Going back three years. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to think of Splatoon on the Wii U. I was curious, I was intrigued but it also looked like something that I would generally avoid.
Just to get it out of the way. I am not a multiplayer gamer. Not by any means. I love watching it on twitch and following along with esports. But I just don’t generally enjoy gaming with others online (Especially competitive multiplayer)
Then Splatoon came along. I got it for the intention of going through the single player only. But something in the back of my mind kept nagging at me to load up that multiplayer lobby. I broke down one evening and gave it a shot. Let me tell you, I’m real glad I did. The addiction began and I put more hours into the multiplayer than I have with every other
multiplayer game combined.
Now on to Splatoon 2!
The premise of Splatoon is very simple. You have weapons of a large variety that essentially expel ink everywhere. The object is to soak the entire stage in ink and have more of your ink in the stage than the opposing team. It all sounds very simple and I suppose in theory it is. But let me tell you, once the insanity starts with the 4 on 4 battles it becomes a very strategic and team oriented affair.
This could be why I love Splatoon as much as I do. Let me be clear. I am AWFUL at online first person shooters. I generally go most matches without a single kill. In Splatoon 2 this can be important. You are still capable of killing or “Splatting” as they refer to it in this game your opponents. This however is not the crucial point to winning most of the modes. They key factor is covering that floor in ink which essentially requires you to wildly spray around covering uncovered ground or ground covered by opposing ink. The whole system is brilliant!! I have had many matches where the killing stopped while the clock is counting down with 10 or 15 seconds remaining for just ink covering madness. Each team scrambling to cover as much as possible on every square inch of floor. It’s chaos! but chaos that an unskilled FPS player can generally grasp quite easily.
You learn abilities from the different gear you purchase and use. Each time you either win or lose and match that EXP will be applied to these abilities unlocking them as you go. It’s a very addictive design and I found myself constantly just saying “One more, just one more to grab the next ability” You can really customize your character to your style of play.
Gameplay modes are robust. Ranging from Unranked regular battle , EXP based ranked battle to private battles reserved for friends only. The stages will be reserved to two at a time until an hourly based timer expires and you will be notified of the new stages now being used. I was slightly bothered by this at first fearing that I may grow tired of playing two stages over and over again until they recycle out. This definitely was not the case once I dived deeper into the game. I cherished replaying the stages and discovering the best ink splatting routes and vantage points. Each stage is expertly designed to be a virtual battle ground of route knowledge and discovering the best spots of ambush and squad based attacks.
There is also a great little mode called Salmon Run which is essentially Splatoon 2’s version of hoard mode. You and a group of team mates will team together to splat waves upon waves of the games sea life inspired enemies. It’s incredibly fun! However only available at certain times of the real day. It’s a design decision I just do not understand. Why not give players the chance to play a fantastic mode at any time of their choosing? Hopefully with player feedback, this restriction can be removed in a possible game update.
The single player campaign was something I was somewhat concerned about. As rare as it was for me to enjoy an online multiplayer experience in a game. I still primarily play my games for the single player experience. I can safely tell you the single player experience is quite solid! You have multiple hub worlds in which stages are spread throughout for you to find. starting off is quite easy. You simply enter a stage and fight your way beginning to end. A few stages in however you will start to be presented with some fantastic platforming and some pretty intense battle sequences. Even locating the stages in the hub world will become quite a challenge requiring you to do some pretty intense puzzle solving to figure out how to locate and reach some of the stages. Each hub world will also have and ending boss battle which requires some pretty neat timing and puzzle solving as well. The single player could’ve just been a tutorial for online which I occasionally see some online focused games do. This is definitely not the case here. A lot of love and care went in to this campaign and it absolutely deserves a play through.
Now on to some of the negatives.
The controls. Now I will start by saying I have grown accustomed to them and can confidently say that I am at least a decent player. But even with the endless amount of times I have been told by Splatoon veterans that “Motion Controls” are the true way to play. I could never grasp it. Like not even one percent. I have been playing with non motion controls since launch and find them serviceable at best. It just doesn’t feel like what a third person camera should feel like to me. It feels loose and imprecise and even after the incredible amount of time I put into this game. I still find myself wishing for tighter controls. It definitely doesn’t matter as much here as compared to a game like Call Of Duty which requires pin point accuracy. But a tighter control scheme for me would’ve been definitely appreciated.
Another issue for me is as I mentioned earlier in the review are the announcements when changes are occurring in stages or new events going on in the game. I really do love the announcers Marina and Pearl. They’re witty and generally quite humorous. But, when I have just 30 mins to spare when booting up the game I generally find myself jamming on the next button as fast as possible to jump in to a match. It’s a small complaint, but still another weird design decision from my perspective.
All in all with a few wrinkles aside. Splatoon 2 is a solid next step in Nintendos new infant IP. It’s a definite success and another powerhouse to add to their already stellar repertoire of titles. I can safely say with confidence that Splatoon 3 is a given and I am absolutely one hundred percent on board.
All images belong to their respected owners
Score: 9/10
Playtime: 45 hours and counting
Platform: Nintendo Switch