Splitgate 2 Excels At Feeling Like Its Own Thing
It’s still a Halo-style arena shooter with portals, but what has surprised me most about Splitgate 2 is how much more there is to go with that idea. With its new iteration of the game, developer 1047 Games has dialed in elements that help build out the game’s identity, complementing what was already there with some new additions that help Splitgate 2 feel different from most other shooters on the market.
Ahead of its closed alpha, I played Splitgate 2 for about four hours, some of that with other members of the GameSpot crew to field a full squad of four. The preview we played wasn’t everything the game will have to offer, but it did provide a solid look at the way new elements are pairing with old ones from the original Splitgate to help give the sequel even more of a specific, unique identity.
As mentioned, the underlying idea is the same: Splitgate is a free-to-play competitive multiplayer first-person shooter where the arena is covered in special walls, and on those walls, you can place portals. Shoot a portal at one wall and another at a second wall and you create a gateway that lets you enter one and exit the other, instantly traveling across the map. You can also shoot through the portals and chase opponents through their portals, which leads to a ton of fun ideas and chaos among people who know how to use the portals effectively as part of their competitive strategy.