Splitgate Developers Reveal New FPS Game With Titanfall-Style Movement, Grappling Hooks, and Giant Mechs

You would already have noticed, if you have been playing any kind of first-person shooter game for years now, that the development team behind Titanfall hasn't gone too much into anything innovative and refreshing for quite a long time now. Now and then, you will keep getting whispers from rumors, data mining in-game files, Apex Legends receiving an acknowledgment, and then suddenly disappearing into thin air. Nothing ever happens, yet it leaves a series that doesn't seem to be evolving.

This is all due to the fact that Titanfall is different from any other shooter game. It had its own rhythm in terms of gameplay. Everything about its movement, combat style, and mechanics was unique in its own way, including the ability to pilot gigantic mechanical robots in battle. You can say for sure that even to this day, there isn't any decent FPS that comes anywhere near the original Titanfall.

A new game called Empulse is starting to get attention, and you’re probably hearing its name more often for a reason. 

It is currently being developed by Splitgate developer 1047 Games, and leaks from pre-alpha versions suggest it will offer a very nostalgic experience for those who have been missing games like Titanfall. Judging from the available information, this game revolves around movement-based shooting using grappling hooks, wall-running, boosts, and arena fights.

What makes this so unique is that it takes more than just mobility into account. Here, you will encounter large mechs that can be found all over the map, and you can even board them while playing. After getting inside, your whole play style will change with powerful weapons like a Gatling gun or missiles, making you almost unbeatable on the field.

What makes this game even more unique is the fact that it fits perfectly with the wants and needs of Titanfall fans who have played the franchise for years now. You are no longer simply discussing a playstyle or idea that is similar to something else; here, you have developed an entire system of traversal and combat mechanics revolving around the core concepts of speed and power.

At the same time, Titanfall itself has been sitting in a strange place. 

Respawn apparently had some sort of in-house project before, but nothing came of it for whatever reason, and current developments within the industry and layoffs only add to the doubt. Apex Legends has therefore become the company’s new main product, alongside other usual live-service considerations pursued by all publishers today. This effectively leaves a vacuum for many fans of first-person shooters.

This explains why there is so much hype surrounding Empulse recently. For one thing, you've got an established developer who has already shown its understanding of movement shooters via Splitgate, which wasn’t exactly a perfect game but nonetheless did show what the company was capable of doing. This time around, though, things look far more interesting as it looks like they’re going for more aggressive combat mechanics centered on mobility.

And then there was an additional comment from someone inside Empulse saying that the group had been playing around with the idea of creating another movement-based shooter based on Titanfall and Black Ops 3, which was quite surprising because it actually sounded pretty logical. And all this would entail is combining the two totally different types of movement found in first-person shooter games into one game.

The movement isn’t just about speed; it’s about chaining actions together while fighting. 

You are running along walls, switching positions, and keeping your movement going as you shoot, while the map actually encourages vertical combat rather than hampering your progress. In addition, the game apparently has an aesthetic shift away from its previously arcade-like appearance.

It's much closer to something that's actually believable, and even takes on a darker tone overall, fitting the tone of a military sci-fi game. That may not seem like such an important thing at first glance, but the fact that Titanfall worked in part because everything was so believable can't be understated. It weighed heavily with its weapons, sounded right with its sound effects, and its Titans felt real, powerful machines of war.

The Titans in Empulse work in much the same way. They aren't something that pops up only as power-ups or abilities. These are actual battlefield units with their own shielding, cooldowns for weapons, and a whole lot of power. Once you get into one, you've just changed the entire dynamics of the fight, which is precisely what Titanfall fans have been waiting for.

The studio behind it has had a mixed track record in recent years. 

What made Splitgate stand out was its uniqueness; it offered something new by merging two distinct concepts into one. However, the success did not last long, as other titles failed to hold the audience’s interest for long. This is important because Empulse should not be evaluated solely based on creativity.

This is a community that has already been burned by the hype cycles of similar games. No matter how much of a perfect fit this game idea may seem for players, it will always have to prove itself. Therefore, there are high expectations for this game. It needs to deliver on the quality of gunplay. 

It cannot be sluggish or inconsistent. It should balance the Titans' power levels without disrupting the game experience. The maps should match the game's movement requirements. Finally, the progression model cannot turn into a live-service game that makes players lose interest over time. Most importantly, it can’t rely only on comparisons to Titanfall. 

And even though that is the hook that lures you in, there has to be some kind of substance behind all that, too. The way in which Titanfall excelled was through the synergy of its systems: its movement, its combat flow, sound, its use of verticality, and its switch between playing as the pilot and as the Titan. In fact, the whole thing came from all those elements coming together.

And that is exactly the niche that Empulse is stepping into, but for the most part, it is wide open.

Contemporary FPSs have taken other roads. Some have become slower, some have become more tactically inclined, and some others have gone in for battle royale or hero shooters. There simply isn't any game like that out there today anymore. At the same time, you have players playing Titanfall 2 after two years simply because anything else doesn’t seem to cut it.

In itself, that is the reason behind the increased interest in any title that seems to bear even a remote resemblance to it. Empulse may not seem like a game that deserves much consideration for now, but if anything, it shows how some developers seek to return to an old style of first-person shooter development at a time when most companies are taking different directions.

In short, while there’s certainly a lot yet to be seen, the game does seem to be shaping in a way that hints at something truly interesting happening within the next few months, and potentially offering one of the closest experiences to the Titanfall games for a very long time.