This new arena shooter slaps

As good as Infinite haloThe beta was the other day, she has a problem. Splitgate the same brand of shooter as well, and it has portals.

the Halo– An inspired arena shooter floats around Steam since May 2019, but after a decent opening the game was relatively dormant until the open beta was launched a few weeks ago. This is a good thing: despite the potentially huge wait times, Splitgate is absolutely awesome.

The basic pitch is pretty straightforward. Splitgate is an arena shooter game, which aims to keep people engaged by constantly spinning through a huge mix of modes. There are simple options like Team Deathmatch or Team Shotty Snipers which is only TDM but everyone is equipped with a shotgun and a sniper rifle.

Other modes include VIP, where two teams each have a VIP. You only get points for killing VIPs, who have double health to make up for the inability to launch portals. There is a mode with a disco ball, which is basically like a domination or a more mobile hard point. Team SWAT is a mode with combat rifles and pistols, where headshots are insta-kills. There are the usual offers for everyone, 2v2, solo and instagib, but there is also Teabag Confirmed, where players only get points. to pack the enemy.

It’s essentially a throwback to the days of casual Halo. Except you can launch portals all over the map – and you can see and shoot enemies through them.

You can jump / run through allied and enemy portals, although you can only see through your own. (However, you can still spam blindly through enemy portals.)

There is some obvious technical magic involved in creating a game that effectively renders two different sides of the map on your screen without wasting any time. But execution opens so many doors that it’s quite surprising that another developer hasn’t done so before. In the GIF above you can see the moment in my head it clicks. The first enemy drops and I’m running out of ammo to shoot the second, only to make me realize it – wait, I can just teleport over them and finish the job.

This simple thought process completely changes the way you think about shooters like this. This creates a lot of chaos, of course, although all players are equipped with an EMP grenade which will shut down enemy portals on contact.

Even still, the amount of possible angles is staggering. Imagine how the other player felt watching this on the killcam:

I actually opened a portal to cover the ground under me, which I then used to eliminate a player a hundred kilometers away.

And portals aren’t just for the right tactics. It’s almost tailor-made for clip-on moments like this that draw people into a game:

If you are wondering if this seems a little off balance, just remember: there are massive paths below and to the sides. People don’t to have to charge in the open as soon as a match starts, after all.

What makes this all stick is how quickly the casual matches of Splitgate are – usually eight minutes per song. It’s quick enough that if you don’t start to resent a card you don’t like, an uncoordinated team, or a mode you don’t like. It’s basically tailor-made to keep people playing round after round, providing enough variety between maps, modes, and post-match rewards to keep people engaged.

Splitgate is probably the best attempt I’ve seen in years to revive the arena shooting format, outside of the annual Call of Duty released. COD and Halo have a natural advantage in that they rely on an integrated audience, fans who will either flock or return to the game anyway because it’s their comfort food.

Many developers have tried to get arena shooters to stick, but with no success. Watch the rapid deaths of Rocket arena, Xbox exclusive Bleeding edge or the failure of Quake Champions to find a large audience. Usually it takes a theme or some special kind of crochet like the humans versus shark pattern in Depth from a few years ago – and even then, a lot of these games are losing speed quite quickly.

Splitgate has the best chance of staying the course: it’s free, the shooter is great, and it has a mechanic that fundamentally changes the way you experience these kinds of games. I’m glad the developers delayed its release long enough to sort the servers – it’s probably the only thing that seems to be stopping Splitgate to be a huge success. It already has a solid and functional cross-play, plenty of maps, over 15 modes, and custom lobby support. It’s not an AAA title, but it really plays like one.

I am not joking: Splitgate is it good. To give the open beta to try on Steam and find out for yourself. If you are on consoles, here is the PS4 / PS5 version and the link for Xbox One / Xbox Series S / X users.