This weekend at PAX East there were a load of games to play including a number of First-Person Shooters. We finally got our hands on Splitgate: Arena Warfare at the event. If you were a fan of Portal and Halo you’ll love this title as it combines some of the best features from each while putting in new elements.
The first time I played the game it was with keyboard & mouse where I am not the best at, but after getting used to controls after a while, the arena shooter is clearly meant for the PC platform. There are many ways for players of Splitgate to get creative with the portals such as placing one to where you can go on a higher platform than you rather than running around. Another scenario is if you are in a fight you can lure an enemy into an unfriendly area for them.
After playing with keyboard & mouse we went to playing with the new Astro Gaming controller that was announced back in November. Right off the bat when playing at 5 sensitivity it almost felt like it should have been at 10 on most games and while trying to kill enemies I noticed it was hard to aim than usual when playing FPS titles. I asked Ian, who is the man behind this masterpiece and 1047 Games about aiming and he said that they’ll add a little bit of aim assisting into the game.
We went to talk about game modes that are currently in the game and the ones that are being worked on. The game modes you can expect are Team Deathmatch, Swat, Oddball, King of The Hill, Domination, and Capture The Flag which is the one in the works. Most of those you know from the Halo series.
When playing three games I played on two maps and the design of each one works perfect with vertical combat since you have a jetpack-like ability. Going back to the portals there are only certain areas where they can be used which are these blue lit walls you’ll see all over the map. You can see an example below:
The weapons that were being shown in the demo I played were the SMG, Battle Rifle, Plasma Rifle, Shotgun, Pistol, and the EMP Grenade which can only destroy enemy portals, but there might be something in the future to actually get kills with grenades.
If you notice in Splitgate you’ll see that the helmets on your “Spartan” look a lot like its from Halo specifically the EOD & Recon helmet. In case you were wondering if that would cause any problems, I asked about that and they said there wouldn’t be and if you look at other fan made Halo games they directly take things out of Halo. As long as you don’t say Master Chief is in your game you’ll be fine.
The next question I asked is something that many fans of the genre would want and that’s if the developers would consider Battle Royale. Luckily that’s the last thing on their list as their main goal is focusing on launching the game at what it currently is and if they really wanted to get into the popular game mode they would more than likely make Big Team Battle instead.
If you are wondering when Splitgate: Arena Warfare will be released you should keep an eye out this Spring since they are getting closer and closer to finally putting it out in the wild. The actual date has yet to be said so it could still be later this year.
Splitgate: Arena Warfare perfectly brings the best of Halo and Portal into one while the developers have brought in their own original ideas. When playing this game it brought me back to Halo instantly and it resembles it so well making it the best game to be inspired by Halo while still being original.
While at PAX East it was announced that the closed beta for Splitgate will be from April 11-14 with more information coming soon. One of the things the arena shooter has potential in is esports. Seeing the game being played on a casual level at the convention I could very well see high-tense competitive games happen on a big stage one day.
All in all you should check this game out. We love it. 1047 Games has something special here.
