EMPULSE is basically Titanfall but from the devs of Splitgate

No real points for originality here but if you're wanting something resembling the online play of Titanfall, then you may want to look at EMPULSE.

There's a demo live on Steam right now for Steam Next Fest with the Early Access release due June 24th. It does have their own RedKard anti-cheat, which appears to work fine during the demo and also worked fine for their previous games Splitgate and SPLITGATE: Arena Reloaded.

As clearly derivative as it is - I am pleased to see another developer attempt to do such a shooter. Combining fast-paced movement mechanics, with big mechs - it should be a winning combination. But is it? I'm not about to say "welcome back Titanfall!", because I'm not exactly convinced after spending time with the demo.

What sets it apart from Titanfall is the main mechanic around the big mechs and the special digital paint system. For the mechs, they're actually reasonably easy to destroy and you don't actually get to call down your own. You have to claim one on the map. In one mode, the mech basically acts like capture the flag as you have to steal the enemy mech and return it to yours.

Most of the time you and other players will be running, jumping, grappling, jet-boosting and wall-running around. Which, is actually pretty fun, they've managed to get the movement mechanics to feel quite nice. No realism about it though, it's all quite unserious, floaty and arcadey. Even the mechs feel quite light and floaty - which is not a bad thing. EMPULSE keeps things quick and straight to the point.

The other unique mechanic is the P.A.I.N.T. Bombs system, which spices up the map with various boosts to things like jumping, speed, explosive power, healing and so on. It's a nice little hook really.

After playing a few rounds - something just felt like it was missing. I can't quite put my finger on it. This is only a demo, so content is even more limited so I'll wait to see what it's like properly when it's out.

My main issue with it though - 1047 Games. They have a pretty rough history, and truly fumbled their last two games that leaves me very cautious about their next game. Hopefully they do it right this time. And with it going into Early Access to build with the community, perhaps they will finally have a proper hit and give the Titanfall-style the love it deserves while Electronic Arts decide to shovel more adverts into games.

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Worth keeping an eye on. The demo works well with Proton 11.