Splatoon 2 Review

It was during e3 2014 that Nintendo introduced us to a strange new project of theirs. A group of young developers had assembled and created their own vision of a new game, without interference from more senior staff. This new game slowly took form and then it was finally unveiled to the public as Splatoon. A new kind of Multiplayer Shooter that would cover the saturated genre with a fresh coat of paint.

Upon first seeing the game I wasn't sure what to think, but then the gameplay demonstration from the Show floor and reports from people, who had tried the game firsthand, started to show up. And from then onwards I was hooked. Just like most of Wii-U Owners. So far Splatoon sold an incredible 4.83 Million copies on an install base of only 13.56. That is an impressive 35% attach rate. Especially in Japan there was and still is a huge Hype surrounding the lovely SquidKids.

So it came to no surprise that Nintendo announced Splatoon 2 earlier this year as one of the launch window games for the Switch. Still some concerns did arise. Did they manage to create a good sequel in only one year of time? After all the development of Splatoon officially ended in 2016 one year after the games launch. And what improvements would Splatoon 2 bring to the table?

Story:

Just like with the first game the second installment also arrives with surprisingly fun single player. But while it was a surprise the first time around, this time this was expected. The story follows the principle of all Nintendo games in that it's basically the same thing as last time with some minor tweaks. But here I didn't mind because Splatoon is a very gameplay driven experience. Even in Single Player. In one way or another it was very refreshing to experience a callback to some of earlier FPS games with a simple story and platform driven gameplay.

Just for competitions sake here is the Story of Splatoon 2. Two years after the defeat of DJ Oktario by the hands of Agent 3 the great Zapfish, source of all energy in the town of Inkopolis, has disappeared once again. But what's even more troubling is that Callie, one half of the popular Squid Sisters Idol Group and also secretly Agent 1, is also missing. And because Captain Cuttlefish and Agent 3 are on vacation it's now up to Agent 2, also known as Marie from the Squid Sisters, to recruit a new Inkling and venture once again into Octo Canyon to solve this mystery.

As you can see the Story is more on the light side in this game, but once more let me stress that this is not a problem.

One thing that also returns from the first game are the sunken scrolls. One of them is hidden in each level of the single player campaign and finding them unlocks some nice trivia about the Inkling world, as well as some background story. But it's nothing really knew and if you played the first game you already know the surprisingly dark backstory behind the world of Splatoon. So for a veteran, while nice, the scrolls offer nothing new or interesting.

Gameplay:

The Gameplay formula in Splatoon 2 follows the same idea as the story. Don't fix something which isn't broken.

Up to this day Splatoon remains one of the few games that truly got Gyroscopic aiming right and the second installment also delivers in that regard. Everything feels fluid and intuitive. Once again you can switch between Squid and Kid form with the press of a button. The former allows you to swim quickly through your own Ink, even up walls, but also makes you more vulnerable, while your humanoid form is used for battle.

The single player once again features a variety of Mario Galaxy style levels. What I mean by that, is that levels consist out of several floating platforms of varying size. Each of these Islands consists of one ore two challenges and after beating them you can progress to the next one. And once more the Single Player proves to be the hidden gem of the game. The levels are extremely varied with each one offering a new idea or at least an extension of a previously encountered one.

One of the biggest changes is that now there are several different weapons, which you can use during your missions. Well to be honest that is not completely true. During the first playthrough of a level the weapon you have to use is preset. But afterward your free to choose. This is a big improvement over the original game where the Sniper and Roller weapon were locked as special challenges behind Amiibo. One accompanying effect of this new weapon variety is that the game in general feels harder. Especially the bosses. For example the second boss is really easy if you use a ranged weapon, but when you fight him the first time you have to use the Roller. So later on when you have access to all weapons for a level you can individually adjust the difficulty of your playthrough via the weapon you choose.

Apart from that the Single Player hasn't changed much. You still collect Salmon Roe as a sort of currency to upgrade your weapons. One thing that is new is a resource called Sardinium. One of these is also hidden in each level and they are also used to purchase upgrades.

One negative aspect of the Single Player is that it feels much more grindy than the first campaign. To 100% the game you need to beat every level with each of the 9 weapons. Also while the Salmon Roe you collected in the first title on your way to the last boss was easily enough to upgrade everything this time I didn't come even close.

If you just want to finish the single player then the campaign is once again a very enjoyable experience, but if you want to complete everything it becomes a grind pretty fast.

But in a game like Splatoon the single player is, of course, only the complementary course. The heart of the game lies in it's different multiyplayer modes. All of them are still 4on4 Matches against an opposing team of inklings. Except for one, but more on that later. Once again the game distinguishes between Turf War and Ranked battles. As you need at least rank 10 to participate in the latter, let us focus on the former for now.

The goal of Turf war is to cover as much of the map with your own Ink. Walls aren't counted for points, but can help you traversing the terrain faster. With a match lasting only 3 Minutes the frantic, fast and fun mentality of this mode is perfectly enhanced. The concept of Turf War is easy to grasp, but it will entertain you for several hours. It's perfect for quick match after work, as well as extended hour long sessions. At least I have yet to grow tired of these quick and entertaining battles.

At the end of each round you'll then earn experience points and money based on how well you performed during the battle.

Ranked battles are unlocked once your reach rank 10 and pit you against other players in one of three battle modes.

The first one, called Splat Zones, is a simply king of the hill style of mode. You and your team have to capture a point somewhere on the map (most of the time right in the middle) by covering it in your own ink. And then you simply have to defend it while accumulating points.

Next up is Tower Control. Here the goal is to capture a tower in the middle of the map, which then starts to move towards your enemies base. If it reaches the base your team wins, but if the enemy manages to capture it instead it starts to move towards your base.

And lastly there is the rainmaker mode. This mode is easily the most fun, but also needs the most coordination between you and your teammates. The goal here is to get the mighty rainmaker weapon int your enemies base. This weapon can be picked up by any player, but it slows you down. It also fires powerful, but slow bombs, which are easy to dodge. So to be successful you need the support of your team.

All three ranked modes require some coordination between you and your teammates. Because of that it can feel rather frustrating if you're stuck with group of bad randoms, but if you manage to play it with some friends it's a great deal of fun.

And because of this, once you reach at least A rank in Ranked battles, you can then participate in so called league battles. Join up with one friend to form a two man team and get paired with another two man power trip or ask three friends to form a full squad. Then you battle against others. At the end of each Legaue Battle (it ends when the stages rotate) your results will then displayed and you'll get to see how well you ranked in comparison with other players.

The last of the multiplayer modes is the newly introduced salmon run. Here you team up with three other players to work for the dubious Grizzco Industries and collect fish eggs for them. It's basically a horde mode, like so many shooters offer nowadays, but that is not keeping it from being loads of fun. Your team has to work together to survive on one of two maps against a seemingly endless stream of strange fishlike creatures called Salmonids. Just like most horde modes Salmon Run is incredibly addicting and fun. Not only are the enemies really varied and cool to fight, but there are also eight boss Salmonids, which need special tactics to be brought down.

The mode may rise and fall with your teammates, but that is true for every multiplayer focused game. As far as it concerns me I think Salmon Run is the best addition Splatoon 2 made to the game. Because of that it's even more bewildering that Nintendo once again choose to restrict your freedom on how you want to play the game.

With that let us head towards the negative points. One of them returns from the first game, albeit a little bit improved. Once again Splatoon 2 features a map rotation. That means for multiplayer you can't choose which map to play. You can't even vote for one out of the selection of stages. Instead you get to play tow maps for two hours before they change again. This means that if you plan on an extended session of Splatoon 2 you'll get the same two maps over and over again.

Even worse is the treatment Salmon Run got. Because Grizzco Industries isn't hiring all the time Salmon Run is only playable during specific time periods. That means if you have a worklife or other commitments on some days you simply won't be able to play this game mode, because it was only available from 2.am til 2.pm. This is simply unacceptable. If I pay full price for a game I expect to play all it's modes during all times of the day. It's especially bad because Salmon Run is the hidden star of the multiplayer in Splatoon 2. Also there are some sweet rewards like new equipment.

And that brings me to the next point. Inkopolis is still a very style driven metropolis. And because of that it's not only important to be good in battle, but also to look good in battle. Like in the first game you can equip your Inkling with Shoes, headgear and Tops. And once again these pieces of stylish clothing not only look good, but also help you in your fights. Each piece can hold up to four secondary benefits. These can range from quicker Ink regeneration to more movement speed in Squid form all the way to a quicker respawn after getting killed.

And once again you are able to re-roll these random benefits until you finally have crafted the piece of equipment that is perfect for your gameplay style. With that you're then finally able to jump into battle.

But to kill your enemies you need weapons. Luckily Sheldon has you covered. The charismatic shellfish once again sells you all the hottest stuff to efficiently destroy your enemies. With each rank up you unlock more and more weapons.

Like in the first game weapons always come as packs of three. One main weapon, one secondary and an ultimate. For balancing reasons this is fixed, so you'll always know that someone who uses a specific weapon will always have the same ultimate.
Weapon wise the game hasn't changed much. Most weapon types from the first game make a comeback, but there are also some new ones like the new Dualie weapons.

Probably the biggest change affected the ultimate weapons. They aren't as powerful as they were in the first game and are now much more situational in their use. But in the right hands they sill prove to be absolutely devastating.

Splatoon 2 once again uses the updated principle from the first game, which also is used in ARMS. That means the game shipped with a, to be honest, ridiculously small amount of maps and general content, but over the course of the year it will receive free updates adding new equipment, weapons, maps and maybe even game modes. Nintendo choose this model to ensure the longevity of Splatoon 2. Instead of dumping all on you at release they keep updating the game in order to have the player come back again and again. It proved to be a success with the original Splatoon and I'm sure it will work here again.

On the other hand some players may have the feeling that they get their full moneys worth only after one year when the Updates have finished.

Presentation:

On the first glance it would be hard to tell Splatoon 2 from its predecessor. In fact the game looks exactly the same. This isn't a bad thing however, as the first title already had a pretty unique art style. Again Nintendo doesn't need to fix something which isn't broken, but visually its exactly the game as the first one.

Apart from that the worlds are once again lively and colorful. Of course the Comic style helps with creating memorable scenes without having to add too much detail, but calling Splatoon 2 anything but a beautiful game would be a bold lie.

The stronger aspect of the presentation is, just like in the first game, the musical score. It accompanies the game perfectly. Both remixes from the first title as well as new songs fit perfectly into the colorful world of Inkopolis, where everything has to ''fresh'' and cool.

The new Band Off the Hook (Tentacles in Japanese) provide some really interesting songs. And even though Nintendo opted to use a gibberish language once more, that gibberish actually sounds really good.

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It doesn't matter if it's in single player or during the frantic last minute of Turf War. The music always perfectly captures the feeling of the game and enhances it. In that regard it's a job well done.

Conclusion:

Splatoon 2 is a by the books sequel. It's the embodiment of the Don't fix what's not broken mentality. As a second installment in, what's hopefully going to be a long running franchise, it gets away with a lack of innovation, but at some places the ink is starting to run thin. With basically no changes and only new maps, weapons and one new game mode Splatoon 2 often feels more like an add-on to the original game.

However this doesn't change the fact that the game is pure additcing fun. From a great singleplayer where every mission is pure enjoyment to the quick and easy to grasp Turf Wars each and every game mode of Splatoon 2 is fun. I don't think there is a bigger achievement for a game. Or any game in that matter.

That is why some of the decisions Nintendo made hurt so much more. Not being able to play the excellent Salmon Run whenever I want really dampens my enjoyment for that mode. And the map rotation still is, and always will be, a dumb concept.

It's a testament to genius game concept that is Splatoon that despite all of this I can wholeheartedly recommend the game to all of you. It's full of charm and details.

If you loved the first one and own a Switch it's definitely worth the purchase, but if you own the first one Splatoon 2 won't offer anything truly new to you. At least not enough to buy a new system just for it.

Conclusion (One Sentence):

Splatoon 2 often feels more like a 1.5 edition of the base game than a full blown sequel, but the genius game concept is so much fun you won't mind this fact.  

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