Splitgate 2, the sequel to the portal shooter that was once overshadowed by the launch of Halo Infinite, is getting an open alpha test on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC from February 27 to March 2.
My, how fortunes have changed. If I could go back to the past when 2021 me was playing the crap out of Splitgate and tell him, in a few short years, Halo Infinite multiplayer would be all but dead and Splitgate 2 would be announcing an open alpha, well, I’d probably think that was pretty ironic. I was sure Halo Infinite was going to be so massively popular that no one would talk about Splitgate ever again, but due to a number of factors I don’t have time to go over at this late hour, that never happened.
Splitgate wasn’t able to sustain the heights that it did when its beta launched on consoles in the summer of 2021, but it wasn’t completely eclipsed by Halo’s shadow. And now, almost four years later, its developers are focused on a sequel that sounds a whole lot more ambitious, while Halo Infinite is doing a whole lot of nothing.
1047 Games says Splitgate 2 “massively expands on the series’ original vision and scale,” and while it’ll be a while before we see the fruits of that ambition, we know the closed alpha will show off a map that’s 20 times the size of anything that was in the original Splitgate. The alpha will also let players preview “new, never-before-seen game modes, maps, weapons, and more.”
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While Team Deathmatch and Hotzone are returning for the sequel, there will also be all-new three-team 8v8v8 matches, which will be “Splitgate’s biggest battles yet.” Then there’s Splitball, which is billed as a two-team arena mode that “combines the classic fun of Capture the Flag with the fast-paced strategy of Halo’s Oddball, challenging rivals to master both offense and defense simultaneously. Portal-hop into enemy territory to steal Splitballs while defending a home base with precision and strategy.”
Firecracker is another game mode new to Splitgate 2. It’s a spin on the conventional two-team Search and Destroy mode that adds in respawns. “Attacking teams deploy to ignite a firecracker, and–if they can keep enemies at bay–fill the sky with fireworks while sending the crowd into a roar,” says 1047.
The new maps are Glacier; that’s the “frozen wasteland” that’s 20 times the size of the biggest Splitgate map; Bypass, Splitgate’s most vertical map yet and a tranquil park with a centralized launch pad for aerial attacks; and Eden, a Venusian desert “packed with portal walls inside and out to give players endless opportunities to flank, escape, and dominate.”
Splitgate 2 is coming to PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One in 2025.
“We don’t want to just be the ‘Halo meets Portal’ team”: Splitgate 2 wants to to evolve beyond its inspirations.
