The Halo meets Portal shooter is back in the form of 1047 Games’ Splitgate 2, an ambitious sequel that aims to be bigger, better, and slicker than ever before. But has the developer managed to realise the potential of the first game with its bigger budget? There's certainly a fun and snappy shooter here that's technically leagues improved from its predecessor, but Splitgate 2 just doesn't have that 'next big thing' energy about it.

For those out of the know, Splitgate took the shooter world by storm back in 2021. It was a gust of fresh air for the overcrowded and somewhat stale genre, offering that arena shooter people seemingly craved, with a portal twist to it. However, 1047 Games is no Infinity Ward or Respawn Entertainment, and that lack of budget and polish was apparent. But with clear interest and new investments, 1047 decided to focus its efforts on a sequel.

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Four years later and Splitgate 2 is the result of those efforts. From the very get, you’ll notice it’s rid itself of that grungy aesthetic, instead opting for vibrant colours and clean-cut visuals. But most important is the much improved first-person gameplay, which is faster, sleeker, and in line with any other modern AAA shooter.

From our first match, what we've loved about Splitgate 2 is that while the game’s controls are fairly inline with something like Halo Infinite, the portal mechanics take a bit of practice. That might sound like a bad thing, but it’s actually what gives the game a lot of its depth.

With a tap of R1 you can attach a portal to select walls across Splitgate 2’s tight-knit arena-styled maps. Simply repeat on another wall, and you have a portal to walk through. To start off, portals will be used primarily to get from one place to another really quickly, but as you begin to learn the maps and their layouts and become more comfortable with the mechanic, they can be used for so much more.

For example, you can place portals to flank enemies, to get the high position for some damning shots, or even throw yourself across the map with some momentum. Those might seem like obvious uses, but they can be tough to actually pull off — and that’s what makes the learning curve so fun. With so many failed attempts as we worked the portal movement into our muscle memory, finally pulling off the ultimate flank or escape via portal was thrilling.

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A lot of those portals skills are tied to the map design, which ranges from compact to large scale. Across the board, map knowledge is key as portal walls are specifically placed, so you can’t just instantly teleport behind the enemy. Knowing the position of portal walls, and more specifically how you can move through them, will impact how well you do in the game.

However, the map designs themselves feel a little uninspired, especially visually. We felt the same during the beta, but maps do feel like they’ve restricted what’s possible with the portals compared to the first game. There are fewer points to throw yourself about and play with the game’s physics.

It does make for a tighter experience, but it loses some of that charm that the first game had. After hours of play, we can’t say there was any one map that we loved over the rest. We felt pretty indifferent for the most part, which for us, is the game’s biggest letdown.

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While the maps may leave us wanting more, there is thankfully a heap of modes to play through to ensure there’s always a way to mix up your Splitgate 2 session. You’ve got your regulars like team deathmatch, domination, capture the point, search and destroy and so on. These are action-packed and a hell of a lot of fun; exactly the kind of stuff that’s great to chuck on for a half hour session.

Then you have some of the more unique to Splitgate modes, like Splitball, where the use of portals to transport balls from the enemy's deposit to yours is paramount. Or the 24-player Onslaught, which feels large scale, but also not, thanks to the instant teleportation across the map.

There's even a battle royale, which features four larger arena maps, gradually pushing you from one to the next whilst facing off against other teams. As frequenters of battle royales here at Push Square, it’s an interesting take, but feels more like a tack-on than anything seriously worth your time.

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And lastly, there's a map creator tool, and servers which allow you to play other creations from the community. While at this point it was filled with recreations of Nuke Town from Call of Duty, we imagine this has the potential to house maps that capture the playful, manic spirit of the first game.

So, suffice it to say, there’s a lot to do in Splitgate 2. But besides having fun, why are you doing it? Well, there’s a fairly simplistic levelling system tied to the hero classes. With three on launch, these classes largely function the same, with the same collection of weaponry. However, they do feature character specific abilities, like scanning the map to highlight enemies, or placing a bullet blocking wall. These abilities don’t define the gameplay like other hero shooters do, though.

Weapons and classes will level up as you play, unlocking new attachments for your guns, gadgets like a health stim, and perks like faster reload. We doubt it would take you too long to rattle through all of the upgrades, but there is a satisfying uptick of XP and levels to keep everything feeling like it’s moving.

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Unfortunately, though, the game's live service elements leave a lot to be desired. Battle passes have become a staple of multiplayer experiences like this, asking you to part with real world money for the chance to unlock new cosmetics. Upon purchasing a battle pass, you must then grind challenges to receive tokens to unlock rewards from it. That’s all well and good, but Splitgate 2's battle pass is mind-numbingly dull — especially when compared to other games like Fortnite or The Finals.

Not to mention, microtransactions are aggressively priced, and this is after a price reduction was made due to backlash from fans. There are paid packs, a premium currency, and even a separate upgrade currency. We’re not criticising Splitgate 2 for including microtransactions — you don’t need to buy them, and how else is a free-to-play game to make money? — but it feels like 1047 has just thrown its paid content together last minute, with nothing actually worth picking up.

Conclusion

Splitgate 2 is an interesting sequel. In a lot of ways, it fixes the issues we had with the original; it looks nicer, runs better, gameplay is far improved, there’s a lot of content on offer, and the portal mechanic is good fun to learn. It's a great pick for those casual sessions with your mates, but we still can't help but feel underwhelmed by it all. The maps are fine, and the cosmetics are dull as dishwater. If you removed the portal mechanics — which were arguably more freeing in the first Splitgate — you'd be left with a competent, but ultimately uninspired shooter.