Splatoon 2 – “Don’t Get Cooked… Stay Off the Hook!”

Splatoon 2 (S2), in fact, the Splatoon series on the whole, was never a Nintendo IP that I had the least bit of interest in. From the hideous design of the Inkling protagonists, to the idiotic Punk/Hip-Hop aesthetic, to the awful music, to the fact that it was (what I believed to be, until very recently) solely focused on PvP combat, this was not a game series for me. Or so I thought.

A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine was visiting from out of town, thanks to the holiday break. When he visited, he brought along a copy of S2 that he had rented from a rental shop nearby his parents’ home, which somehow is still miraculously in business. When he informed me that S2 had a single player story driven campaign, I was immediately intrigued. I had no idea the series also had single player content. I thought it was online PvP and nothing else.

Obviously, that small taste given to me by my friend’s visit had me hooked. Not long after, I was able to acquire a copy of my own, and play the game to its full extent. And I was shocked how much fun it was. And just how much variety the game actually had.

Starting the game fresh, you are immediately thrown into a tutorial. There’s no way around it. But it’s good that it does this, because it teaches you everything you need to know to play the game, which isn’t all that much, honestly.

In S2, you are an Inkling, an anthropomorphic squid/kid (which you can design to a certain point, to suit your preferences). You have a weapon which you can use to cover the ground and walls with ink. This is important, because you can “swim” through areas you’ve inked in “squid form.” This does two things, you can travel faster (and up walls), but it also refills the ink you’ve lost (while not depleting it from the ground you’ve covered… try not to think too hard about it, it’s a video game…). Ink is also used as a weapon. Instead of bullets, or lasers, or whatever, in S2, you use ink to “splat” your enemies. Like I said, simple enough. And the tutorial teaches you all the basics that you need to know. However, it fails terribly in one specific instance. In the tutorial, you are forced to use motion controls to aim up or down (no matter the controller or mode you’re playing in). This was an awful experience and an awful design choice. I truly do not understand why Nintendo continues to force motion control down our throats, when it is so painfully clear that no one wants it… Luckily, once you get out of the tutorial, you can access the main menu, and set your preferences to turn motion controls off. Although, this, and much else is never outright explained to you.

Once out of the tutorial, you are greeted by some hackneyed news show/podcast type thing, hosted by two very annoying girls. This is the game’s way of explaining the different things you can do in the game, all of which is accessed by a small hub world populated by other players.

This show does a very poor job explaining anything, though, as it’s too deep in its own meta to be useful. They talk about the different hub world locales in the vaguest ways. Referencing the access to the solo campaign, by simply asking who the mysterious woman by the manhole is, or even worse, talking about the co-op area as simply “a shady place to get a job.”

How, as a player, would I know where to go to do what, with descriptions like these? If I hadn’t researched a bit online before playing, I would have been very frustrated, being forced to guess, and discover things that could have, and should have, easily been turned into a simple menu, with easy to understand UI.

Oh, and as an added bonus, you’ll be greeted by this annoying podcast show every time you launch the game, because the game needs to tell you what maps are available at that time (more on that later). And it cannot be skipped…

So, as one can see by simply looking at the image of Inkopolis Square (the hub world), there’s quite a bit to do in this game. But I will be focusing mainly on four points: the campaign mode, the dlc, the co-op mode, and the PvP mode. But let’s start with the best: the campaign!

The campaign is a bit different from most of the game, the goals in campaign are radically different from a game of PvP, obviously. But it’s all the better for it. I won’t delve to much in the narrative of it (not that there’s a ton there anyway), suffice it to say, the inkling you made is recruited to be “Agent 4” of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, and you’re set to the task of destroying the Octarian menace.

Like pretty much everything else, the campaign is given its own hub worlds. In these hubs, you need to find invisible tea kettles and splat them with ink to reveal them (I have no idea why tea kettles). These tea kettles are actually the campaign’s levels. But I did find it interesting (and sometimes annoying) that accessing the levels, turned the hub into a level all its own (especially in the final world).

Once you’re in an actual level, your goal is to rescue a stolen zapfish (the inkling’s source of power/energy, or so I’ve been led to understand it). Getting to the zapfish usually requires the player to get from point A to point B, in a standard, linear, 3D platformer-style. However, to leave it at that would be doing a great injustice to one of the game’s most underrated features.

Never in my life would I have expected to see such magnificent and fun level design in a 3rd-person shooter. The designers of S2 have clearly and wholeheartedly embraced Miyamoto’s design principle of “rewarding the player that goes left.” It’s such a simple concept, but one that is so easily dismissed or overlooked by so many designers. In the first handful of levels, I found so many hidden trinkets and goodies stashed away in obscure places that a normal player would overlook, but would feel very rewarding to a player with finely honed “gamer instincts.” To quote the eminent psychiatrist, Dr. Frasier Crane, “Don’t forget to look behind things.”

Rewarding compulsive secret finding, aside, the levels themselves are just a pure joy to play. They’re fun, they’re cleverly designed, they get more challenging as the player progresses, but never unfairly so.

Some levels are special, in which, you will be given a new weapon to try out. Upon completion, that weapon is unlocked for use for the rest of the campaign. Personally, I never found any need to stray from the tried and true main gun, but to each their own. On top of that, you can upgrade your weapons (using collectible currencies), making them faster, stronger, use less ink, etc.

One final note that I must make concerning level design though. This game’s level design resonated with me deeply, and I finally figured out why, about halfway through my playthrough of the campaign. S2’s levels are not entirely different from the levels of 404Sight, a game I helped make, of which the majority of the levels were designed by me. Large floating platforms, designed specifically to make the most out of the game’s main mechanics, just the player and the level, void of any unnecessary open world filler crap. There’s something to be said for linearity in games.

In addition to normal levels, there are also, of course, Boss levels. One for each Sector (hub world). These bosses were quite clever in their design, and really pushed me to think creatively, and make the most of the weapon I had. Also, I never thought I’d fight a toaster oven in a game. To quote my friend, “This game is so Japanese.”

Moving on from the campaign, I’d like to briefly touch on the dlc of the game. The dlc is, surprisingly, nothing more than more solo mode campaign content. Which I appreciated greatly.

In the dlc, you create an Octoling, the Inklings’ main rivals. You find yourself in a strange subway with no memory of why you’re there or who you are. You’re quickly informed (by an old telephone) that if you want to get out, you need to compete a set of challenges, and collect four “thangs” (ugh…). These challenges are like micro-levels. Most are not as long as the main campaign’s levels, but they are often, far more challenging.

When entering a challenge, you are given one gun, sub weapon, or special to use, and nothing else. Occasionally you may get to choose your weapon of choice, but not often. These levels were clearly designed with very specific weaponry in mind. My personal favorite was one where you were equipped with a jetpack/canon combo. So much fun.

But as I said before, many of these levels do not screw around. There were many that I found to be unnecessarily brutal in their difficulty. And while I finally did beat them all, there were some where I did not feel an awesome sense of accomplishment in finishing it, just annoyed relief that I was done with it. Nintendo has an annoying habit, recently, of creating dlc with content that is far more difficult than it should be. And I don’t much care for that trend. Challenging is great. Brutally unfair is not. On the whole though, I did enjoy most of the dlc (especially its bizarre choice of skyboxes). And the final portion of the dlc was great (even if the Metal Gear Solid references were a bit too heavily used).

Moving on, let’s talk about some of the stuff you can do online.

I very much do not like online competition, especially against random players that I do not know. It’s an ugly thing that does ugly things to the people that play it. So, when I heard S2 had a co-op mode, I was, once again, pleased and surprised.

Salmon Run is a cooperative mode in S2, where four players team up, and try to take down three waves of enemy “Salmonoids.” The premise is simple, kill the salmonoids before they kill you. And take out the boss salmonoids to collect the golden eggs. Collect enough golden eggs before time runs out, and you pass the wave, do so three times and you win the run. Failure to collect enough eggs, or if the entire team wipes, without anyone left to resurrect them, and you lose.

Victory means a bonus in your pay, failure means a pay cut. You are paid, by way of a points scale. The more wins you rack up, the more of a multiplier you’ll have added to the points you earned that round. Collect enough points, and you’ll get a reward (cash, new gear for PvP, tickets used to get boosts in PvP, etc.). So, while all the rewards, inevitably go towards PvP progress, the game itself is fun enough for me to continue to return. I’ve always enjoyed cooperative play against CPU enemies. And this certainly scratches that itch.

However, there are a couple frustrating and confusing aspects to Salmon Run.

For one: you can only play it a certain predetermined times. A single map will be playable for the course of (usually) a day and a half or so. Then, Salmon run will close up shop for a random number of hours, before reopening again with a different map. I see absolutely no reason for blocking my access to a game mode I legitimately enjoy playing.

Another issue, is the weaponry. Each map has a set of four weapons that can be used. What weapon you get to use each wave changes, and is completely random. More than once, I failed a run because I was stuck with a weapon I couldn’t handle.

These are odd and annoying choices that ruin an otherwise amazing feature of S2. I don’t know why Nintendo fails to understand how to handle online gameplay so often, but I really wish they’d get their act together going forward.

Speaking of online, I suppose I should talk about the “main” aspect of S2: PvP. There are three different forms of PvP: Unranked Battles, Ranked Battles, and League Battles.

Unranked battles take place in the form of Turf Wars. Turf Wars can be played by any one at any time. The goal is simple (yet so many I’ve seen fail to understand it), ink the most turf in a three minute time limit. Two teams of four compete to cover the most turf, using their own weapon of choice. If you come in contact with an enemy, you can fight, like in any other shooter, but that’s not really the point of Turf Wars. And I’ve seen many a failed game, due to team mates thinking this is some kind of team death match, not bothering with the actual objective.

Ranked and league battles have different modes, aside from Turf Wars, which makes gameplay a bit more varied. But winning and losing in those modes means a whole lot more. And as I’ve said, I detest PvP, so I’ve not touched these modes.

I will note, that regardless of what mode you play, you get XP after a game (more so if you win). Get enough XP to level up, and the shops will offer more/better gear. For example, you can buy new and unique weapons, new shirts/shoes/hats each applying their own combat bonuses. Players truly into the competitive scene, I’m sure could make quite the formidable build with the right weapon and gear.

Much like Salmon Run, though, PvP is not without its eccentricities. Each mode only has two maps that can be played at any time (which is selected randomly). Said maps update every two hours, though. So, if you have a favorite map that you just can’t go without, you’re gonna be very unhappy most of the time. Thankfully, I’m not too particular, one PvP map is as good as another, as far as I’m concerned, with as little as I play it. But I could see others being quite annoyed with this odd design choice.

I’ll also note that the matchmaking is extremely random. My first match, at level one, was up against players ranging from level 20 to 99. And every subsequent match has been similar. I’m not sure if a player’s win/loss ratio comes into play or not. But as far as I can tell, it’s all very random.

So, yeah. In closing, S2 was not a game I ever expected it to be. And I’m very glad I was proven wrong in my assumptions for it. While not every aspect of it is to my liking, I’m glad I was able to find enough content that was worth playing, and let me have a great time while doing it.