Splatoon 2 Review (Nintendo Switch)

Splatoon was a breakout hit for the Wii U. With its fresh and innovative spin on the shooter formula it quickly became one of my favourite Nintendo games. I was a bit cautious about Splatoon 2 at first because early signs seemed to suggest that it might not be the huge leap forward one would expect from a sequel, but thankfully those fears were unfounded. It starts off with a stronger foundation than the original game did that will be bolstered by future content updates, although there are issues carried over from Splatoon that have yet to be addressed. It’s great that Nintendo have taken on the multiplayer shooter genre, because it has made for a stylish and unique game that accommodates for players of all skill levels.

The central mechanic of Splatoon 2 is inking. Instead of firing bullets or explosives, you shoot ink (because you play as squid people!). You’ve still got a variety of weapons at your disposal that all fire ink in different ways, like a sniper rifle that needs to charge its shots but can fire over a long distance and a bucket that sloshes large waves of ink at once. While inking enemies will kill splat them, the primary use of inking is to assist in traversal around levels. When standing on your own team’s ink you can swim in it to move faster, and if the ink is covering vertical surfaces you can swim upwards to reach areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. It’s a unique traversal mechanic that not only enhances the gameplay, but also fits nicely within the game’s theming. You can move and aim with just the analog sticks, or you can use the gyro within the Switch’s controllers to do the bulk of your aiming with motion controls (which is my preferred method, as it was in Splatoon).

Your primary objective when playing depends on which mode you’re playing – Splatoon 2 offers four PvP modes, one co-operative mode and a singleplayer campaign. In unranked multiplayer matches you’ll be playing Turf War, which is a less stressful mode where the aim is to cover more of the stage in ink than the enemy team. Everyone gets points for participating and there’s no stress of going down a rank if you lose, so this is a great mode for younger or less experienced gamers to focus on. One unfortunate casualty from moving off the Wii U is that you no longer have an overhead map available to you at all times, which was a useful feature in Splatoon because you could quickly glance down at the GamePad to see where you should ink next, and get an idea of where enemies are based off where ink is being spread. Nintendo have made do the best they can, though – you can bring up the map by pressing the X button, and can Super Jump over to an ally’s position by pressing a directional button assigned to them, or by moving your cursor to their position with motion controls. Not quite as efficient, but much better than removing these features outright.

For more competitive-minded players there’s three ranked modes you can play which each focus on different objectives. These are a lot more frantic and place a bigger focus on splatting the enemy. While inking terrain is still important to assist in travel, you have to be a lot more focused in where you’re shooting as you don’t get points simply by inking the ground. These are all included in the map rotations to begin with rather than being released over time like in Splatoon 1, which means there’s a bigger variety of gameplay from the get-go. These modes have also undergone balancing changes since the first game which make them much more enjoyable. My favourite of these is in Tower Control Mode. The aim of this mode is to stand on a tower, which will slowly push it towards the enemy team’s base. The first team to get it to the other team’s base wins. In Splatoon 2’s version of this mode, there are set checkpoints along the map where the tower must stand still for a few seconds in order to break them. This gives the defending team a chance to take the tower back, which makes runaway victories much less common.

The ranked modes are full of high-tension excitement that makes them plenty of fun to play, and provide better rewards when you win compared to the unranked Turf War mode. There’s nothing like the satisfaction where you seize victory at the last second, or the devastation felt when an enemy quickly breaks through your defences for a knockout victory. These modes are hard to get into to start with though, for several reasons. There’s not a lot of onboarding given to you to explain how they work, you have to go a bit out of your way to get instructions on how to play them. This is particularly an issue in Rainmaker mode where the objective text during the match intro is a (literal) joke rather than instructional text. If you are good at the modes then you can still struggle to get out of the low ranks due to the fact the game is so reliant on teamwork – since everyone starts out at these ranks you could be paired with new players up against Splatoon veterans who’ve just got the game. You can’t invite your friends into ranked matches so there’s a sizeable luck component involved in your success due to the fact you can get paired with (or against) people of a totally different skill level to you. The ranking system seems good overall though, when I’ve reached points closest to my skill level I’ve hovered around there.

Splatoon 2 brings a number of new ways to ink the world like the Splat Dualies, which are two dual-wielded pistols that grant the user the ability to quickly dodge roll around. Several weapons from the first game return like the Splat Roller (a giant paint roller that you wheel around and can flick at people) and the Jet Squelcher (a long range weapon with a low fire rate) but they’ve all had their loadouts altered. While in other shooters you’ll get your choice of weapons, subweapons and the like, Splatoon 2 locks the extras of your loadout to a specific weapon, so each one has its own subweapon and a special weapon that charges up as you spread ink. For example, one variety of sniper rifle might come equipped with a mine and a special weapon that lets you summon a storm cloud that rains ink, while another one will come with an ink bomb that explodes on impact and the ability to fire a long range ink laser. This streamlines the process of choosing weapons and makes you approach it differently – you might love one weapon a lot but hate its subweapon, but hate another weapon that has sub and special weapons you get a lot of mileage out of. The special weapons are all different to those in the first game, and while they’re definitely more balanced they lack the excitement of the old ones. They don’t come close to the satisfaction of pulling out a last minute Inkstrike in enemy turf or the terror of seeing an enemy suddenly morph into a Kraken.

You get some further customisation over your playstyle through your choice of clothing – each piece you wear has a main skill and some extra slots that can be filled with other boosts that don’t benefit you as much, but can be stacked for an increased effect. You get more control over these than in the first game because you can use items to boost the chances of specific abilities appearing on your gear when you level it up, and can also use coins to wipe abilities from gear and start levelling them up from scratch. Wiping abilities earns you Ability Chunks which can be used to outright add a specific ability into one of your gear’s slots. This means that as you continue to play the game you can edge closer and closer to being able to eliminate RNG from your equipment abilities altogether, which is super convenient and gives you something to keep pushing for.

But of course the most important factor influencing your gear choices will be which looks the freshest! Splatoon has a distinctive colourful, almost-punk style which is enforced by the character designs. The Inklings ooze as much personality as they do ink, and you get a bit more freedom in how you want them to look, with the ability to change their hairstyles and pants now. There’s a lot of choice in outfits, and you can mix and match pieces from different sets. Want to run around with a motorcycle helmet, a soccer jersey and thongs? You can! Even the more ‘serious’ choices like military berets and camouflage looks adorable in this art style.

Splatoon 2 has 8 multiplayer maps available at launch, 2 of which are remade versions of maps from the first game (Moray Towers and Port Mackerel). The changes to these two maps have massively improved them, and I hope any other returning maps get the same treatment. The new maps definitely have a different feel and style about them compared to the base maps in Splatoon 1. For one, they feel smaller overall but more dense. You run into enemies a lot sooner than you did in the first game, but maps are filled with interesting architecture and landmarks that provide more playing space and approach options. You have the likes of Inkblot Art Academy with a tall tower in the middle like Blackbelly Skatepark did, and Sturgeon Shipyard with its rotating bridges that change the routes available at different points of the match. There’s more of a focus on verticality, with walls and overpasses people can use to sneak up and get the drop on you, so you’ve got to keep checking your surroundings at all times. Overall I’m not sure that these maps are as memorable as Splatoon’s, but they play nicely and feel better suited to the range of game modes on offer.

One of the biggest additions in Splatoon 2 is a new mode called Salmon Run. This is a Horde Mode equivalent in which teams of four Inklings have to survive onslaughts of enemies. Salmonids (mutated salmon-like creatures) will charge from the sea in waves and use different methods to attack you. Among these enemies are Boss Salmonids who are stronger and need to be taken out in specific ways, such as throwing bombs into their missile launchers or shooting a weakspot. Defeating these enemies will cause them to drop eggs that you need to take back to a container. Each round has a quota of eggs that needs to be met, and you’ll fail if you don’t meet it or if your entire team gets wiped out. It’s an incredibly hectic game mode that’s unlike anything that’s been in Splatoon before.

One of the most interesting aspects about it is that you don’t get to bring in your gear from other modes. Every day the mode will change the map that gets played on and the pool of weapons that will be available. At the start of each wave you’re given a different weapon and have to work out the best way to incorporate it into your group’s strategy. It sounds awful, but it’s great fun in practise. It’s reminiscent of Gun Game modes in other shooters. One minute you’re dominating with your favourite weapon and the next you’re flailing around trying to keep yourself safe with something you’ve never used.

There is a lot to take in within this mode though and not all of it is explained to you, so you’ll have to learn a few things as you go. You get the hang of things before too long, but if the teammates you get paired with haven’t encountered some of the gimmicks and situations that the game throws at you then it can totally mess you all up. The mode is at its best when you’ve got a group of friends you can play with who know what they’re doing and you can co-ordinate with.

As fun as it is, however, Splatoon 2 has some serious issues when it comes to matchmaking. When playing Turf War you can easily join a queue to enter your friend’s lobby when the game they’re currently in ends. However, they’re not notified that someone’s trying to join them so they’ll often leave before you get in. And if you do get in then there’s no guarantee you’ll even be on the same team as them. You might find it fun to be competing against them, but you should have the option to join them if you want to. It’s not like there’s anything at stake in this mode anyway. Salmon Run’s lobby system would make a lot more sense here – in that mode you can search for games with your friends, with random players filling in any gaps you need. But even Salmon Run isn’t free from criticism as it’s only available to play during certain periods of time. This issue has been alleviated since launch as these periods last 24 hours, but at launch there were frequent sessions that a working adult would have no chance of participating in. And it’s still possibly for the mode to not be open when you’ve sat down to play, which can be annoying if that’s what you had your mind set on playing.

You can’t play with your friends at all in Ranked modes unless you happen to get paired together by chance. Given how team-focused these modes are it’s annoying that you’re forced to play with random players rather than people you know and can co-ordinate with. You can eventually unlock a mode called League Play which is similar to ranked but allows you to pair up with a friend or form a team of four friends and matchmake that way, but there’s some issues. For one, you need to reach B- rank in a Ranked mode to unlock it. This means you have to flail about in the lowest rank mode where the skill level is a lot lower until you luck out with good teammates enough to rank up. Additionally, you can only play it with a group of two or four. If there’s three of you then you can’t join the matchmaking queue. And finally, it’s just annoying having to go into a separate mode just to play with your friends. Especially since it doesn’t affect your rank at all, so you could be playing heaps of League and doing really well, but still being stuck with a low rank on your screen every time you play.

When you are playing in matchmaking with your friends you can’t make use of the Nintendo Switch mobile app’s features like voice chat, you’ve got to go to a totally different lobby system that connects to the app, and then you’re only able to play with your friends in private matches. It defeats the purpose of the app and it means people are going to be using external applications for team co-ordination anyway. The app is garbage when it comes to multiplayer features, as you’ve probably heard, but it does have other useful features like stat tracking and ordering equipment with different default abilities than they normally do.

For those who won’t be playing online the game still has other things to offer. You can play all the multiplayer modes over local wireless (but not splitscreen on the same console) and there’s also a singleplayer story mode to play through as well. The story mode is a shooter/platformer hybrid where the aim of each level is to either collect a captive creature at the end or fight a boss. While there’s enemies to shoot your mastery of inking and traversal will also be put to the test. The game’s mechanics are all used in a number of interesting ways and combined with different gimmicks that keep you on your toes. One level might have you jumping between grind rails while shooting enemies while another might have platforms that only stay extended if you ink them regularly, making for a hectic plate-spinning situation. It’ll take you about 5 hours or so to play the story portion through to completion.

The campaign is vastly improved over the first game’s because now instead of using a single type of weapon in every level you’ll be trying out each weapon archetype in the game. Not only does this make for more varied level design but it also makes the singleplayer mode act as a tutorial for the multiplayer portion of the game. You don’t need to jump into a baptism by fire with a new weapon, you get to try it out in a stress-free environment first. This also adds some replay value to the game because you can go back and replay levels with different weapons. Completing every level with a weapon will make it available for purchase in multiplayer (they’re just reskins of other weapons but they’re nice to show off). It’s tedious to do for every weapon, but having to think about levels from a new perspective due to the differing weapon capabilities is fun to try for a few weapons you’re particularly interested in. And since you can play the campaign online, grinding through these unlocks can be a good way of getting some Splatoon action on the go.

The problems I had with the campaign were that the collectibles and bosses weren’t as good as the first game. In Splatoon you could find Sunken Scrolls hidden in each level that would flesh out the world’s lore, and finding all of them would unlock new weapons. In Splatoon 2 while they’re still fun to sniff out they provide less interesting snippets of lore and don’t unlock any weapons. The bosses were a bit disappointing as well since a couple of them are slightly reworked versions of bosses from the first game. Both games have some fantastic boss designs so it would have been nice to see more of them.

You can use all currently available Splatoon amiibo in Splatoon 2 to get different bonuses. Each one unlocks different gear, and you can pose with the character whose figure you scanned in an exclusive photo mode. It’s a cute little feature that doesn’t feel like a huge loss for anyone without an amiibo. amiibo can also store your equipment and controller settings so that you can quickly swap out different loadouts. You would think that this would allow you to take your loadout to other consoles (to bring your custom gear onto a tournament console for example), but it doesn’t work this way – if the other console doesn’t have your gear, it won’t be equipped. And if they do have it, the amiibo will equip their version of the gear, not your custom ones. It’s odd and makes the feature pointless.

Just like Splatoon did, Splatoon 2 will receive extended post-launch support, with free maps and weapons being added over time (and in fact some already have been). So it’s worth keeping in mind that the game will become an even meatier package over time, and being free they won’t fragment the community.

Splatoon 2 would have been fun enough if it were just more Splatoon, but thankfully it doesn’t settle for that low bar. It has overhauled a bunch of basic systems from the first game while adding new content of its own. From the singleplayer campaign, to the competitive modes, to the brand new Salmon Run mode, there’s plenty to love about Splatoon 2 and I’ll be putting many, many hours of play into it. Its biggest issue is, as with many online Nintendo games, the way its online systems are handled. Hopefully these will be sorted out before Nintendo starts charging for online play next year. Like Splatoon before it, it’s just such a nice and wholesome game to play. You can easily jump into some casual matches and bask in the beautiful colours of the stages and ink, listening to the punk/pop soundtrack and having fun.

This review was written based off a game or game content provided by the publisher. We don’t assign review scores to game reviews.