With the open alpha for Splitgate starting soon, we can now tell you about our time with a preview of the content available – and while I absolutely dragged my team down with some shocking performances, I can’t deny it was a vast improvement on the first playtest and showcases a strong foundation for the games full release later this year.
After a presentation from studio Ian Proulx and a quick Q&A session, we got a handful of hours to play together in modes that rotated in 15 minute increments. On offer in the session we played were classic TDM, along with newer modes like Domination, Firecracker, and the large-scale Multi-Team. While Splitgate 2 offers a spin on more traditional modes as it is thanks to the portals and fast paced gunplay, that Multi-Team mode is truly something to make the game stand out.
Think of it as a spin on Halo’s Big Team Battle, but with three teams of eight players on massive maps across the various game modes. We only got to play one map, but even across several rounds there were still plenty of new discoveries around each corner, and even whole sections I never got to.
The highlight in this was the Domination mode; here, four key locations are up for capture and the three teams battle it out to hold as many as possible to get up to 100 points. Again, it’s nothing new at its core, but the tri-team nature and the sheer scale of the maps made it a lot of fun to play. According to Proulx, this is the first map they designed and as such (in his opinion) is the weakest of the bunch as they’ve only got better at sight lines and layouts.
Returning players will be familiar with the Splitgate USP, but for those uninitiated think Halo X Portal. This is a fast paced arena shooter but with genuine, honest to goodness portals that all players can place down on specific surfaces in each map. What this leads to is utter carnage as players dip in and out of portals, being able to get across the maps in the blink of an eye. And while we can only see through our own portals (the other players portals are black slates), every one can move and shoot through anyone’s open portals at any time. Sometimes a jump into the unknown is just what we need to get a few kills or captures.
For me, the highlight of this short session was the sheer variety on offer. There is no shortage of FTP games – and particularly FTP shooters – out there vying for our attention. A lot of them follow the same track though, with gruff military dudes and dudettes and an overly serious tone. The bright, futuristic aethestic of Splitgate 2 is a nice change of scenery, and the fast arena combat is great fun to play.
Adding to that variety are the factions. Before each match players get to choose from one of three, each with their own loadouts and perks. With four players (or eight in the Multi Team mode) per team, some repetition is going to happen; indeed, the entire squad could be the same character if they like. Where 1047 encourages variety though is in the passive abilities, with a full spectrum of factions granting the best possible result. We even get a little indicator to show what faction and perk we’re missing on the loadout screen, and can easily change between classes both before and during a match.
I’m not totally sold on the weapon feel at this time though. The SMG’s and Assault rifle types were the easiest to use, but I found it hard to really gauge recoil and accuracy as easily as I’d have liked. I’ll caveat that with the fact I played terribly in the session, but I’m also not entirely sure that that was 100% my fault. I know, I know, a bad workman and all that, but I couldn’t settle on one gun that felt quite right. I’m hoping a bit more time with the open alpha might let me experiment a bit easier and find something to settle on.
It could also be that I’m traditionally a controller player. This was an option in the session but most players were on K&M so I wanted to try and get to grips with that more (plus, when I did switch to controller I did even worse…). According to 1047, they are going to have a loose version of Skill Based Match Making and input parity. This’ll mean that games will be varied in skill levels, with some games closer than others. One thing that was lamented among some of the attendees were other games having too strong a SBMM system, leading to very closely fought games at the expense of the occasional tougher matches. Personally I’m not sure where I sit on this debate (there was a lot of support in the Q&A for less SBMM) but once more players are on Splitgate 2 I look forward to seeing how it all fares.
Three hours and rapid fire round mode changes is barely enough time to really dive into the nuances of a game still in alpha development, but what I got to play was still a lot of fun. There are definitely tweaks that can be made to balancing weapons and feel, and I’m keen to see more of the Multi Team maps and how they fare, but I’m absolutely excited to jump back in, drop some portals, and hopefully not get my ass handed to me as much.
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