Incredibly fun but how tf you going to put a fully functioning store page, a battle pass and three type of currency all in a beta..... wild times

hitting the "Invite Online Friends" button invites literally everyone online on your friends list, which is IMO the most catastrophic implementation of the Steamworks API I've seen in eons. I received a lot of awkward messages from people... (as for the game itself, the core game feel has *something* there but everything is kind of lacking in terms of map design and some really rough implementation of modes that were much better in the first, ignoring the issues right now with servers / progress not saving)

This game smokes. Sometimes you just lock in and feel that tickle in your balls that just makes the dopamine hit 10x harder. The matches are tight and high octane, which just adds to the tenacious fun of the game. The Cadence is by far the best gun in the game no question, If you loved the DMR in Halo Reach, use this SHIT brother. It ROCKS.

<*>Runs better than any other UE5 shooter. <*>No recoil patterns to learn. <*>No need to ADS unless you *actually* want magnification. <*>Tracking-heavy, not overly headshot-focused. <*>Portals solve defender's advantage, punishing degenerate angle-holding gameplay. <*>Portals are reined in enough that you don't have to think about them in every single fight. <*>Movement is snappy, smooth, and not floaty, with no esoteric tech. <*>Objective-based gamemodes are focused on individual core skill expression, rather than contrived tasks or cringe notions of teamwork. <*>No time-wasting nonsense (looting, walking simulator activities, camping, sneaking, etc.) <*>No annoying features (traps, vehicles, killstreaks, support classes, health pickups, menuing, visual clutter, downed-state, reviving teammates, armor, etc.) <*>Aim assistance for controllers isn't egregious. <*>Keybinds aren't bloated. In sum, this is the best arena shooter. The gameplay is perfect. It's pure, clean, and free of the bad design ideas that plague every other non-dead shooter. Nothing else is even worthy of comparison. That said, I don't like how long it takes to unlock the SMG for each class. All weapon archetypes should be available immediately. Progression should unlock better or more interesting weapons, not fundamental weapon types. The game would be much better if they just scrapped the class system entirely and allowed the player to choose from every ability, equipment item, weapon, and perk simultaneously when creating a loadout. All who left negative reviews because of launch issues are entitled curs.

Not gonna support a company whose CEO wears a MAGA ass hat on stage. not only is the sequel to splitgate worse than the original, both in how its minimized the use of portals (yknow, the selling point of the game) but in how the money this game generates will be going towards bigots who believe in the deporting of innocent people, and the genocide of LGBTQ+ people. fuck off magas

bro wears a make fps games great again hat and makes the most expensive store I've ever seen and releases an unfinished battle royale

I'll start right off the bat with the best praise I can give it: It's free, is built on the solid foundation that Splitgate 1 was, and has room to turn itself around. With that said, this game felt like a downgrade from Splitgate 1 in almost every way to me. My biggest gripe is that the map design feels far less vertical, with less reason to actually use portals outside of speeding up some travel time. It's often felt easier and more efficient to forego portals in some gunfights in lieu of traditional FPS gameplay. Some maps feel a little crowded, with several instances of spawning with somebody about to turn a corner behind your back, an issue I feel is made worse with less portal surfaces. I will admit that I do not remember the gunplay from Splitgate 1 well, but so far I do not enjoy what is available in the game. Weapons and hits don't feel like they give enough feedback to the player, making them feel floaty, light, and making me unsure of how much I've actually damaged another player. And I'd be able to excuse all of this as "yeah, it's just a beta, so I can't judge it too harshly", but that gets thrown out the window for me once you start selling microtransactions. The monetization. It's simply gross. Microtransactions, Battlepasses, FOMO, the usual suspects are here. These do not belong in a beta. These hardly belong in a full game but that's the ecosystem we deal with now so whatever. And so I will judge this game as a paid product, because it *is* making money. Splitgate 2's "class" system of the Aeros, Meridian, and Sabrask factions comes the issue that buying a skin means it can only be used for that specific class. It feels like an arbitrary limitation made to sell more skins so you aren't stuck either potentially sandbagging a team playing a class that isn't needed, or playing a class that doesn't have the skin you'd like. I hope to see 1047 turn this game around, because I truly like Splitgate 1 in both concept and execution. If somehow the game is improved, I'll change my review, but as this game stands, it was not worth ending support for Splitgate 1 at all.

Alright, this is partially a rant review. I played around ~600 hours of Splitgate 1 despite the dead playerbase and the fact it was bots half the time because I genuinely enjoyed it. I don't enjoy Splitgate 2. I am aware of the fact I've played >3 hours but I can already tell its not for me, because its taken out some of the literal defining and best features of the first game. I've noticed a lot I dislike but there's 4 major issues I've noticed: Abilities, Portals, Maps, Weapons/Factions. Abilities are so half baked and I never found myself using them, the only one ever worth using is the literal wall-hacks which (side-rant) COMPLETELY defeats the purpose of using portals as a sniper position while hidden away, so much joy was had from sitting in stadium and sniping people from the many vantage positions and moving in the shadows, that's all gone because your position is constantly revealed, side rant over. Abilities aren't fun, they don't add to the game it feels out of place and are so horribly balanced that I don't pick factions for the ability but rather the passive someone else hasn't taken! This leads to the other issue with factions and weapons which ill get to later. Portals have been forced into a corner because of abilities and now only have the E key for both instead of Q and E for the different portals which (personally) I feel takes away an intuitive portal mechanic of choosing which portal you want to put down. ALSO, grenades in SG 1 were solely for taking out other portals and were limited to 3, yes these were replenished with every kill but it still made deleting others portals less of a simple thing, you had to be close and have grenades. Instead they've been replaced with faction specific specially grenades that tie into the theme of the classes, a fine idea. Only issue is now to delete an enemy portal you use... your own portal. Why did no one see how this takes away all threat of enemy portals? Whats the threat of a portal camper using a vantage position if I can delete their portal from across the map? I no longer have to risk myself to break their portal or find the player and kill them, I can remove it and move on. This isn't resolving an issue its taking away gameplay. I again find myself not using portals as much and then remember "oh yeah, I play this because of the portals" and force myself to. Another issue I have which ties into the issue I have with the maps is the lack of options in placement. In SG 1 there were spaces for portals EVERYWHERE and in 2 its kinda the same, but there is a very noticeable lack of floor and ceiling spaces which takes away 2 things; 1, movement, I can no longer fly over maps using the velocity of my fall into a portal and 2, element of surprise, I can’t pop out of the floor or fly out and shotgun the enemies, I have to use the ""IMPROVED"" movement system and slide around. THAT IS NOT SPLITGATE. I could jetpack and act like the sun across the map in 1, now I'm bunny-hopping around in my portals in the limited spaces with every flank exposed and probably getting sniped from god knows where. However, portals are made even more redundant because of the crap ass maps. I’m sorry but civility out the window, a veteran is going to sit you down and tell you about Stadium, Pantheon, Abyss (the og not the revamped shit), Club Silo and Atlantis. 10/10 maps, equal areas of cramped portal dense places prime for portal jumps, large central areas for group fights. Beautiful maps all equally different, with high and low places. The bottomless areas of Olympus and Highwind, the 2 central battlegrounds of Lavawell. I have genuine nostalgia for these areas because I had so much fun in them. I don't have fun in Eden, or fucking Ozone. I no longer get a choice where I play. they're pretty, everything looks good I won’t deny, but gameplay wise? Terrible. They're cramped, I mean micro sized, they lack verticality, they feel confining and somehow horribly open. I remember jumping across foregone destruction and feeling like a god but these maps are small and lack creativity. I can’t speak much for the 24 player maps except that they were a wasted opportunity, So large and empty, I constantly feel like I'm rushing to get into the fight only to die and have to figure out how to get back into the thick of it. The weapons and factions system was the most disappointing thing however. I could learn to love the maps, the abilities, the portals, but these? I wasn't aware till I was downloading and saw the insanity of the faction pack prices. As for the factions themselves, they're fine, but weapons are the worst. SG 1 (another "back in my day" moment) always had fun gunplay, because we didn't use the assault rifle or the carbine. This ties into another issue I have with the new gamemodes, but a standout of it was always playing the more interesting gamemodes. Shotty snipers (my beloved), Splitball, Railguns, Fiesta. It was peak Splitgate, even Evolution became a favourite because of the weapons. An entire arsenal of weapons to master and use, I didn't need attachments or dangly ass charms on them, skins were enough, I wasn’t limited to a primary and secondary, I could have every weapon to match my playstyle. Why not build upon that and make more weapons?! Special weapons are relegated to long spawn times in a few missions and are barely worth using since they disable the use of abilities, portals and grenades (WHY?) for balance? Why can't I be a massive threat the other team needs to take down, if you give me limited weapons make getting the specials a must have! Its a tone shift to the game and everything so far feels like a move away from Splitgate towards most popular FPS games today, the heros systems, the sliding, smaller maps, limited weapons. It doesnt feel zany or whacky arena shooter anymore it feels stock standard with a little flavour of different. I want to make a final point, why so much to buy? The founders packs, the massive skin shop ingame. I understand its a free game but so much feels geared towards it and the amount of notifications that I got something new but then also showing what I could get if I spent some, feels so wrong. Paired with the empty feeling of lobbies (lack of a chat), the less compelling announcer, the strange feeling I get of quietness. What I think the biggest problem with the Splitgate 2 beta is its soulless, a direct move away from the original despite it meant to be a better version. I wrote this review because the original was abandoned for this and I wanted this to be good, and I was disappointed. Try the game, its free, maybe I'm expecting it to be too much like the og and I've let that cloud my opinion, but that's what I've thought in my gameplay so far.

The game is fun. Review bombing a free beta for server issues day 1 is disgraceful. Solid mechanics, need to see how this develop.

**Not going to factor in the server issues for this review** Edit: So I was able to spend some more time with the game after the servers went back online and... I'm still on the fence. There is a solid foundation here and the core gameplay is competent. I pushed myself to use the portals more often and they are still as satisfying to use as in SG1. The maps just feel like they are playing it way too safe. Once you play the maps for a longer period of time the portal routes people will take begin to become more and more predictable, this is because there are generally only one to two visible portal routes in your view at any given moment. 99% of the time if someone fires a portal it's probably behind you so just turn around. I got a few chances to play the 24 player mode and I LOVED that map, it had tons of portal surfaces, some cool verticality, and it was generally just pretty to look at. The problem is that there is no action happening on 90% of the map, making it all dead space basically. If you want to be participating in the action you will spend most of your time running to and hanging out around objective B. Basically you spawn in near A /C, capture that, then run to B to cap & get a couple kills while the next wave of people spawns in behind you, they back-cap A/C then run to B and the cycle continues until one team randomly has enough points to win. Also I was looking at the store again and I apologize, F2P folks we actually get 2 weapon charms in the free pass! Alternatively if you want free stuff you can make yet another external account, link that to your twitch, then link it all to the game, and then spend several hours watching someone you don't care about for a chance to get twitch drops. Otherwise we are kind of SoL. The more I look at the stuff in the store the more I kind of feel like this game is just a way to extract monetary value from the goodwill they had leftover from SG1 fans. Also is it just me or does a lot of this stuff feel very Warframe-y? Especially that Battlepass skin. From playing more I feel like the maps for 4v4 are a little too small or the respawn times a bit too short. Something about the balance for some of the modes just feels off. I especially don't like playing Firecracker, you have to essentially stand still for several seconds to either plant/defuse a bomb on an objective. The issue is that by the time you kill someone, walk to the objective, and start doing your thing, the person has likely already respawned and is shooting you. This meta has sort of emerged where you just all go Sabrask for the shield and take sandstorm grenades. Build a dome of shields around the one guy on the objective and then spam nades while you wait for shields again. Some of the matches are just over way too quickly too, you're waiting a couple minutes sometimes from the point of clicking play to having control of your character in a match. So when a match is over in just a few minutes due to it being a stomp in one direction or the other then it just kind of leaves you feeling unsatisfied. The shield feels more and more unfair the more I use it, it just totally shuts down people and can tank so much damage sometimes. A lot of enemies think it will block damage for them if they are behind the curved side of it, but it lets you fire both ways and blocks them both ways so if they rush you can just slide through it and fire behind you. I will likely keep playing to see what full launch looks like so I can update this review and hopefully change it to a thumbs up. The gameplay is still pretty good I just want them to spice things up a bit and experiment more with the portal gameplay. It feels like we've taken steps backwards from SG1 in a lot of areas. I currently don't see myself spending money on anything in the game and not sure if I will stick around for even a full season. I truly don't mean to disparage anyone or downplay the work that must have went into making this game, there is clearly some love still left for this IP at 1047 I'm just not sure I like the direction this is going. There are wayyyyy too many other live-service games out there right now and this is another game that wants you to log in every single day and grind out daily missions so you don't miss out and fall off the wagon. Original Review: In Splitgate 1 the entire game was centered around the portals. There were portal surfaces EVERYWHERE and you could control which color portal you placed and which color portal you wanted to shut behind you. You can go in the settings and change back to the SG1's portal controls but most people will never do that. In this game they've dumbed down the portal system and dialed back on the amount of portal surfaces in the maps. I admit that people got really really good at SG1's portals and it was hard for new players to come in and learn from the ground level. But now in SG2 there are some rounds I just entirely forget that I have portals because the use cases are much more niche now. On top of that if you're at all decent at FPS games it's generally a better idea to just try and out-aim your opponent. The TTK in this title seems to have been reduced a bit since SG1, giving you less room to try and set up a quick portal to turn the tables. The first few matches people were using tons of portals, but the more I play the less I see them being used. In Splitgate 1 I was constantly using the portals to traverse the map and get up and down between levels. Typing that out also reminded me that the maps back then were a lot more vertical in general, with more opportunities to do crazy stuff like portal jumps and ceiling portals. Most of the times in SG2 when I use portals it's just to save myself a few seconds of sprinting to the objective. It's also way easier to punish people for using portals with the way grenades work in SG2. It genuinely feels like we're being actively discouraged from using the core mechanic of the game. I hope future maps incorporate more surfaces for portals and more genuinely useful portal routes. I hate to rag on an "open-beta" but you can already buy hundreds of dollars of crap in the shop. I've learned the hard way to not buy this junk since I know that all these live-service games have an expiration date and all my purchases will one day be deleted. They've completely massacred any real sense of cosmetic progression unless you pony up for the pass and generally just missed the mark on customization. In SG1 you could get individual armor parts from different sets and make a whole completely new and fresh design by mixing and matching pieces. Granted this was also mostly stuff you had to buy or find in crates, but now in SG2 you just get a full body skin with no room for personalizing, F2P players also get basically nothing in this new pass, I think we get one emote and a handful of purple coins, There is basically no cosmetic progression whatsoever if you are a F2P player, if there is I haven't found it yet. I also kind of don't like the signature skills each class gets. Some skills are just flat out better than others and it doesn't feel fair. The shield wall is a literal gamechanger, meanwhile the time slowing dome does next to nothing lol. Also skins are tied to the three factions, if you buy a skin for Sabrask and you want to use that skin, you have to pick Sabrask, which means if someone else on your team doesn't want to play the other factions you guys will be missing out on team synergy perks. Overall the game feels like a sanitized version of SG1 that is trying to reduce its skill ceiling to appeal to a wider audience. It adds some hero shooter mechanics and has a lot of the monetization systems that we have all come to universally hate. Instead of innovating on the things that made SG1 unique, it is trying to be more like other popular games. The game is fun for a while, but it doesn't have it's hooks in me like the first game did.

I REALLY want to play this game, but I can't due to the anti-cheat. It's been 10 months since the first alpha test. Doesn't even work under Proton. Saying that you support "Steam Deck" reads as "we specifically modified our anti-cheat to check for Steam Decks". I don't want this practice to be normalised. Please do better than this. You even had a native Linux build for Splitgate 1.

Honestly, I do like this game. I had fun in the beginning, the first couple matches were all close score wise and really fun. Then I had a couple hours of nothing but people who were either cheating or literal e sports pros who do nothing but play shooters all day long. The matchmaking is completely unbalanced, I had far too many matches where the enemy team all had 30 plus kills when my teams highest was 12. Thats not fun. Also the gun balancing is not good. My friends and I were all still on the first weapons and we couldn't do anything against someone using the smg. Even running in pairs we would get sprayed down and killed with one clip from medium/long range by one guy with an smg before two of us could kill him with the ar. This game has loads of potential and I want it to succeed but if it launches with these problems not fixed it'll be a no from me.

Not only does the anticheat not support wine this time, the devs apparently didn't learn anything from Splitgate 1 about how players don't want to play against bots.

I find the game fun but I cannot recommend this game over Splitgate 1. I really hope the devs decide to change the game back towards what it was like in Splitgate 1. Here are my list of complaints about Splitgate 2 that I believe Splitgate 1 did better: 1) Lack of (meaningful) portal pads. Portal play is worse than the first game. First, the portal pads are not where you'd expect them to be, or there is just a lack of them in key locations. Where there are portal pads, they are often not in high-traffic areas or it is difficult to chain that location to another strategic location or at least near to it. I find myself using portals much less than Splitgate 1, including going through them and especially shooting through them. 2) The wanna-be-hero-shooter aspects of the game are just.... well poor. The abilities do not really do much and I see very few people using them in ways that add a lot of meaning and depth to the game. You'll see the occasional wall, or occasional detecting enemies, but more often than not you just see people running and gunning. Beyond abilities, locking weapons that you like behind certain classes is not good for this type of game. It makes me feel like there isn't one class that I particularly like, and each one has things I hate. The Sabrask have great grenades and ability, the Meridian have better weapons, and the Aeros lack anything particularly good about them. This is evidenced by the fact you do not see them as frequently as the other two factions. I wish I could customize my loadout the way I like it rather than feeling unhappy with each class somewhat similarly. It's hard to say "I really like this faction" in this game in my opinion. It also sucks to now be able to access the weapons/equipment/perks/grenades that I want in one person. 3) The maps are just so much worse than 1. Now I get this is a beta, but similarly to point 1), the maps just feel boring, too spaced out, and not as maneuverable as the first game. I miss the high speed rapid movement gameplay of the first game. 4) The gunplay is worse than Splitgate 1. Most people rock the stock assault rifle because you can fully-auto cross-map kill people with it. Guns do not feel as snappy nor as uniform as Splitgate 1. The charm of Splitgate 1 is that every person had access to the same loadout options so which team won largely came down to skill - both aiming and map portal sense. 5) Lack of independent portal control with grenades. Self-explanatory. I doubt the devs will listen to this, but what I would like to see is the game return to a more raw skill, fast-paced, and map-intelligence based shooter. The simplicity of the "Halo + Portals" model was what made me fall in love with the original. The half-baked wanna-be-hero-shooter just isn't done well and the game doesn't feel as clean nor as maneuverable as the first and that makes me disappointed.

fun but guys chill the game JUST DROPPED. you dont need to negative review it that fast (I should have elaborated before, I more of meant don't go and call the game ass, do give feedback. I'm just saying cause I saw a few reviews calling the game overall trash, sorry for misunderstandings that may have happened due to lack of explanation. I am apologizing.)

I really really want to like this game. I dont like the way the guns feel, its not as intuitive to pick up as splitgate. The original splitgate formula was great and honestly in my opinion just needed more content. I waited a year or so for this game only to be disappointed. I will give it time. I really want to like this game and im willing to try again later. But from what I just played I honestly cannot recommend it. Thankfully its in beta and the community will get a chance to speak up and let the game get shaped into what everyone wants.

Cannot recommend the game at this state. 2 games of 30+ kills and my gun isn't even level 2. Microtransactions instead of progress rewards. Abysmal. I was looking forward to this game too. Unfortunate they went the corporate greed route. Maybe if they change it I'll continue playing, but I highly doubt they will. What a waste of development. How did you think the consumer would enjoy this? Yall got a lot to change if you wanna have any active playerbase.

Really wish devs would stop using the term beta for their fully released game. A beta means you are testing and gathering feed back without charging the players. Last epoch had many open betas to test and gather feedback and never opened their cash shop for players to spend money. As soon as you start accepting money you are a fully released product and will be judged as such. Severs broken at launch and matches full of bots. But there is still the cash shop you can look in.

after watching SGF today, i CANNOT recommend this game. First off, battle royals are a dying genre, and the fact that they are making it clear that that's where the focus was is lame. MORESO THOUGH, the announcement being made by a guy in an almost MAGA hat is making me just uninstall the game. That's not something I want to support.

I was a HUGE fan of the original Splitgate, and this game is clearly pandering to the more "call of duty"/"valorant" fans of games instead of what it was before, which felt more like Halo + Portal. The game feels far too fast paced than it did before. The game lacks a "raw input" setting for mice controls, so the mouse acceleration feels clunky and over-tuned, making aim incredibly difficult when visiting it from other games. This feels like a huge slap in the face and disappointment from the previous game. This game might be some people's cup of tea, but for anyone that liked the original game, this game will not sate that need. Time to kill feels horrendous for the style of game. Hero shooter format is overdone and slop.

Uninstalling the game (and most likely not touching or supporting again) after that horrific Summer Games Fest stream. That hat was fucking embarrassing for a grown man to be wearing on stage while announcing his lackluster video game. Game had potential and they flushed it down the toilet, and no not JUST because of the hat, but everything has just been ball drop after ball drop. A husk of what we had hoped this game could be. And if you look in the Discord for this game, it is currently blowing up with people who are also insanely let down by this, and rightfully calling it what it is: slop.

*My review and recommendation has nothing to do with beta issues like bugs or connection problems, just gameplay* Back when SG1 first came out, Halo Infinite was still in development. I remember thinking at the time "man, why would anyone play the new Halo or Call of Duty when they could play this?" Not saying they play all that similarly, just pointing out how much better it was than the upcoming competition at the time. I feel kind of the opposite about SG2; it feels great, sounds great, great animations, great style, and it meets all of the expectations you would have with a competent shooter releasing in 2025... but for those same reasons it feels generic, repetitive, and like I've already been here hundreds of times before. I feel like this game has focused on the AAA multiplayer shooter crowd but if that is the case then it seems like its going to bleed players because I can't find the reasons why they would continue to play this over the other offerings. If you loved the first game like me and you also love this game I would really love to know why.

I love it when my brain works at a level above the opponents and I portal right behind them without them seeing. I miss every shot and they have enough time to turn around and kill me, but I can rest peacefully knowing I have the bigger brain.

Maps

* Maps do not flow nearly as well as the original. Portal placement seems to be without reason and do not integrate well into maps. * Floor and Ceiling portals surfaces are almost entirely absent. * Very few portal surfaces to sky strafe maps (which makes using shotgun even harder). * Multi-team maps only utilize a small portion of the maps, most seem too large for 8v8v8. * Map objectives don't seem to randomize. * Some maps seem to only play a single game mode (Glacier - Hotzone).

Game-play

* No cross-team voice/text chat or proximity chat, lobbies feel dead. * Cant queue specific maps and game modes. * Weapon supply crates don't seem to have any consistency in drops, often times dropping in far corners of the map or right next to other existing crates. * Ammo management just doesn't exist. Can't just pickup dropped ammo even for the same exact gun... * Weapon balance is bad. Shotguns are unusable before slogging out the attachments. Fire rate is poor, range is poor, and damage falloff is poor. Usable range is within melee damage and you will find yourself losing to burst fire guns often. * Shield is overpowered when it blocks from both directions. * UI for multi-team was obviously not designed for 8 people, nor 3 teams. * Battlepass Challenges- Why have weekly challenges like, "Get 85 Kills or Assists with SMGs", if you are going to lock SMG behind Level 23 that is unobtainable for most in their first 20-30 hours?

No wine(windows compatibility layer for linux) support.