Penembak Stripped-Back Empulse Bisa Menjadi Penerus Titanfall yang Kami Tunggu

I'm always on the lookout for new first-person shooters to sink my teeth into. For a long time, Destiny 2 was my predominant shooter of choice. I'm not the biggest fan of extraction shooters or battle royales, of which Destiny 2 is neither. But I mainly stuck with it because it combined Bungie's best-in-class gunplay with individual slices of single-player, cooperative, and competitive action. There aren't any other first-person shooters mixing these same ingredients together, but some at least offer a single portion.

Empulse, a new 6v6 competitive FPS that recently launched on Steam Early Access, is one of those games. Whether it has the quality and staying power to succeed remains to be seen, but there's some shooter pedigree with Splitgate developer 1047 Games at the helm. The studio's previous game, Splitgate 2, may have failed to find an audience, forcing a quick rebrand, but I think Empulse's under-the-radar status could work in its favor--it also helps that it's not directly associated with an incredibly tone deaf "Make FPS Great Again" hat.

What I like about Empulse is that it's relatively simple. While Splitgate 2 chased too many industry trends with its exorbitant microtransactions and a shoehorned battle royale mode--aspects at odds with 1047's stated mission of bringing back a pure arena-shooter experience--Empulse is stripped-back by comparison. It's not free-to-play (currently priced at $20, with plans to increase after early access), and there aren't any microtransactions. Yes, you can purchase loot boxes containing weapon and character skins, but only with in-game money you earn simply by playing. There's no pay-to-win stuff, and so far at least, the game's battle pass-esque Events are free and only reward you with cosmetics.

This isn't a live-service game that demands all of your time. It's something you can pick up and play whenever you feel like it--a facet that's evident in its approachable gameplay. With an emphasis on rapid player movement and occasional mechs, Titanfall feels like Empulse's primary source of inspiration. Yet it's not a direct copycat either. Make no bones about it, Titanfall 2 is the better game, but it also comes saddled with a steep barrier to entry. Newcomers practicing slides, wall-jumps, and learning how to air strafe are violently picked off by those who have been playing the game on and off for the past 10 years. By comparison, Empulse's movement is simple to master.

While you can customize a loadout consisting of a primary weapon, grenades, and various perks, every player enters a match with a grappling hook and the ability to wall-run, double-jump, and knee-slide around each map. Chaining together these moves is incredibly satisfying, as you quickly gain a palpable sense of forward momentum; grappling into double-jumps and flying through windows to get the jump on unsuspecting enemy players feels phenomenal. It's not perfect, mind you: The grappling hook could be slightly faster, and sprinting feels like running through treacle. The latter is a map design issue more than a movement one, however, but that leads us to Empulse's biggest flaw.

To put it bluntly, some of Empulse's maps are just plain boring. They tend to follow the classic three-lane playbook, but the lack of verticality in some maps runs contrary to your available skillset. There should be more spots for wall-running, more avenues for engaging in diverse firefights, and fewer instances where wide-open sightlines discourage movement in favor of long-range shootouts. When the map and your traversal abilities align, Empulse is a good time.

I also wish the mechs were less gimmicky and more integral to each match's flow. There's nothing as spectacular as summoning a walking tank from the sky in Titanfall. Instead, mechs occasionally spawn near the middle of the map, allowing anyone who shows up first the chance to hop in the cockpit. If one team manages to nab both mechs at the same time, it's essentially game over. But even then, they're not particularly fun to use or fight against, either. The primary minigun is inaccurate, and regenerating shields make it tough to put much of a dent into their armor unless you're in a mech yourself.

As an early access game, there's plenty of time to iron out these kinks and work towards making Empulse a better game. 1047 promises to be transparent about what it's working on and what it's still figuring out, and aside from drawing on community data to adjust the game's balance and tune its systems, it also wants to take player feedback on board. At this early stage, my feelings are mixed, but I see the promise in a stripped-down shooter where the moment-to-moment action matters most. Hopefully, Empulse can blossom into a shooter I'll happily return to.