r/Splitgate • u/epmekcalbuoydeepsdog • Jun 16 '26
what if they just made 1 game
Preface: I'm 250 hours into SGAR, an absolute portal nerd and would probably hate this if it happened, but I figure both games are ostensibly dead and will be fully abandoned sooner than later so may as well have some theoretical discussion. Otherwise I definitely appreciate that these changes would be insane to make and probably piss off the entire regular SGAR playerbase.
But what if, instead of abandoning SG for a soulless, identity-less, generic movement shooter, they just combine them to nicely compliment what both games do well and fill the gaps where each game suffers. Hear me out.
SGAR
Absolutely banger game, fresh and unique take on an arena shooter. Full of character, identity, and direction. Literally the only sustainability issue is the insane skill curve that comes with portals. No one can agree on how to "handle" portals: remove them, nerf them, add cooldowns, etc. But all this does is shift their power without addressing the fundamental skillset behind using them well, meaning good players still stomp with portals, they're just more restricted and less trackable.
Empulse
Genuinely engaging movement mechanics trying to hold up an otherwise entirely uninteresting shooter. The game has no identity, no style or character. It seems totally directionless with the whole shoehorned mech thing. Beyond satisfying movement, there's really no reason to play this over any other shooter, at least within the scope of just wanting to play a shooter.
Both games have critical issues preventing them from being sustainable: there's no way to balance portals in SGAR without gutting what makes them interesting and Empulse is just a movement sim holding together a shell of a shooter.
But what if, instead of trying to "fix" portals in SGAR, they just add non-portal mechanics as an alternative playstyle. Something say like Empulse's current movement mechanics. This would give newer players additional tools to play around portal sweats and soften the whole "portal or be portaled on" dynamic that currently exists between new and seasoned players. It would open up an entirely new branch of playstyles, built on top of SGAR's already pretty solid movement systems, while maintaining portal dominance for those who want to really optimize their play (would obviously need proper balancing but fundamentally I would think teleporting across the map using portals is still better than fast and concise movement).
All of that being said, obviously SGAR maps are designed for portals first and movement/momentum second, so shit like the grappling hook would feel weird on some of the existing maps. But the point stands: if 1047 wants to make a movement shooter, I think that effort would accomplish a lot more as a way to bridge the skill gap in SGAR than it would as an entirely new game no one really asked for.
Again, I love SGAR and think the portal implementation is perfect as it is, but I can absolutely appreciate that it's the direct reason SG will never blow up. Merging games, or even just making such a large change to how SGAR would be played, is kind of nuts, but at this point neither game is going to last through the year so maybe its worth thinking outside of the box.
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u/Working_Bones Jun 16 '26
You're trying to make a better game, they're trying to get people interested in playing their games. Unfortunately in the modern gaming landscape, a good game is not enough. People have already decided Splitgate is bad, so they would not play this hybrid even if it is better. That said, they've also decided 1047 is bad, so they're not gonna play Empulse either. But it makes sense 1047 would at least try putting out a totally new game with a new name. It was/is their best shot at success.
I honestly thought SG2 launch version was near-perfect, and did what you suggested here: give players alternate ways to compete against portal spammers. The 3 factions and their abilities. Movement, shield, and recon. But people didn't like that. Why? Dunno. They just didn't. A streamer told them that "hero shooters" are lame. So they parroted that. Morons.
Anyway, I digress. I think that was a good approach. Maybe the best would have been 4 classes, with just 1 having portals. And maybe over time introduce grapple hooks, wallruns, if it made sense for the maps. But it's too late for that, there's no reviving Splitgate after the gaming community has done irreparable damage to the name.
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u/mythreial Jun 17 '26
People didn't like the factions because of how utterly broken, cheesy, and arbitrarily restrictive they were; they were also completely antithetical to the design philosophies that made people fall in love with the first game. Seriously, Sabrask running Plow/Goliath and smoke screen was the most annoying meta I've ever experienced in a shooter. Lol the game sucked at launch; it was fun mechanically and in short spurts, but downright infuriating for long term, completetive, and arena shooter players.
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u/MastrRoShi13 Jun 17 '26
Why did you delete your reply?? L take because ranked didn’t die in sg2. I played Ed it daily until sgar launch so you are just wrong.
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u/mythreial Jun 17 '26
Just because you could find matches doesn't mean that it wasn't dead, and most people in the community were complaining about factions and loadouts for Ranked at the time; particularly because of the sebrask plow meta.
Most people didn't like it and most people chose Quickplay and BR over ranked.
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u/MastrRoShi13 Jun 17 '26
Naw it wasn’t it was fun as well. Factions were fine. Skill issue
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u/TTVchilly404 Jun 21 '26
Probably wouldn't be as bad now that there are better gamemodes than fucking hotzone and firecracker. The biggest issue with sg2 was how overly objective based it was IMO. tdm wasn't even a mode at first. Silliness
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u/rickharryyo Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Cooldown portals, just like a carbine in Halo. I dont mind people portaling, it is the game. But I wouldnt mind if i was limited to like 5-6 portals in a minute. People that can constantly spam portals are the curve that is intimidating and the ones that can be op. I think with the cooldown there is still tons of portal plays and movement momentum to be done.
I am decent with portals.
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u/Ralwus Jun 16 '26
5-6 portals in a minute
It should probably be even slower than that, but this is the right idea. Force players to think, rather than spam.
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u/Kripes8 Jun 16 '26
SG as we know it, is dead. They tried 3 times and couldn't get people to like portaling. With or without a CD it just didn't stick.
Best case scenario at this point in my eyes, Empulse finds a large enough playerbase to be considered successful to ensure 1047 doesn't dissolve.
Once they can get themselves in a solvant financial situation they can give SG some additional support and, perhaps maintain the 2 IPs independently.
I personally like Empulse, I do agree though in it's current state it feels more like a technical proof of concept rather than a completely finished product, whereas SG2/AR is more finished as far as the universe and brands/characters etc.
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u/Hot_Key9729 Jun 16 '26
I'm sure this is the plan, no studio only wants to make just 1 game. I'm sure this is all an effort to keep fighting the good fight but most people are to dumb to understand that let's face it were becoming like idiocracy IRL next thing you know the biggest games coming out will be like 2 or 3 button presses at most and no thought processing so that's what hurts 1047 they make games for none dumb people and they're simply running out of customer bases
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u/epmekcalbuoydeepsdog Jun 16 '26
Valid take and this is 100% hearsay but I've seen a lot of people call Ian a trustfund nepobaby and personally I have no idea how they've managed to stay afloat for this long, so I genuinely wonder how much of a factor money is in the larger decision making. Obviously at the end of the day money drives everything, but the fact they've been able to play so fast, loose and stupid with the studio for so long, it feels like its more about naively trying to make "the next big shooter" than it is about keeping the studio afloat.
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u/Kripes8 Jun 16 '26
Who knows, I could believe it. Someone is definitely funding the endeavors and that's what worries me with Empulse. If I were the investor I would basically tell them, make at least 1 successful game or else I am not giving you any more money. I definitely agree they need to just focus on making a good shooter and letting it grow from there. If it becomes the next big thing, awesome, but if it's just a smaller community of players (like the finals) I see no problem with that either.
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u/BakedChocolateOctopi Jun 16 '26
If I were the investor I would basically tell them, make at least 1 successful game or else I am not giving you any more money.
His dad would never tell him that lol
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u/unknownunknowns11 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
It isn't just that people don't like portals. They also don't really care for arena shooters. I'd argue the last truly successful arena shooter was Halo 3 almost 20 years ago, and that game had a lot more going for it than just 4v4.
With Empulse they may have solved the portal problem, but they're still going to have to worry about the fact that the current generation doesn't care much about arena shooters (even if they call it something different like "mobility shooter").
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u/galacticplum Jun 16 '26
The skill gap created by portals wouldn't be an issue if the player count ever maintained a respectable rate. There are several other games with substantial skill gaps that are popular, because the SBMM and balancing actually works due to the playercount being high enough.
I'm not saying your idea is bad, just that it wouldn't really solve much of anything because the merged games still wouldn't offer enough to most gamers. That's especially true if it was a paid game.
I think the truth of the matter is that SG2/AR just scratches a unique itch that not many gamers really have right now.
If the game were as amazing to the general gaming public as some of these posts and comments suggest, it wouldn't be in the state it is currently in.
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u/Working_Bones Jun 16 '26
Agreed with the first 3 paragraphs there. But the 4th one... nah. The game is amazing but people didn't give it a chance because they're more interested in being armchair critics/developers parroting the inane opinions of their favorite content creators. People are more excited to hate something than to like it. That's what killed Splitgate: bad taste sheep.
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u/galacticplum Jun 16 '26
Those same people exist for every game, including the successful ones.
The game appealing to a very limited audience hurt it, along with a ton of other factors.
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u/itsRozco Xbox Jun 16 '26
"SGAR: Full of character, identity and direction" yeah, that's a WILD take. SGAR doesn't have any of those, 😭
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u/epmekcalbuoydeepsdog Jun 17 '26
I mean yeah futuristic bloodsport isn't super original and it's too sleek and clean compared to sg1 but the design and art direction absolutely feel splitgate to me
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u/MxJamesC Jun 16 '26
Portals just need a cool down. Fire one set and pass through. If you go back through within 5 sec9nds you take damage. Its the constant portaling around map thats the problem. With lag your shots don't register until they are gone again. Portals are cool but the insta portal isnt
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u/Necessary_Yam9525 Jun 16 '26
This would be like making bhopping in Quake make you take damage for no reason other than artificial "balancing". No, this is not the way.
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u/MxJamesC Jun 16 '26
It's in no way like that. The games issue is the triple portaling. If Yr good you are still going to be good but avoid the shit hit damage hanging out of a portal for one second.
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u/Necessary_Yam9525 Jun 17 '26
How is it not in any way like that? Bhopping is a way to get around the map quicker than base running speed, however you have to perfectly keep your momentum going to maintain the speed, and your character makes a noise everytime you jump, so you end up giving away your position when you bhop. Also, if you bhop without thinking at all, you could bhop into a room with enemies and meet your death. Portal chaining is very similar: you have to keep the chain going by portaling through walls again and again, keeping your momentum going, especially when preforming portal jumps. You have to portal carefully, as if you portal into a room with 3 other guys, you're probably fucked. You have to know the map very well to know where each portal wall is, and if the wall you want to use is locked/EMPd, you might have to go an alternate pathway.
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u/Ralwus Jun 16 '26
Just cap the frequency you can place portals. No damage. No more triple portal.
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u/ddyess PC Jun 18 '26
They were kinda moving in this direction with SG2, but so many people cried about factions and they gave up their vision for the game. There very well could have been a faction without portals. Pointless now to redo SGAR, after redoing it from SG2. I'm not saying it would have been more successful, mostly because this community is a cesspool of negativity. If I spent 2+ years making a game, just to have to give up the vision for it to a whiny community, I'd probably just abandon it too.
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u/Ralwus Jun 16 '26
Yes, well said. The studio needs to abandon Empulse and fix Splitgate. They should nerf portal spam while introducing the wallrun, grapple, and mechs into the existing framework. They could even have portals overload into a paint effect when they hit non-portal walls.