Splitgate 2 is currently in Alpha testing, giving players a first look at 1047 Games’ sequel to its Halo meets Portal first-person shooter. With over 4,400 concurrent players jumping into the game, the developers should be able to get a lot of important feedback that will shape the rest of its development cycle. But, a few points of criticism keep on arising that could hinder its popularity if not addressed.
1047 Games has been handing out the Splitgate 2 Alpha keys via 2 methods, by requesting access on Steam , or by earning a key by claiming it from Twitch Drops from watching a streamer play the game. Unfortunately, this hasn’t seemed to go as well as I have seen with other campaigns. After finally racking up enough time to access the game, I was meant with a message on Twitch that read “This reward is no longer available,” meaning that Alpha keys were no longer being given out via Twitch Drops, this is the first time I have ever seen in during an active campaign.
So, over the past few days, all I have been able to do is read opinions and watch gameplay, and it seems that a lot of what will be spelled out in this Reddit post has been what has been said among the community, and I hope 1047 Games does take this into account as this I believe Splitgate has the potential to stand toe to toe with established IPs such as Halo and Call of Duty. At least in my opinion, Splitgate is one of the best competitive FPS games of all time, but I am worried about its future if the Alpha is anything to go by. Thankfully, after two days of waiting, I was finally granted access on Steam.
U/AzzaDeltta took to the Splitgate 2 sub-Reddit to discuss the current state of the Alpha, as well as give feedback based on their 2,000 hours playing the first entry. They first went on to praise Splitgate 2 , stating that “The maps are beautiful, the movement is superb, and everything feels optimized and modern. The weapon design and characters are excellent.
” However, they did echo the same sentiment that I have heard from many other players over the past few days, and that is “For some odd reason, this game feels generic.” They then gave their list of opinions and critiques with an “assembled short list of reasons,” To start, despite it being a core mechanic in Splitgate and what set it apart from other shooters on the market, portals have seemingly taken a backseat, much to the dismay of the current playerbase. AzzeDeltta stated that”Portals must be the core gameplay mechanic.
Not factions, load-outs or secondary gadgets, like how it feels right now,” noting that “This is a bad direction, and contributes to the aesthetic of a generic 2024 shooter game.” Factions and classes have become a core part of titles such as X-Defiant, The Finals, but this is starting to make every FPS game feel similar and none of them stand out from the others. The original Splitgate already has a low player count, so copying what more successful titles are doing, especially those with larger publishers, is unlikely to work and will lead to Splitgate 2 falling off very quickly.
They then went on to critique some of the gameplay mechanics, particularly Factions and the balancing issues that could occur saying”Different faction weapons and gadgets could become a balancing issue when, or if, more factions are added. There is less verticality in maps. It’s harder to go up and down floors, and portal surfaces are notably less common when compared to the first game, and also, they’re less creative.
” AzzeDeltta then noted how this wasn’t in the case in the first game, referencing the incredibly popular Oasis map that “used to have surfaces in all orientations.” Although Splitgate wasn’t particularly successful when compared to the likes of Call of Duty, Halo, and other established franchises, it did see a sizeable player base in its early years before falling off. There are many reasons why this may have been the case, but marketing was likely a culprit.
1047 Games was started by just four people who created Splitgate as a passion project, but the grassroots approach led to the game never gaining the reach it could have with the backing of a large publisher. It is a game that I have promoted and tried to spread the word about as much as I can, but the majority of people I talk about the game with have never heard of it. However, now that Splitgate 2 has a publisher, it does seem that they may be influencing the direction by adding more generic mechanics such as Factions, gadgets, and other mechanics seen in games such as Ubisoft’s X-Defiant.
The Reddit user then wrapped up the post with a heartfelt message to the developers saying “You have found the perfect recipe for a game the first time you developed Splitgate. Improvements were needed, but changing the core of the game like in this alpha, could backlash a lot in the existing community, and you may not even reach for new players if you try generic approaches.” They then concluded by saying “I can’t stop feeling that the essence of Splitgate changed and should be a priority of the dev team to recover and reinstate that identity and the feeling that the first game brought to the community.
” With Splitgate 2 only being in Alpha, and with a 2025 release date still far away, there is plenty of time for the game to shift gears if 1047 Games feels that it is in the best interest to succeed. But, I do worry that with so much time spent building the game around mechanics such as Factions, as well as it being a large part of the marketing materials, the developers may be reluctant to scrap a core feature. Reaching a larger audience with more mainstream mechanics is a logical approach, but with games such as X-Defiant already being on the market and very successful, standing out with the portals is what made Splitgate unique and I feel that straying too far away from this could come back and bite them in the long run.
.
