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Impulsion

Although short, the longevity is in its replayability to offer a greater challenge. If you’re a fan of Portal and want another quirky test-chamber 3D-platformer that tests your skills, reflexes and patience, you can’t go wrong with Impulsion.
Impulsion Game Cover
82%Game Brain Score
gameplay, graphics
story, replayability
83% User Score Based on 190 reviews
Critic Score 80%Based on 2 reviews

Platforms

PCWindows
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Impulsion Game Cover

About

Impulsion is a single player platformer game. It was developed by Plug In Digital and was released on July 19, 2018. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

Impulsion is a fast-paced first-person platformer designed to play with your nerves and reflexes! Make your way through 25 levels of increasing difficulty by manipulating physics to your advantage, shooting force fields to slow down or speed yourself up and the environment!

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Impulsion screenshot
Impulsion screenshot
Impulsion screenshot
Impulsion screenshot
Impulsion screenshot
Impulsion screenshot
Impulsion screenshot
Impulsion screenshot
Impulsion screenshot
Impulsion screenshot
Impulsion screenshot
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83%
Audience ScoreBased on 190 reviews
gameplay22 positive mentions
story7 negative mentions
  • Innovative and satisfying first-person platforming gameplay centered on unique dual impulse guns that manipulate momentum for speed and jumps.
  • Challenging yet fair level design that encourages mastery, with well-crafted obstacle courses and rewarding moments of speed and precision.
  • Strong replayability through leaderboards, competitive and speedrun modes, appealing to players who enjoy refining skills and speedrunning.
  • Narrator's voice acting and snarky repetitive dialogue on death are annoying and detract from the experience for many players.
  • Relatively short campaign with only 25 levels, limiting content and potentially reducing value for those not interested in speedrunning.
  • Steep difficulty curve and sometimes frustrating mechanics, including inconsistent hitboxes, limited checkpoints (especially in final level), and some imprecise controls.
  • gameplay
    81 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Impulsion offers a fast-paced, physics-based first-person platforming experience centered around innovative impulse guns that manipulate momentum, creating challenging yet rewarding gameplay that emphasizes precision and speed. While the mechanics are praised for their fluidity and novelty, the game has a steep learning curve and some find the speed control repetitive or inconsistent, with minimal narrative and presentation detracting from the overall experience. Nonetheless, its well-crafted levels and skill-based challenges make it particularly appealing to fans of speedrunning and mastery-focused platformers.

    • “The game belongs to a small but distinctive genre of fast-paced physics platformers that blend puzzle mechanics with precise movement challenges.”
    • “The combination of momentum-based puzzles, fast movement, and carefully structured obstacle courses creates a gameplay loop that is both challenging and satisfying.”
    • “Once players learn to master the impulse mechanics, navigating the levels can become an exhilarating test of precision and speed.”
    • “Game has worst speed mechanic I've ever seen where you just have to constantly left click spam blue 'speed up' bubbles at your feet literally every 0.5 seconds to maintain max speed.”
    • “Once or twice, or doing it in a game where death doesn't occur much can be fun, but a game that asks you to try sections dozens of times to overcome them makes this mechanic pretty annoying.”
    • “I think the mechanics are a bit too wonky for me to feel like this is something I can self challenge and try to get better in.”
  • story
    33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story in this game is minimal and primarily serves as a basic backdrop to support the gameplay rather than delivering a rich narrative experience. Voice acting and character dynamics are generally seen as weak or inconsistent, with the AI narrator adding some personality but often considered annoying. Overall, the story is secondary and underdeveloped, appealing mainly to players focused on gameplay rather than plot depth.

    • “Well done dev team, I was blown away by the experience and story mode.”
    • “(generic sci-fi setting with a plot you could just ignore.) For me, I really enjoyed it.”
    • “You can complete the story in a couple of hours and then spend however long you feel like perfecting and optimizing your speedruns.”
    • “Although Archie's commentary adds personality, the story never evolves into something more substantial.”
    • “There's no story to move forward, nothing to reward progress except access to newer, harder levels that look pretty much the same as the last one.”
    • “The story feels undercooked, as there is very little to the dynamic between the player and the overseeing AI.”
  • graphics
    16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's graphics feature a clean, minimalist, and futuristic sci-fi aesthetic that is visually appealing but not groundbreaking. Level designs and visuals are well-crafted and run smoothly, effectively supporting fast-paced gameplay. While the graphics are praised for quality and performance, some find the art style somewhat repetitive or typical for the genre.

    • “It's an amazing game, I love the physics, the movement, and the graphics of this game.”
    • “The futuristic graphics are nice and the controls are easy and work fluently, which is very important for a fast-paced platformer.”
    • “The aesthetic does feel alright for what it's going for, but it isn't anything spectacular.”
    • “Visuals are your typical lab testing facility, simple yet reliable.”
    • “Visually, the game adopts a clean and minimalist science-fiction aesthetic.”
  • replayability
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Replayability in the game is primarily driven by its competitive and speedrunning modes, with leaderboards encouraging players to improve their times. While the main campaign is short and somewhat limited in content, the challenge of achieving better scores and rankings provides significant incentive for repeated playthroughs. Overall, the game’s replay value shines for those who enjoy time trials and competition, though it may feel brief for players seeking a longer adventure.

    • “In addition to the main progression through the test chambers, Impulsion includes competitive elements that extend its replay value.”
    • “While it is rather short, Impulsion shines with the replayability it offers in both a competitive and a speedrun mode, and I more than recommend giving it a shot if you can acquire it at a lower price or on sale.”
    • “It is addicting going for better times and better slots on the leaderboards; this gives the game so much replay value.”
    • “While the replayability offered by speedrunning and leaderboard challenges helps extend the experience, players looking for a longer adventure may find the content somewhat limited.”
    • “The game is made to be replayable and encourages you to try to get faster times, but it does feel like it ends just a little early.”
    • “Realistically, the only replay value in the game comes with speedrunning.”
  • music
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's music features energetic electronic and drum-and-bass tracks that complement the futuristic setting and fast-paced gameplay, enhancing player momentum and engagement. While some find the soundtrack repetitive and unremarkable after a few levels, others appreciate its catchy, non-tiresome nature that adds to the challenge and atmosphere. Overall, the music is well-produced but may benefit from more variety to maintain long-term interest.

    • “The audio presentation complements the futuristic setting with energetic electronic music and subtle environmental sound effects.”
    • “The soundtrack maintains a steady rhythm that matches the fast pace of the gameplay, reinforcing the sense of momentum as players move through the levels.”
    • “However, once you get past the lack of content, the game's controls feel quite polished, and the original soundtrack is lovely, putting on a great feeling during your countless retries.”
    • “The music isn't interesting; after the first 3 levels, you've seen everything the game has to show you visually, now you just have more and more difficult obstacles to overcome.”
    • “Music and sounds are okay.”
    • “But that can always be remedied by muting the game and listening to music in the background.”
  • humor
    9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game, primarily delivered through an AI narrator, starts off as sarcastic and amusing but quickly becomes repetitive and annoying due to limited and overused voice lines. While the commentary has some initial charm, many players found it lacking in originality and wit, making it less effective compared to similar games with stronger comedic writing.

    • “Overseeing the tests is an artificial intelligence named Archie, whose sarcastic and occasionally humorous commentary accompanies the player throughout the experience.”
    • “Which is funny due to the fact that I love skill-based movement in video games.”
    • “Also the sassy narrator is really funny the first 10 times you hear him when you die, but after a while it's just the same voice lines over and over again.”
  • optimization
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers well-optimized performance, allowing mid-tier GPUs to easily exceed 120 FPS, while its challenging performance rating system adds depth for players seeking speedrunning or mastery beyond level completion.

    • “For players who enjoy speedrunning or perfecting their performance, this feature adds a layer of long-term challenge beyond simply completing the levels.”
    • “Each level has a performance rating, so getting that S rating might be difficult.”
    • “Performance is great; any mid-tier GPU should be able to push above 120 FPS.”
  • grinding
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in the game is notably demanding, especially in later levels that require numerous retries and extended playtime to overcome. However, the competitive and speedrun modes add replayability for those willing to invest time grinding for leaderboards, offering a challenging and adrenaline-filled experience.

    • “Some parts of the later levels are stupidly difficult and can only be beaten through hundreds of deaths and hours of grinding.”
    • “There's some replayability after you finish the game with a competitive mode as well as a speedrun mode which are great if you don't mind spending time grinding leaderboards.”
    • “Grinding for good times on individual levels as well as the entire speedrun is challenging and gives you a good adrenaline rush.”
  • emotional
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users feel the game's emotional impact is diminished by frustrating mechanics, such as unresponsive or inaccurate touch detection, which make the experience feel incomplete and less satisfying.

  • character development
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game’s character development is limited, resulting in a more mechanical feel that may disappoint players seeking rich narrative and deeper storytelling compared to other puzzle platformers.

  • stability
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game demonstrates solid stability with no glitches or unfair deaths reported; all challenges are attributed to player skill. Despite frequent deaths on certain difficult levels, the gameplay remains consistent and reliable.

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80%Critics’ scoreBased on 2 critic reviews
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80h Median play time
80h Average play time
80-80h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Impulsion is a platformer game.

Impulsion is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 80 hours playing Impulsion.

Impulsion was released on July 19, 2018.

Impulsion was developed by Plug In Digital.

Impulsion has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its story.

Impulsion is a single player game.

Similar games include DeadCore, Cloudbuilt, SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell, Remnants of Naezith, Q.U.B.E. 2 and others.