The thing I loved the most about the original Splitgate was the fact that, to me at least, it felt like playing the original Halo with my pals at LAN parties back in the early 2000s. Not only that but it came with all the mod cons of the current gaming era, including a wealth of customisable lobbies and crossplay multiplayer so it was incredibly easy to set up our ideal matches.
Despite a large selection of game modes to choose from, the ones my friends and I gravitated towards were the simple Deathmatch lobbies, with the occasional bout of Gun Game thrown in for a bit of variety. We loved running around in these free-for-all game types, switching between weapons as and when we found them on the floor or indeed working our way through the game’s catalogue of guns one kill at a time in Gun Game.
Splitgate’s blend of Halo-esque nostalgia mixed with the strategic elements of portal-based flanking was an absolute hit in my gaming social circle. In our opinion it played better and had way more maps and options than Halo Infinite‘s multiplayer, and so Splitgate easily replaced that game as our FPS of choice when it came to meeting up online for a few casual gaming sessions.
This is why, when I first heard that Splitgate 2 was targetting 4v4, objective based gameplay with a slight hero-shooter twist, my heart sank. For me, the original Splitgate wasn’t about trying to break into esports or working out the perfect balance between you and your teammate’s abilities. No, it was about pure, chaotic, turn your brain off, old-school fun. Just like multiplayer gaming used to be back in the days of the original Xbox.
That’s why I entered yesterday’s Splitgate 2 Alpha debut with trepidation. Sure, it’s great to see a new Splitgate game, but is it great to have that game remove everything I thought was brilliant about the original? I didn’t think so, but I was willing to have my mind changed by letting the gameplay do the talking.
The Alpha, which you can sign up for on Splitgate 2’s Steam page and goes live for the public on the 21st of August includes two game modes, Hotzone and Team Deathmatch. Hotzone is basically King of the Hill with a twist: there’s shared capture progress between teams, so you can theoretically let the other team do most of the work and then swoop in and yoink the capture at the last second. Team Deathmatch on the other hand is the usual race to the most kills, but again with a new round-based twist. Here the first team to fifteen kills wins a round and then first team to win three rounds wins the match over all.
Both modes were fun to play, but ultimately as with any team-based shooter, success relied on the competency of the team, rather than your own performance, and this meant that my enjoyment of the matches would vary wildly depending on who I was placed with during the matchmaking process. I’m sure people with a dedicated bunch of teammates will appreciate these 4v4 modes much more, but for someone like me who likes to dip in and out for some solo fun, being thrown into the mix with unpredicatable randoms will wear thin quickly.
One of the reasons why random matchmaking in this game will put you on the back foot compared to players with proper clans is Splitgate 2’s introduction of factions. There are three available factions, each with their own abilities and playstyle focus, and a well oiled team will be able to use these differences to their advantage. A mix of randoms all picking the same character? Probably not so much. The Areos faction is aimed at people who excelled in portal-play in Splitgate and this faction comes with a speed boosting ability and injectible health boosters. I gravitated towards the tank-like Sabrask faction that seemed perfect for someone like me who prefers gunplay to portalling, but the Meridian faction with a wallhack ability is also available for those players who prefer playing as a support class.
Overall I didn’t find these abilities too intrusive or difficult to deal with, and I actually ended up loving the Sabrask’s portable shield ability, which came in handy when defending Hotzones. What did grate a bit more was the fact that each faction was locked to three unique weapons – each class has a spin on the carbine, assault rifle and SMG. They’re nice and customisable with lots of magazine and barrel attachments to choose from but still, I once again preferred the simplicity of the original game where I was able to run around and grab weapons from the floor.
There is something like that here though. Each map we played on had spawn points for two different power weapons: a rocket launcher that had an alt-fire mode that launched three rockets at once for maximum splash damage, and an assault rifle that could split into two guns for some epic Halo-style dual-wielding. They were optional pick-ups that gave you a slight edge in the proceedings, but with a life-death loop as fast as Splitgate 2’s, running to get them, rather than the objective, often felt like a waste of time.
Another new addition which felt great to me was the slide. Movement in Splitgate has always had a great flow to it, especially where the jet-pack double jump is concerned, and this additional option to skid across the floor firing guns as you go felt super slick and totally in keeping with the rest of the game.
There’s been a few improvements made to the portaling too – mainly in how you can now nudge friendly players’ portals when you fire your portal next to them. This basically means you’re no longer stopped from firing a portal at a portal wall if your teammate has been a bit clumsy and not left you enough room. Similarily, you can now remove enemy portals by firing yours on top of them instead of using EMP throwables, which have been replaced by optional equipment like grenades or health bombs. Each portal gets a few seconds of invincibility when it’s placed so you can’t instantly cancel a foe’s portal, but doing it this way was a natural improvement over Splitgate’s EMPs, which I often forgot to use anyway.
As you’ll be able to see if you watch the embedded live stream, I did have a good time with Splitgate 2’s alpha. It looks and feels like Splitgate, the tweaks for the portals and the movement scheme were very welcome indeed and oh my, that shotgun is still such a beautful thing to fire. When it comes to the focus on objective-based 4v4 team games though, I’m really not as enthralled.
I’m sure people will enjoy this new focus, especially those who value competitive gaming over everything else, but I’m hoping that, just like the original game, there will be a tonne of customisable lobbies and game mode choices in the finished product. This way players like myself can create nice little classic Halo-esque lobbies to muck around in, where everyone is on an equal footing and no one has to worry about getting stuck on a team with a random who lets the side down. If we end up having those options, Splitgate 2 will be one heck of a game and a regular in my rotation. If not, well, I can see myself splitting away from it before long.
