I never played the original Splitgate as much as Brendy did. But I did have a lot of fun with its mix of Halo-style triggers and portals! So I was intrigued to give the Splitgate 2 alpha a shot and see if it had a bit more substance than its initial reveal, which felt like it was “Splitgate but with more money.”
Well, I think it's… a little serious? There's certainly more polish and a few more additions, but I didn't come away excited about its more competitive, class-based FPS leanings. I think it just takes a little longer, maybe, for a portal to open and rocket launchers, baseball bats, and zombies to come pouring out.
It's a little odd, I think, that the developers wanted Splitgate 2's first outing to be more of a competitive showcase, when the merits of the original Splitgate lay in the awkwardness of its shooting and portal jumping. And yes, from what I've played of the alpha, Splitgate 2 retains all the portal jumping and some of the awkwardness powered by those magical portals. You can stick your head through portals, hook guys with bullets in their necks, and then go back to normal as if you'd just punched someone at a McDonald's drive-thru. I certainly found myself rubbing my hands together and smiling a little at my largely accidental plays.
These portals have also been slightly improved, allowing you to stack portals on top of an enemy's to encourage flanking attacks, and some new tech allows portals to intelligently snap to positions they think you're intending to target (although optional toggles in the menu mean you can toggle these features on and off). I didn't notice these things much, to be honest, but then again I imagine more serious players will appreciate these micro-tweaks.
And that's the problem: Splitgate 2 felt more serious. The two modes we played, Team Deathmatch and Hot Zone, were both in keeping with the esports way of doing things. Team Deathmatch wasn't just a race to get as many kills as necessary, but it was divided into rounds, where the goal was to win three rounds in total, and one winning round. was a race to 15 kills. And Hot Zone was basically King Of The Hill, but the capture progress was shared between teams, so you could theoretically swoop in at the last minute and snatch the capture from the enemy at the last second.
Of course, I understand that Splitgate 2’s alpha preview event wasn’t going to show off everything it had to offer, and that these modes aren’t the finished product. Ian Proulx, co-founder and creative director of 1047 Games, even told me that what we played was a “very small sample of what’s to come,” and that they were waiting to see “how the community reacts.” To me at least, these modes felt a little unsettling and more in line with Call Of Duty’s lethal mix philosophy, with a bit of time to kill quickly. For fast-paced people who like to shoot and bend their elbows over their desks to secure headshots—perfect! But for a former Counter:Striker and Overwatcher who no longer has the bother of climbing the ranks, I really felt like the game was no longer made for my tired hands.
So yeah, I had fun jumping from portal to portal, but I found myself a little behind the pace and longing for a mode that wasn't so focused on pure skill and was more about flying through portals like you were in a futuristic playground. But then again, at least the weapons had some serious punch and delicious flavor. The wind-up of the shotguns and the swirling reload animations? A chef's kiss.
There are also a bunch of new factions, each with their own abilities. The idea being that teams will mix and match lineups to create on-the-fly combos that counter each other between rounds; an esports take likely inspired by the hero changes of Overwatch or Team Fortress 2. For example, the Aeros faction had an ability that sped you up a bit for a short duration. While another faction, which I’ll call the Purple Guys, let you throw a small area-of-effect dome that slowed down time for enemies who walked into it. Perhaps partly due to the nature of the preview, with teams full of newcomers, I certainly didn’t feel like our team choices hindered or enhanced the sense of cohesion.
To be honest, I rarely used my abilities and preferred to focus my few neurons on aiming and using my portals effectively. Maybe only once did I notice a real advantage given to us by a teammate, who used the equivalent of a wallhack ability to reveal enemy silhouettes and allow me to better track approaching enemies. It may just be that their usefulness changes over time and with the introduction of certain different modes.
My doubts aside, I think Splitgate 2 is shaping up pretty well. Its fundamentals are solid, and it now has a more premium feel, with shinier cards and smoother animations. But I remain a bit skeptical about its classes, which have had little impact on the games I played during the preview. I hope that the next time the game shows up, whether behind us or in front of us or both at the same time, it brings with it some silliness. Nothing serious, no fast-twitch muscle, no eSports. Just stupid stuff. Pure stupidity. I hope it reminds me, and others like me, that this is also a game for us tired people out there who just want a few slaps on the knees after a day of work.