Splitgate 2 improves on the FPS' intoxicating blend of Halo and Portal: "You no longer have to get hung up on which button you meant to press"

I have many a fond memory of crowding into a basement as a teenager and knocking out hours of Unreal Tournament matches on Friday nights – eyes brining from the intensity and speed of those matches. Over the years few shooters have managed to capture that same feeling of infectious obsession, but boy Splitgate 2 comes close.

The first Splitgate was a real novelty, a game with such a uniquely vibrant idea that inherently made it compelling – what if Halo players also had a Portal gun? That idea is every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, and while Splitgate 2 doesn't quite have the veneer of freshness the first game did, it's a drastically more robust and competent shooter. That novelty of the portals is still alive and well, but this sequel already feels like a drastic refinement of the formula.

One Door Closes

Splitgate 2 is what you'd categorize as a "twitch shooter". Games focused on ultra-fast movement and strafing or dodging to avoid attacks, rather than having some kind of cover system. Speed is a definitive focus of this game, as you instantly move at a kind of sprinting speed. The core shooting feels tight and satisfying, but the special spark of Splitgate is that portal system.

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If you've played the first game it works very similarly here, but if you haven't it essentially works just like in Portal or Portal 2. Every map has specific areas scattered across it, on which you can fire a single portal, and then fire another elsewhere to create a passageway. Portals only work in these dedicated zones, not anywhere on the map – but there's enough space for portals to provide some fascinating options for strategy and flanking maneuvers.

That layer of portaling gives Splitgate a dynamic feel unlike any other shooter and an essential layer of unpredictability that often forces you, and your team, to adapt on the fly. But Splitgate 2 also makes some crucial changes to provide greater depth. Chief among these is a class system, with three classes currently in the game that each have different weapons, equipment, and their own unique skill.

The Aeros class' Rush ability grants a temporary speed and health boost, and its equipment largely focuses on aggression. Sabrask is a defender-type that can erect a shield wall and has support items to blind enemies or take them by surprise. Finally, Meridian's hypersight can mark both enemies and their portals and sports support equipment for healing, or even a Time Dome that slows down and speeds up enemies. The basic mechanics of each class are the same, but each one tweaks the approach you take, even more so when you weigh them against the classes your other teammates pick.

It's hard to overstate how much these changes make Splitgate 2 feel different from its predecessor – but mostly in a good way. These changes were meaningfully implemented in an effort to try and give Splitgate 2 more staying power, and longevity.

Infinite recursion

"When we first started on Splitgate 2, we literally went to the whiteboard and said, all right, what are the things we do well? What are the things we don't do well? And a lot of this is based on community feedback," says 1047 Games CEO Ian Proulx in a roundtable presentation. "What we saw is players would come in, play for about three or four weeks, and then it's like, I've experienced all there is to experience. I've played the game. I had a lot of fun with it, but I'm doing the same thing over and over and over again. And so we've addressed that from a number of different angles."

While the core gameplay of Splitgate 2 already feels like a strong step forward, where the game's true improvements become apparent are in its veritable cornucopia of different game modes. Chief among these are absurd multi-team portal warfare modes, where three teams of eight face off against each other.

According to Proulx, these modes are directly inspired by Halo's big team battle, and they're some of the most joyously chaotic experiences I've had in a shooter in years. On a massive glacier-filled map, these three teams duke it out to control zones, either multiple ones across the map at once or a single one, depending on if you're playing Hotzone or Domination.

This is where the sheer speed of Splitgate 2 feels like it comes together. Between the movement speed and smart map design, you never have to spend long getting back into the battle after respawning — not to mention the movement options opened up by portals. Of course, all the class skills and differences are also in play. At the same time, airdrops will randomly spawn across the map with special weapons like rocket launchers or laser guns, forcing you and your team to decide if you want to break off and pick up the drop, or keep pushing the objective.

But these massive battles turn into chaotic ballets of destruction, where oftentimes it's even hard to get your bearings. However, the chaos is what makes it so enthusing – and if you can coordinate with your team to come out on top, boy is it satisfying. The three-team approach also makes the matches feel more dynamic, providing some room for better competition than one team simply being able to dominate.

These big-team modes are by far the most promising aspect of Splitgate 2, especially if they can be iterated on with new maps, classes, weapons, etc. But the game has a selection of smaller modes to choose from too. There are all the standards like Team Deathmatch, Firecracker (Search & Destroy), and Domination. But my personal favorite is, by far, Splitball.

Split the difference

Splitball is essentially a twist on Capture the Flag, and within the game's universe is thematically presented as a sport. Spheres will randomly spawn across the map, and two teams need to compete by grabbing them and returning them to their base – once three spheres are in the base a countdown starts.

But this mode is where the portal system feels the most dynamic. Placing portals to create strategic routes across the map is vital as both teams try to gather the Splitballs. It's also a genuine rush to pop a portal while you're madly running away from the enemy team, letting you pop right into your base and deposit the ball with ease – if you pull it off. The combination of capture-the-flag elements and portals feels truly brilliant. Portals don't feel as effective in some of the other modes, like the big-team ones, but this is a pure example of how inherently compelling Splitgate's formula can be.

Even in regards to the portal system, there are almost imperceptible improvements Splitgate has made over the first game. For example, if you spawn a portal on the same wall as your teammate, it'll line up nicely and not overlap.

"A portal is still a portal, right? You spawn the two portals, they're connected. You see through it. You can walk through it. You can shoot through it, you can throw a grenade through it. It's all the same," Proulx says. These new little tweaks make portals much easier to understand at a glance, according to Proulx, and more intuitive in general. For example, if you spawn a single portal on the wall and fire on that spot again, the game knows that you’re trying to move the one you already spawned, instead of creating a new one. "You no longer have to get hung up on which button you meant to press," says Proulx.

The meat and potatoes of Splitgate 2 are clearly there – the shooting feels good, there's a wealth of dynamic modes, and that portal system still feels wonderfully unique. But the big question now is if the game truly will have the legs to stick around in a hyper-competitive shooter market. Games come and go in the shooter scene all the time, but Splitgate's smart refinements and individuality might be enough to bring it success. Splitgate 2 will be free-to-play at launch, and it certainly seems like 1047 Games is trying to take that player-first approach.

"We're innovating on gameplay here. We're not trying to innovate on monetization," says Proulx.

Aiming for something else? Check out our best FPS games list!