The first Splitgate is one of those promised stories that the gaming world has to offer, a romanticised cross-section of life as a curious first-time developer who went from nothing to everything - all thanks to passion, ambition and enthusiasm. Stanford students and roommates Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian chose to develop a game as part of their senior thesis and after six months of tinkering, they had both managed the feat of combining their respective favourite games, Portal & Halo, and cooking up a whole that was actually really fun to play. Splitgate was never an overnight sensation like many other indie hits, however. Rather, it took time for gamers to realise that the fusion of portal-placing and sci-fi action - with a focus on speed of fire and constant movement - was very appealing.
Splitgate 2 was released last Friday after about 28 months of development, it's made in the Unreal Engine 5 by just over 180 people, which of course makes it a high budget game, especially compared to its indie predecessor and its non-existent mini-budget. Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian are now the heads of 1047 Games and the hype for this release has been great. I've spent the last week popping out portals, jumping into them to try and flank my opponents and I've had a lot of fun in the process.
The single biggest difference is a slimmed down focus on portals. In the first game, portal jumps made up about 60% of the gameplay loop that Splitgate consisted of, while 1047 Games has made it clear for the sequel that it is no longer as important. If you want to win a lot of matches and outmaneuver the opposition, the portals are still super useful and effective, to say the least, but the focus has been changed and the game thus feels even more like Halo, more specifically Halo 4. The other big difference is that Splitgate 2 contains factions, classes, and they are three in number. Aeros are the fastest class in the game, moving very quickly and covering large areas in a short time, and their special abilities (Rush) recharge faster and can be used more often than the others. However, they are (obviously) more fragile, as part of the game's balance. The Meridian class are experts in energy-based weaponry (very similar to the Promethean guns from Halo 4) and can heal their fellow players, while the Sabrask are the game's 'tanks'. Slow defenders with more health and stronger shields.
One good thing that 1047 Games has done despite dividing the game into different classes is that they have made the differences between the classes much smaller than what we find in many other games of the same type. There's never a Hero Shooter feel here and you as a player never have to adapt and change your play style depending on which class you run into, something I was a bit afraid of beforehand. Instead, the division is more about helping your fellow players as, for example, Sabrask respawns mean that the others in your team get automatic refills of bullets while Meridian respawns mean that you heal up faster. This is a smart way to create variety and depth without excluding new players who do not yet know the classes themselves and thus automatically fall behind, as in Valorant or Apex Legends.
The third big innovation here is that this time the maps contain less verticality and are wider, flatter. The basic architecture of the maps is more Call of Duty and less Halo, so to speak, which was motivated by the developers as a way to let in new players and make Splitgate more beginner-friendly. I absolutely understand the idea but also can't let go of the fact that it was the high, spacious maps where I jumped between floors that partly made the predecessor such a different action game. Many of the new maps (there are 15 of them) feel a little unimaginative this time around, and shooting portals to 'merely' jump forward in a flat, low-ceilinged corridor is obviously not as attractive as hurtling between floors 100 metres in the air.
The single best part of this game is the feeling when shooting and jumping/sliding along the floor. 1047 Games has followed Jason Jones' old classic maxim that was at the centre of the development of the gunplay aspect of Halo: Combat Evolved and honed the feel of the weapons, the rate of fire versus the speed of movement and that rewarding, glorious Starsiege Tribes jump so much that I'm prepared to call the feel of the game the best in the genre right now. Every weapon feels heavy, powerful and has just enough recoil to force you to concentrate, but never so much that it just smokes and bangs like in Insurgency: Sandstorm. The movement pattern and the running pace are perfectly tuned and the contrast between how violent the guns are and how calm the pace of the sprint is, of course, extremely good and feels very Halo.
The aesthetics are nice too, just like in its predecessor. The portals and the way they look (one is orange, the other light blue) are stolen directly from Valve's Portal game while the rest is very reminiscent of Halo. In fact, the assault rifle model and one of the sniper rifles are direct copies of the UNSC weapons from Halo, which I see as an homage rather than theft, and an easy thing to like for Halo worshippers like yours truly. The maps are colourful and stylish too with just the right kind of sci-fi design. Aesthetically, this is 85% Halo 4 and 15% Apex, and that's certainly not a bad thing. Technically, Splitgate 2 isn't as impressive and most of this game looks like last gen graphics, not least the textures and effects from the more powerful weapons. The sound is all the better. The effects are musically heavy and the directional sound works well although sometimes it doesn't quite work due to the developers adding shrill crowd cheering to some maps, which spoils the feeling of being able to tell from which direction the approaching footsteps are coming. I hope 1047 patches this out.
Splitgate 2 is good, no question about it. If the first game was a mix between Halo 3 and Portal, the second is a mix of Halo 4 (including Ordinants and Perks) and Portal with a little bit of Apex thrown in towards the end of the cooking. The gameplay and weapon feel is near perfect, there's a ton of variety here and plenty of content considering it's completely free. I don't like the battle royale mode though, as the changing worlds and the way the storm slips in out of nowhere confuses an already jumbled set-up. It feels like a missed opportunity. Here 1047 should have just built a storm, nice map and thrown in 100 people instead of trying to innovate within a setup that does not need more innovation at the moment.
I will absolutely keep playing this and hope that the extortionate bundle deals are slimmed down price-wise and that the upcoming maps reintroduce some height, again. Beyond that and a pointless battle royale mode, it's easy to see that Slipgate 2 has managed to find its own groove despite basically just ripping off well-chosen parts from its competitors.