(I Am Here, Now I Am There) Spectre Divide Impressions
Oh, another CS clone, who asked for this in the market? No, it doesn't revolve around special abilities, ridiculous cosmetic placements, and messing up the meta. Not yet anyway, this game is a few leagues better than Valorant. Could even topple that when it reaches mainstream.
Spectre Divide's main gameplay is simple, yet offers a truly unique mechanic with refined touches to the gameplay. You place bodies, and you switch between them on the go. Purchase both different loadouts, place their Spectres wherever, and using both your skills as a player and map awareness to takeout enemy opponents. With the same bomb mode that CS made.
There are some other bizarre choices that kind of impede on its gameplay, but others somehow shape its design well into the match. It's a different ballgame into the first-person shooter scene, despite the familiarity. Honestly speaking, if this marginally affects Valorant's presence, all for it.
First I have to clear a few things, one is that this game is not in perfect shape. There were server instabilities, trouble login in, I even played the mandatory tutorial mode, and guess what, the network didn't register my tutorial completion. I redid it, same, so used a VPN this time, and it worked.
But yeah, weird shenanigans' bro, is it fun to play? If you're looking for anxiety inducing, laser focused experiences, yeah, I guess there's your fun there. I think the big intrigue comes into how differently build this is. It's not about just switching bodies, my Spectre will give me a warning if an enemy is even nearby by sensor. God forbid I don't switch soon, and get killed.
The weapon loadouts are very particular as well, they come in pairs with two kinds of weapons, anchor and specialist types. Anchors are for holding base, pulling power plays, and easy clearouts. Specialist are for flexible playstyles, run and gunning, camping, and suppression, these work. And here's the best part, they sound and play like actual guns. It makes more sense if you're intuitively aware of how military combat works. It isn't pulling it shots.
Recoils, ADS aiming, bullet spread, like the feedback these guns provide are good enough to familiarize playing them. Shotguns don't do damage unless shot in the distance, yet can make you be more mobile, SMGs are the same, ARs provide high damage, and accuracy.
MGs are for full suppression, and snipers good for quick clearance. Strategy, placement, and tactics all work well here. Weapon tiers also help identify which to pick, the UI can be confusing at first, but the top one at row is for the Spectre whereas I get more options to pick. I guess this is fair, but this basically implies that Spectres can have limited weapons to hold.
You have, instead of abilities, gadgets. Picking out of 4 unlocked classes, useful stuff like area scanners, mines, shield walls, healing people, and more to do. Providing 3 of them for each of these classes. And they're useful if you know what you're doing. Just don't spam them around.
The Spectres in early game can be placed anywhere from the team side of the map, before the match begins, and I have to equip my puck before placing them elsewhere. This actually takes time, and creates a trace line, enemies can see it too. They can surprise you in multiple ways, can be positioned in either bomb sites or hidden areas without knowing better.
One of the things that would make a game like this mostly work, is map design. Good choke points, entries, flanking, enough room for pushing, effective tactics, counter plays, and so on. Like Valorant sort of had these, but it became more of a playground for them to spam abilities.
This game makes good use of its tactical gear, you can be a good shot, but there are ways to surprise anyone because no one kept an eye on the other entry point or their Spectre popped out of a hiding spot. And that is again due to map design. It all just comes together pretty well. Plus, plenty anxiety inducing with the adrenaline rush pumping through.
There's also, ugh, the progression system. I honestly have little to say about this, because outside cosmetic contracts, there's another thing called Crew Ranking. It's worth exploring more here. But I felt pretty less inclined to, since the more I played, the less I saw myself really making an impact. Also, who thought they can get away with pricing the cosmetics so stupidly high?
Movement can be a little stiff, especially if you're switching to knife, that's just my nitpick I guess. Going to ADS is also a little bit slower, again my issue. But the best part of this is the lesser movement penalty during shooting. Providing fluidity in engagements.
The tutorial got me to familiarize with its core gameplay, but I feel like this was made to take in both Valorant and CS players. It is definitely not beginner-friendly, the learning curve around this is kind of high, it doesn't have an extended tutorial to teach you the ropes. Is it also a good title to switch from those aforementioned games? If you like how it plays, yeah. I did with a friend, and he's glad Valorant has a competitor. But the launch is skewered by greedy practices, and bare-bones progression.
I love the gameplay, the map design, the unique concept of moving bodies, it works to almost every degree. But I think it should do more, otherwise it'll easily fade away. Also, 3v3 types are not like easy to play. Since player skills also determine the match, I don't want a grifter dying twice now, do I?
Lastly, Shroud has worked with the development team on this as well. A major esports player heading a development team? All the more reason to check it, plus it being F2P.
