Hands-on preview

Empulse makes going fast the easy part

Empulse, the new Early Access movement shooter from 1047 Games, immediately understands one sacred FPS truth: if you let players wall-run, grapple, slide, and turn themselves into a caffeinated pinball, they will absolutely do that before reading a single tutorial prompt.

I spent time with the Steam Next Fest demo and the opening stretch of Early Access, and the first impression is simple: Empulse is quick, approachable, and often a blast. It is not finished, it is not bursting with a gigantic player count yet, and it still feels like it is searching for the special sauce hiding somewhere behind the wall-running spaghetti. But when the movement clicks, it really clicks.

This is a game with a strong foundation and some very obvious construction tape still flapping in the breeze. The shooting is readable, the traversal is instantly satisfying, and the pace can make even a deeply average human feel like the Flash with a reload animation. The bigger question is whether that speed can support enough depth to keep players around after the novelty wears off.

What is Empulse?

Empulse is an arena-style first-person shooter built around momentum. Think wall-running, grappling, backward wall-runs, slides, quick loadouts, and gunfights that encourage you to stay in motion instead of politely standing still like a target dummy with Wi-Fi.

Matches put the focus on chosen loadouts rather than old-school power weapon races, though mechs occasionally drop into the match as big shiny toys for both teams to fight over. In theory, those mechs should be the “uh-oh” moment. In practice, they are more like borrowing a tank in a skate park: amusing, loud, and not always built for the room.

The most distinctive equipment twist is the PAINT bomb system. Instead of standard grenades, players toss bombs that create large area effects. Some boost speed, some deal damage, and others slow or trap opponents. It gives each fight a splashy bit of tactical chaos, like someone looked at a normal grenade and said, “What if this also had vibes?”

Across its current maps and modes, Empulse leans into the easy-to-learn, hard-to-master dream. Getting moving is simple. Staying fast while landing shots, reading objectives, and not introducing your face to every nearby wall is where the skill curve starts doing squats.

The movement is friendly in the best way

The big win here is accessibility. Empulse does not make you earn basic speed through secret movement tech, ancient forum posts, and a blood oath to bunny-hopping. You can hit a good pace quickly, bounce from wall to wall, and start experimenting almost immediately.

That matters. Titanfall 2 remains a giant in this space, but revisiting it today makes clear just how much more demanding its movement can feel. Empulse lowers the skill floor without flattening the skill ceiling entirely. Casual players can have fun in minutes, while the dedicated gremlins can still chase cleaner routes, faster angles, and ridiculous “did I just do that?” plays.

The result is a pleasing flow state. Slide, wall-run, grapple, fire, whiff three shots, pretend it was a zoning tactic, repeat. Even when I was not playing beautifully, I usually felt like I was doing something cool, which is half the battle in a movement shooter.

Where the depth starts to wobble

For all that kinetic fun, Empulse can feel strangely thin. The matches move fast, but they do not always create that delicious tug-of-war rhythm where teams adjust, counter, and wrestle for control. Sometimes everyone is just zooming around very stylishly while the match itself shrugs in the background.

Loadout choices also need more personality. In a game like Call of Duty, your setup can change with the map, mode, sightlines, or team plan. In Empulse, the guns feel different enough on paper, but in practice I rarely felt pushed into a new style. The maps do not yet demand much adaptation, which makes the sandbox feel smaller than it should.

That map problem is a big one. The arenas are functional, but they blur together visually and mechanically. If you replaced several of them with graybox geometry, the match flow might not change much. That is great for instant readability; it is less great for long-term identity.

A cool world that barely peeks through

Empulse has lore, and honestly, the setup is neat. Freehold was once controlled by NAOMI, an AI that suppressed emotion to keep people docile. Then an EMP cuts everyone loose, Freehold gets sealed off, and two factions—the Loyalists and the Unbound—start hiring Lancers to do the messy work. That is a tasty little sci-fi sandwich.

The issue is that the current maps do not really sell any of it. There are few visual scars, faction details, or environmental stories that make Freehold feel like a place with history. Compared with the way Titanfall maps can communicate conflict through wreckage, scale, and geography, Empulse often feels too clean for its own backstory.

It is not bad. That is almost the frustrating part. It is competently made, but not yet memorable. I want to finish a match and remember a location because of a clever route, a wild landmark, or a dramatic “oh no, not this hallway again” moment. Right now, the arenas are more useful than iconic.

The mechs need a stronger reason to exist

The mechs are another piece that sounds more exciting than it currently feels. They are easy to destroy, not especially thrilling to pilot, and they often do not swing a match as much as a giant robot probably should. If I am climbing into a mech, I want at least three people in the lobby to whisper, “Well, this is now a problem.”

Part of the issue is map scale. The spaces do not always seem built around mech play, so these big machines can feel jammed into a game that is otherwise about nimble, elegant movement. There is also limited player expression. If mechs are going to stay, they need customization, stronger roles, or encounters that make them feel like more than a temporary metal inconvenience.

So, should you keep an eye on Empulse?

Yes—with the usual Early Access asterisk, underline, and tiny caution flag. Empulse is fun right now. The core movement feels good quickly, the combat has enough snap to carry a session, and the PAINT bombs add welcome flavor. When you are flowing through a map and deleting someone mid-slide, the game absolutely has that “one more match” spark.

But fun is only the first checkpoint. To become a great FPS, Empulse needs stronger map identity, more meaningful loadout decisions, a clearer personality, and mechs that justify their big robot drama. The foundation is there; the walls just need more posters, secret routes, and maybe a mech-sized door or two.

For now, Empulse is a promising movement shooter that delivers speed before depth. That is not a death sentence. It is an invitation. If 1047 Games keeps building on what already works and gives Freehold a sharper identity, this could become much more than a fun sprint around the block.