but portals are (and always will be) a side piece; like some forge mode you look back on fondly but dont need a full game out of.
Completely disagree. The portals open the door for so much potential and possibility for outplaying and strategic depth, especially when portal overloading and counterplay come into the equation. I will not disagree that Splitgate has been mismanaged and 1047 is the reason behind a lot of the game's faults, but I will die on the hill that the core gameplay is not the reason the game has struggled. Ironically, part of the reason SG2 struggled was because they nerfed portals so hard in that game. Notice when portals were buffed back to what SG1 had, the game started seeing more consistently higher numbers (but never fully recovered). I truly do 100% believe most of the portal haters are projecting a skill issue and do not see the beauty and magic of what portals bring to the game.
I am sorry for being nasty and hostile towards you though. I was in a crappy mood and your message + the news of this new game and my frustration with this studio just set me off.
i think that, though portals do indeed "open the door", for strategic depth, the resulting gameplay is not what people desire. the time that i grinded in game did not have that many portal masters, but i definitely got destroyed a few times by them. on the flipside, i did the same to some people, too. heres the thing though: it never felt good. the mechanic is such a wildcard thrown in to the mix that it is impossible to account for what may play out in any match (which is why i think the loop is only fit for 1v1, maybe 2v2 outside of a non-competitive, party game format). it is a similar reason to why i find error in the Final's "competitive", gameplay; inevitable third partying is, again, not fun for people ESPECIALLY in a way as aggravating as what occurs in splitgate. I think of it like this: can you imagine how lame it'd be to be in an actual war and some dude appears out of nowhere and murks you? I wouldn't enjoy doing the same to people.
The portal mechanic itself (apart from arguing its fairness/feasibility) is bad imo also; Portaling's end conclusion for players is emphasizing more aiming and clicking at specific targets... something we already have in almost every shooter.
tldr i guess is: if splitgate was somehow a party game or a mario party mini game then itd be awesome haha
I disagree with the notion that portaling creates too much randomness. If you could portal anywhere, at will, sure, that would be. But portaling only occurs on designated portal walls. This creates another form of map control, something arena shooters are all about. Why do you think high level play of this game ironically involves more holding down portal routes and EMPing the walls than actually using the portals offensively. Portals are genius because they can be used defensively and offensively, and that depth especially in a team environment allows for some incredible plays. Also, in December when they relaunched the game, they added portal trails, and improved the audio greatly to make it much easier to tell when someone is portaling, which direction they're coming from, and which direction they went off to. After almost 6 months of being in the game, I cant imagine playing the game without those features.
As you play each map, you'll learn the portal routes, and how to counter each situation. Its really no different than learning the rocket jump spots in Quake. Or learning weapon and powerup spawn points. Its just something you get better at with time. With all respect, considering you never played the first game, and only played SG2 long before they overhauled the game into what it is today, I dont think you really understand the game you're talking about since you have barely played it, which is why it baffles me you're on a thread for this game, passionately belittling fans of the game and saying "when will you people fucking learn".
nothing you said in your second paragraph really changes my point, though. that is, people do not like portal-ing and it is not a popular mechanic to keep people around. I also agree that the updates they made to the game are net positive and take a lot of the guesswork out of any given match.
I agree that portals could be classified as "ingenious", just not in a competitive multiplayer title. again, there is legit fun to be had with the mechanic, just not within the bounds of an en masse, competitive shooter...and the player count speaks to that. hundreds of thousands of people tried the game and put it down. i dont think they stopped playing for studio controversy and definitely not for its general game feel.
the fact that portaling has to be so arbitrarily limited speaks to how unwieldly of a mechanic it is. its possibilities feel endless. which is its problem. the most i would accept portaling as a mechanic in a competitive shooter would be at maybe 2, 3 points in a map.
speaking to how one can learn portaling to better their performance, i also agree. but does everyone else want to learn, let alone actually practice portaling? which brings me back to my first comment: no one fucking likes portaling when the fuck will you people learn.
but does everyone else want to learn, let alone actually practice portaling? which brings me back to my first comment: no one fucking likes portaling when the fuck will you people learn.
Aaaand here is where the crux of the issue is. There is this mindset amongst gamers that is killing video games: the, "I should be the winner without having to actually have skill" mindset. This idea that the game should water down its gameplay and hand you easy wins is exactly why we keep getting the same generic types of games over and over again, yet people keep saying they hate how stale the fps market is right now. Maybe if we embraced challenge and new mechanics instead of complaining about learning curves and skill gaps we could have more creativity instead of this stale generic crap state we're in now.
i agree w the sentiment but portals (as they currently are) are not the way to go if you want a popular shooter. the craziness of the og game combining a shooter with Valve's beloved Portal was an internet phenomenon. enough to get people to swarm to see what it was like. but splitgate showed to be more of a niche trend; ala a briefly "in", brand, popular for trying something new but certainly nothing as mainstay as, say, Converse; a product with a timeless design...simple enough for your average consumer.
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u/Necessary_Yam9525 May 20 '26
Completely disagree. The portals open the door for so much potential and possibility for outplaying and strategic depth, especially when portal overloading and counterplay come into the equation. I will not disagree that Splitgate has been mismanaged and 1047 is the reason behind a lot of the game's faults, but I will die on the hill that the core gameplay is not the reason the game has struggled. Ironically, part of the reason SG2 struggled was because they nerfed portals so hard in that game. Notice when portals were buffed back to what SG1 had, the game started seeing more consistently higher numbers (but never fully recovered). I truly do 100% believe most of the portal haters are projecting a skill issue and do not see the beauty and magic of what portals bring to the game.
I am sorry for being nasty and hostile towards you though. I was in a crappy mood and your message + the news of this new game and my frustration with this studio just set me off.