game for those who feel the need for speed and want to ZOOM around. I recommend it, but keep reading for my full thoughts. Loadouts: Probably one of the best aspects of this game are Loadouts. They feel like CoD when it was good. Perks are meaningful. Attachments have real playstyle changing implications. Also it's likely to change, but at the moment there are no secondaries. Just a big hammer that is way too good at destroying mechs. I'd love to see them offer more anti mech options and keep secondary weapons a utility if they ever do implement them. I actually would be against pistol/smg/shotty as backup since they are arguably all just as powerful as a primary in the right hands. Movement: Legitimately I have not had this much fun in a movement shooter in a long time. Don't get me wrong, games like The Finals are fantastic and I acknowledge the goats exist, but my god. Empulse cranks it all the way up to 11. Once you learn the tech it's just a matter of not going so fast that you fly out of bounds. The grappling hook in this game is superb as well. The amount of drain is dependent on distance meaning you can spam it if you're just using it as a way to quickly change directions. Fighting on the side of a skyscraper like some kind of Cyberpunk window cleaner is a normal experience in this game lol. Oh and can't forget wall running, wall bouncing, slide hopping to preserve momentum, grapple melee... I could go on. Progression: Clear goals to work towards, and a ton of weapon skin RNG boxes to unlock with in game earnable credits. I will say this is where some of my braincells are going "oh god why does it look like a battlepass?". That said nothing can actually be paid for with real money. At least during the Early Access stage of development. I'm unsure what the plan is long term. To me it feels setup to randomly switch on a F2P model at any moment. Mainly because it mimics them looks wise. I HOPE this is just so they can have relatability for those who normally play F2P. Gotta make them feel at home you know? That said, for now at least, it's a one time buy in for everything in game. World Building: One of the weakest aspects in my opinion. You play the guy or gal who's fighting the other guy or gal and you all look like some variation of a tech wear clad Team Fortress 2 Scout. The developers have already acknowledged this will improve, but it is important to note. I'd love to see some real depth to character customization beyond just color swaps. Let us changes Tops, Bottoms, Face, Accessories, etc and it would be amazing. Plus they could totally make that another type of RNG box. So if you like all the weapon skins you have you could instead roll for pieces of drip. :P But I digress. I actually like the environments they've created. They fit the lore (which is very generic I can't lie). Though I don't understand the why of these places. Ton of room for them to expand upon districts histories, why people are fighting to secure them, past events that led up to those clashes. Just something more to chew on ya know? Sound: All of the audio related to combat is quite solid. Things that should feel punchy do. A lot of satisfying whirs and woos with all the augmented abilities being used. The bummer at the moment is music. It's an aspect where I don't feel it fits like... at all. It's like the game gives off the look and feel of something akin to Mirrors Edge followed by some random sports gameshow bop. In my opinion this area needs a massive upgrade. Preferably with a more serious tone that reflects the reality of the chaos happening according to the lore. Doesn't need to be a sorrowful doom and gloom. Something a bit more awe inspiring and cinematic would be nice though. Visuals: Aside from looking maybe a little plain at the moment, fidelity of what's on screen is nice. It runs fantastic so it's hard to complain. Some aspects of lighting are maybe a bit flat at times with materials feeling a little plastic. Sorta ties back to what I mentioned about world building. The game has an identity in concept, but not yet in practice. Also I'd love to see a player body when looking down just to add that extra layer of immersion rather than just floating arms. Game Modes: Genuinely the only mode I can't stand right now is Control. I feel like forcing players to fighting over a static plot of land in a movement shooter is blasphemous. I really want to see this get a reworked into a rotating or even constantly in motion objective. Also a reason to fight over these random plots of land as currently there's not even like a terminal to capture and guard. They need to make the objective more defensible as well. Having limited lives in really tight clustered highly chaotic battles means it goes by too quick and feels like nothing happened. Please 1047. I beg thee. Control could be a million times better. It's just not fun at all currently even when my team is winning. Everything else is pretty standard. TDM is TDM. Capture the Mech is a fun take on CTF where instead of running a flag you run over the enemies with their own weapon while trying to keep them from taking yours. Mech VIP is similar but with everyone almost guaranteed to have a mech at some point. Upload and Intel are quite similar with slight objective differences. One being to hold the data to score, and the other being to throw it into a form of goal. Lancer V Lancer (the non mech mode) is one I've never played. Same with Ranked. The normal games can even get a bit too sweaty at times sooo. Yeah. I don't think I have it in me for that level of cortisol spikes. Balance: It's a really fair game imo, but the skill ceiling is quite high. I'm not the most sweat gamer, but I can keep up and have managed to escape with like no HP on multiple occasions. Very fast TTK, but not so fast that it's un-survivable. Spending a little time in the practice range and fine tuning your bindings/input settings is super important though. A lack of willingness to learn the advanced movement mechanics will be where many people drop the game I suspect. The game flow is casual accessible, but I think most casual players will be fighting to get a grasp on it. Concluding thoughts: Overall I really have been loving the game despite it's current shortcomings! :D It definitely needs time to cook. The combination of Early Access, a cheap buy in cost, and how quickly the developers have been responding to feedback gives me hope. I can see this maintaining a niche community, but only time will tell if it can become a major player in the space. All that said. Thank you 1047 for making a game like this. It scratches an itch that others either can't... or they do but are a literal decade or more old with long since dwindling or non existent player bases. Especially the ones that released in the days before crossplay where you'd basically be SoL if you played on PC. Keep up the great work, continue to do right by your community, and we will stick with you on this journey. <3 I really want Empulse to succeed, and I think it can if it evolves to have a distinctly unique identity to compliment the already absurdly fun gameplay mechanics. My review will obviously change over time, but if you read this far I hope I helped you make a decision! Easy recommendation from me with the caveat that this is a Multiplayer only title. Again I think it will absolutely gain a niche. Just unsure of mass appeal long term.

Game is extremely fun and surprisingly very smooth and polished for an early access game. If you liked Titanfall or other fast paced shooters then this game is definitely for you. Devs seem to be cooking updates and content already. Seeing quite a bit of negativity around aim assist. I can assure you it's over exaggerated. I play with both inputs

♥♥♥♥ it we ball, this game has so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥ potential, absolutely reccomend, just play it man (ADD REAL AIM DOWN SIGHTS FOR ♥♥♥♥ SAKE DEVS)

Not Titanfall 3 But is a good game over all the haters are wrong.

It feels like a completely different game than the beta, i think they nerfed the movement and it just feels bland and boring now

its worth the 15 right now im having so much fun playing it if you loved titanfall you would love this game

Mix between halo infinite gunplay and titanfall movement, genuinely a very good game for early access. If the devs keep it up with good updates, balancing, movement, guns, etc. I think this has a huge amount of potential. Have not had this much fun on a new fps game in a while. Good work!

As a Gen 10 Titanfall Player, Splitgate enjoyer and still waiting on Respawn to pick up the series: I approve of this title. Gives the same manic, fast paced hit.

Empulse is not a bad game per se, the game certainly has its moments, but questionable balancing, lack of content, lack of polish, and strange oversights can take me out of the game when I do start to have fun. What might be my hottest take is that I really don't think mechs belong in this game. They're not ineffective in terms of gameplay, but they're not fun to play as or against. I've played a multitude of matches in both casual and the ranked test during the demo where mechs sat dormant for the entire match because no one wanted to use them. Everything from the lack of gameplay customization to the map designs make mechs feel like an attempt to check a box or cater to the Titanfall crowd. Mechs have little meaningful customization at launch and the maps tend to be smaller and more deathmatch focused which make the mechs feel crammed in with very little room to maneuver (I'm looking at you Crossing). Mechs to me are in a very similar position that the hero abilities in Splitgate 2 were, and currently I hope they suffer the same fate. Speaking of Splitgate, if you've played both Splitgate Arena Warfare and this game it's likely you've noticed how similar both the gunplay and movement is. It's pretty obvious that 1047 recycled a lot of Splitgate's "flow" and used it as the foundation for Empulse. While some may say that's a bad thing, I say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Surprisingly, the movement of Splitgate along with grappling hooks and a focus on momentum instead of portals makes for a rather solid foundation to build a movement shooter on, and the cherry on top is the paint mechanic. Paint, specifically speed paint and jump paint, is the absolute bread and butter of this game. Chaining together slides, grapples, and boosts from the paint is really the driving force behind this game and is [b] what 1047 needs to focus and innovate [/b] with rather than something like the mechs. Add paints that give you better air control, make paints mix into different colors on the wall (not in ranked), add a paint that can clean walls, etc. There's some really cool stuff that can done here that isn't just a "grenade" or "heal grenade". Those are boring, do more movement style paints. My only complaint about paints currently is that movement style paints are the only meaningful way of gaining speed because it's far too difficult to gain speed using momentum and the environment. My suggestion is to make it easier to gain speed using ramps, grappling, and wall running to take some of that weight off of jump and speed and to make the other paints more viable. The speed and versatility of movement paints make them impossible to not use with no other means of gaining real speed. Empulse's gunplay is solid for the most part other than some... interesting balance decisions. The fact the DMR wasn't nerfed before early access is rather surprising considering its firerate and the game's forgiving hitboxes. Another interesting decision that I dislike is the lack of secondaries. The only secondary you get is the Finale (a dedicated melee weapon). Which is odd to me because Splitgate Arena Warfare has a solid roster of secondaries while Empulse has none. Other than that the gunplay is fine, if not a bit dry. Would love to see some more projectile based weapons in the future. Overall, if you're movement-shooter enthusiast, I think Empulse is a good time and worth the current price of entry. If the game continues to improve the core loop and add some much needed new maps, even better. I want to get back to playing the game so I'm going to simply list some other minor grievances and leave it at that. I do plan on updating this review as I play the game more and develop more thoughts. - Game [b] needs [/b] more maps. There are very few and they're already becoming a bit stale - Perks like "Kill Runner" should only grant it's bonuses on final hits. Fighting an opponent and them suddenly gaining health mid-gunfight because they did chip damage earlier feels cheap. - Crouching should be changed to only sliding (who's crouch-walking in Empulse?) - Game's lore is extremely one-note - Art style is lacking. Would love to see outfits inspired by Jet Set Radio, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, or grindfiction in general if Empulse is going with the "free runner" aesthetic. Edit 1: I forgot that there are perks that affect the mechs such as "Mech Jumper" or "Mech Sprinter" (whoops). So there isn't [i] zero [/i] gameplay customization., but perks still don't give mechs any actual depth, especially when compared to something like Titanfall. [i] No A.I. was used in the making of this review. AI sucks. [/i]

It's kinda barebones in terms of content (maps, modes, customization), but the foundation is really solid, and it's also pay to play without any microtransactions (would be really cool if it stayed that way). Already feels more fun, clean and streamlined than Splitgate, hope it's going to perform better than previous games