Empulse, the upcoming title from Splitgate developer 1047 Games, is not an attempt to create Titanfall 3, according to CEO and co-founder Ian Proulx. While acknowledging inspiration from games like Titanfall and Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Proulx stated that the studio's primary goal is to build a compelling movement shooter with its own distinct identity.
"We're not trying to build Titanfall 3," Proulx said in a recent interview. "I've seen headlines of, like, 'It's a Titanfall spiritual successor,' and we didn't set out to do that. What we set out to do is to build a great movement shooter, and obviously we are inspired by games like Titanfall and Black Ops III, but it is quite a bit different."
The game features dynamic 6v6 arena combat that heavily emphasizes agile player movement, including wallrunning and sliding, in a manner reminiscent of Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall series. Running on flat ground is discouraged, with survival depending on skillful traversal and precise shooting. This human-versus-human combat is further complicated by the introduction of mechs, which function as powerful first-person battlesuits.
Despite these similarities, Empulse introduces its own mechanics. The parkour system aims to replicate the weight and agility of Titanfall's movement, making traversing the industrial-themed maps a fluid experience that supports vertical, three-dimensional combat. Proulx highlighted the game's reliance on hipfire-heavy gunplay, a characteristic borrowed from Splitgate, which contributes to a fast pace by not heavily penalizing movement with inaccuracy. IMAGE1
A significant departure from Titanfall is how mechs are implemented. Instead of per-player allocations, two mechs spawn periodically on the map, becoming objectives for teams to contest. Proulx explained this decision as a way to keep the focus on pilot gameplay, with mechs serving as temporary power spikes akin to power weapons in Halo-style games. "Every few minutes, a couple of mechs are spawning, and you get this heads up, so that there's now a pull from the whole lobby to fight over it, to get that temporary power advantage," he noted.
Empulse also incorporates PAINT (Plasma Activated Infusion of Nanotech) grenades, inspired by Portal 2's gels. These grenades do not deal damage but instead coat areas with status-effect-granting goop. The default PAINT grenade enhances player speed for faster freerunning, while others can increase jump height or provide area-of-effect healing. IMAGE2
Proulx views this gadgetry as a way to address a perceived lack of unique equipment in many FPS games. "When we set out to do Empulse, we're thinking to ourselves, okay, everything needs to be built around movement. And we don't want to just copy/paste, you know, and equipment is an opportunity for us to do something different," he stated. The unpredictable nature of these status effect grenades can lead to chaotic and entertaining combat scenarios.
While acknowledging the comparisons to Titanfall, Proulx also addressed his previous controversial comments about the state of FPS games. He clarified that he believes the FPS genre has many strong titles but feels certain subgenres, such as movement shooters and arena shooters, are underserved. "I genuinely do wish we could have Titanfall 3, that is one of the things that I stand by! But for me I think there's subgenres that I wish we could see more of, movement shooters being one of them," he explained, expressing hope that Empulse can help revitalize the movement shooter subgenre. IMAGE3