Let me preface this with something.
I started playing Splatoon with S2, putting over 500 hours into it and being absolutely engrossed with it; I was an active participant and enthusiast with ranked mode and knew all the best strats with each map.
I knew almost all the weapon classes strengths/weaknesses and individual strengths of each weapon and which modes they excelled in the most.
I loved Splat 2 wholeheartedly, and enjoyed what it had to offer on a lot of fronts, but I also acknowledged that it had room for improvement.
The static lobby and only being able to change gear at the end of a match, the eventual obsolescence of cash in late game, the limited and annoying 2-map choice with 2 hour rotation, the copy-pasted story mode, and many other things that could be improved, some very easy fixes.
So when Splat 3 was announced, I had high hopes that they would improve drastically in terms of adding onto the game and making the entries difference gap more prominent.
To my dismay, Splat 3 is mostly a disappointment.
The new maps sometimes feel uninspired, and the layout or theming of them reminds me of older maps, One example is, Barnacle & Dime reminds me of Albacore Hotel. But all that these similar maps do, is make me wish I was playing the other game.
The layout of these new maps also feels contrived and like they've been designed to pit players up in all-out brawls rather than prioritising strategic play. Barely any flanks or side paths to help the gameplay flow. Some of the maps feel claustrophobic because of this, and good luck dealing with chargers and splatlings on their untouchable perches.
The new weapons are fun, but there's either not enough of them or not groundbreaking enough to fully impact your regular matches. Tri Stringer and Splatana class are new to this game and barely have gotten any new variations or kits.
In addition to this, some of the weapons that did make a return have been changed, and not necessarily for the better.
I personally preferred the previous game's balance of specials that are support based vs offence based. Splat 2 had a good balance of them, I think.
The specials in this game seem more geared towards support play which isn't bad, but I wish there were more offence-based specials.
The network side of things in Splat 3 is awful; so many disconnects and issues with connections, sometimes these aren't even of your own fault.
The online in this game is somehow even worse than 2 in terms of consistency and stability.
Unfortunately no new game modes unlike in last game, where we got Clam Blitz. I don't know if I prefer the way Ranked is handled in this game over last game. I guess there's pros and cons there.
The one thing I hate they changed about Ranked, however, is that Rainmaker is now checkpointed.
I thought Rainmaker was unique and fun in the fact that a match of it could end in 30~ seconds if you had the skill and teamwork for it.
It made it distinct from Tower Control in that sense.
Rainmaker in S3 doesn't feel as though it has the same spontaneous and tense nature to it anymore.
This is probably subjective but the new idols, Deep Cut, aren't as charismatic as Off the Hook or Squid Sisters. I'm not sure what it is about them, but they feel sort of hollow to me. Big Man is ok, but not gelling too much with Shiver and Frye.
Despite this, I did enjoy the idea of a triple theme Splatfest and enjoyed the tricolour battles, which I ended up wishing it was just a mode in the normal game instead of an exclusive one in Splatfests. Sometimes I think I'd rather have this over splat zones, in all honesty.
The one thing I do not have much of an issue with in Splat 3 is the soundtrack, which is phenomenal as expected. The genres take on a heavier, grunge-y tone appropriate to the anarchy theme to the game.
Where I do take an issue with it is there doesn't seem to be as big of a playlist during the battles as in Splat 2, despite the fact that songs from previous games ARE IN THIS GAME via the jukebox.
I wish they switched in some of the older songs in turf war or ranked in between the handful songs they assigned to matches.
The story mode in Splat 3 improves drastically over 1 and 2's , however I think it is still inferior to Octo Expansion, which it seems to have taken notes from in terms of structuring and objective-based missions rather than "here's a level, finish it from start to end".
It starts off pretty strong narratively, but by the time I got to the last island, they started recycling or repeating previous missions but with slight alterations, which irked me.
The last chapter itself of the game is cool, and the ending had me excited, but overall I think the story mode, while being an improvement, still needed work.
I also think the concept of Little Buddy Salmonid was sort underused, I wish we got the Salmonid as a playable race instead.
The only part of the game I feel has very little downsides is Salmon Run.
That mode has only been made better with a leveling system to buy gear with points you earn, a training lobby, new king Salmonids which are AWESOME both in concept and execution, new Frenzy Nights and...the thing I never knew I needed: Egg tossing.
All of these made Salmon Run a more fun experience and smoothened the overall flow of the gameplay.
My only wish is that Ruins of Ark Polaris makes a comeback, as that was a unique and well-designed map for SR in Splat2.
Overall, I was left wanting a lot more out of this game, and I think Splatoon is starting to have the same problem Pokémon has, where the developers refuse to properly innovate and struggle to make each entry feel distinct.
Maybe Side Order will be able to add more worth towards this game, but at the moment, Splatoon 3 feels like a superfluous and lazy addition to the franchise.
I started playing Splatoon with S2, putting over 500 hours into it and being absolutely engrossed with it; I was an active participant and enthusiast with ranked mode and knew all the best strats with each map.
I knew almost all the weapon classes strengths/weaknesses and individual strengths of each weapon and which modes they excelled in the most.
I loved Splat 2 wholeheartedly, and enjoyed what it had to offer on a lot of fronts, but I also acknowledged that it had room for improvement.
The static lobby and only being able to change gear at the end of a match, the eventual obsolescence of cash in late game, the limited and annoying 2-map choice with 2 hour rotation, the copy-pasted story mode, and many other things that could be improved, some very easy fixes.
So when Splat 3 was announced, I had high hopes that they would improve drastically in terms of adding onto the game and making the entries difference gap more prominent.
To my dismay, Splat 3 is mostly a disappointment.
The new maps sometimes feel uninspired, and the layout or theming of them reminds me of older maps, One example is, Barnacle & Dime reminds me of Albacore Hotel. But all that these similar maps do, is make me wish I was playing the other game.
The layout of these new maps also feels contrived and like they've been designed to pit players up in all-out brawls rather than prioritising strategic play. Barely any flanks or side paths to help the gameplay flow. Some of the maps feel claustrophobic because of this, and good luck dealing with chargers and splatlings on their untouchable perches.
The new weapons are fun, but there's either not enough of them or not groundbreaking enough to fully impact your regular matches. Tri Stringer and Splatana class are new to this game and barely have gotten any new variations or kits.
In addition to this, some of the weapons that did make a return have been changed, and not necessarily for the better.
I personally preferred the previous game's balance of specials that are support based vs offence based. Splat 2 had a good balance of them, I think.
The specials in this game seem more geared towards support play which isn't bad, but I wish there were more offence-based specials.
The network side of things in Splat 3 is awful; so many disconnects and issues with connections, sometimes these aren't even of your own fault.
The online in this game is somehow even worse than 2 in terms of consistency and stability.
Unfortunately no new game modes unlike in last game, where we got Clam Blitz. I don't know if I prefer the way Ranked is handled in this game over last game. I guess there's pros and cons there.
The one thing I hate they changed about Ranked, however, is that Rainmaker is now checkpointed.
I thought Rainmaker was unique and fun in the fact that a match of it could end in 30~ seconds if you had the skill and teamwork for it.
It made it distinct from Tower Control in that sense.
Rainmaker in S3 doesn't feel as though it has the same spontaneous and tense nature to it anymore.
This is probably subjective but the new idols, Deep Cut, aren't as charismatic as Off the Hook or Squid Sisters. I'm not sure what it is about them, but they feel sort of hollow to me. Big Man is ok, but not gelling too much with Shiver and Frye.
Despite this, I did enjoy the idea of a triple theme Splatfest and enjoyed the tricolour battles, which I ended up wishing it was just a mode in the normal game instead of an exclusive one in Splatfests. Sometimes I think I'd rather have this over splat zones, in all honesty.
The one thing I do not have much of an issue with in Splat 3 is the soundtrack, which is phenomenal as expected. The genres take on a heavier, grunge-y tone appropriate to the anarchy theme to the game.
Where I do take an issue with it is there doesn't seem to be as big of a playlist during the battles as in Splat 2, despite the fact that songs from previous games ARE IN THIS GAME via the jukebox.
I wish they switched in some of the older songs in turf war or ranked in between the handful songs they assigned to matches.
The story mode in Splat 3 improves drastically over 1 and 2's , however I think it is still inferior to Octo Expansion, which it seems to have taken notes from in terms of structuring and objective-based missions rather than "here's a level, finish it from start to end".
It starts off pretty strong narratively, but by the time I got to the last island, they started recycling or repeating previous missions but with slight alterations, which irked me.
The last chapter itself of the game is cool, and the ending had me excited, but overall I think the story mode, while being an improvement, still needed work.
I also think the concept of Little Buddy Salmonid was sort underused, I wish we got the Salmonid as a playable race instead.
The only part of the game I feel has very little downsides is Salmon Run.
That mode has only been made better with a leveling system to buy gear with points you earn, a training lobby, new king Salmonids which are AWESOME both in concept and execution, new Frenzy Nights and...the thing I never knew I needed: Egg tossing.
All of these made Salmon Run a more fun experience and smoothened the overall flow of the gameplay.
My only wish is that Ruins of Ark Polaris makes a comeback, as that was a unique and well-designed map for SR in Splat2.
Overall, I was left wanting a lot more out of this game, and I think Splatoon is starting to have the same problem Pokémon has, where the developers refuse to properly innovate and struggle to make each entry feel distinct.
Maybe Side Order will be able to add more worth towards this game, but at the moment, Splatoon 3 feels like a superfluous and lazy addition to the franchise.
kup
4 months ago