Developer 1047 Games has announced that its Early Access shooter, EMPULSE, has gotten its third major update. The studio has described it as “the largest content update” that has been shipped for the title throughout its Early Access tenure. The core focus of the update is the introduction of Aim Down Sights across all weapons, along with the addition of the secondary anti-mech weapon – the Crescendo lightning gun. Check out the trailer showcasing some of the update’s features below.
The studio noted that the introduction of Aim Down Sights to EMPULSE has been something that has been in the works since the launch of the Experimental Playlist system in Update #2. At the time, an early version of ADS was made available to players so that the development team could gather feedback. With ADS now being available on all weapons, there are also new red dot sight attachments for Coda, Percussion, Echo, Modulator, Compressor, Oscillator, and Opus.
The addition of ADS has also necessitated adjustments to crosshair behaviour, sight movement, and field-of-view shifts when a player is completely aimed in. It is also worth noting that ADS is meant to be an additive feature rather than an outright replacement for hip-firing.
As for the brand-new weapon, the Crescendo is designed around continuous fire, since its damage starts ramping the longer the player has the trigger held down. Unfortunately, missing the target will mean that this scaling damage effect is reset. The weapon was added as a new option for players when it comes to facing piloted mechs.
Other major features of the update include Custom Games version 1, which gives players access to a lobby setup, as well as clean interfaces through which maps and modes could be selected. Players can also set up custom rules and kick off a lobby without having to dig through advanced settings, and even tiebreaker rounds can directly inherit the match configuration from the base game options. Players who want to explore maps together and not worry about dying can set player health to 0, which turns it to infinite health.
Finally, the update has introduced revamps for two of the in-game maps: Plaza and Harbor. While the core layouts of the maps haven’t been changed, 1047 Games has instead focused on improving both maps’ atmosphere and mood. As an added bonus, players on Harbor will even be able to see ships and vehicles moving in the background. In terms of moment-to-moment gameplay, however, the sightlines have been left undisturbed.
The update comes just a couple of weeks after 1047 Games was hit with a round of layoffs. Associate art director Jonathan Kuo confirmed that this was the third round of layoffs to hit the studio so far, and has included team members like community specialist Jesse Griefenberg and director of QA Igor Krinitskiy.
In the meantime, EMPULSE is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. For more details on how it has been doing so far, take a look at our Early Access review.
