Few game ideas deserve a sequel more than the original Splitgate. Incorporating Aperture Science's portal technology into an arena shooter? Come on, who wouldn't want to play such a combination?! However, despite this excellent concept, the first game did not manage to hold players' attention for long due to its lack of polish.

But Splitgate 2 hopes to modestly optimize the original formula and further highlight its strengths. After personally experiencing four hours of fast-paced PvP matches, I believe this overall more streamlined sequel is more likely to capture my attention, though it doesn't seem to offer the kind of major innovation that everyone expects.

Most of Splitgate 2's adjustments are not revolutionary but rather refinements and improvements. But the developer, 1047 Games, has made all the improvements in ways that benefit the game. Undoubtedly, the biggest change is the introduction of a character class system, presented in the form of three playable factions. Aeros focuses on mobility, with the ability to move faster and recover health easily.

My personal favorite is Meridian, a support faction that grants the entire team the ability to see through walls and control time within a certain range. You can shoot and reload faster, while enemies' movements slow down. Lastly, there is Sabrask, a powerful faction with sticky grenades, deployable shields, and the ability to shoot through walls, while enemies on the other side cannot retaliate.

The gameplay of each faction doesn’t differ significantly (you’ll still use portals to control the battlefield, fly around with jetpacks, and weapons feel largely the same), but the skills and gear each faction brings into combat are quite important. Since the cooldown times for abilities are short, each faction still feels distinct when playing.

Placing a shield as a Sabrask member, or controlling time as a Meridian agent, can significantly impact the outcome of battles. And when you encounter an Aeros warrior using stimulants to fly at breakneck speed, you might lose some health. Even better, you can equip all three factions with different class gadgets, as well as some passive abilities that slightly enhance skills.

For example, if you want to play a more tactical Sabrask, you can replace the sticky grenade with a smoke bomb for a different advantage on the battlefield. Or, like me, you might just want to charge into battle with a shotgun, bursting through portals to give enemies a close-range surprise.

Maps are a rather significant change in Splitgate 2. They are much smaller in scale than those of the previous game, and the layout of places where you can place portals is more conservative. The maps in the original Splitgate were often too large for players, resulting in a long time to rejoin the fight after respawning.

In Splitgate 2, this is not a problem at all, and the overall map design seems more thoughtful. Of course, smaller maps also mean a higher chance of spawn-camping, and I was killed several times shortly after respawning, which wasn’t a pleasant experience. Portals can only be placed in specific areas and are much fewer compared to the previous game, which is also a good thing.

Coupled with the overall reduction in chaos, experienced players have fewer opportunities to dominate beginners with their advanced portal skills and map knowledge, making matches undoubtedly more beginner-friendly. On the other hand, the space for brainy innovations and clever plays has also decreased, which is a bit disappointing. I may need more time in the actual game to experience these portal map layout changes to determine whether they improve the gaming experience.

While the new faction system and map design are the biggest changes in Splitgate 2, most of the other optimizations are minor tweaks. One of them is the player respawn countdown mechanic, where respawn times increase with each death, but your teammates' kills shorten the countdown, with each kill reducing it by three seconds.

Another update is the simplification of the portal mechanics, where your portal gun now automatically places different doors based on the battlefield, so you no longer need to manually select entry and exit doors. While it loses the freedom of manually choosing portals, it results in a more streamlined and intuitive experience, which is definitely worth it. These subtle gameplay optimizations may not be the major changes everyone expects from a sequel, but they certainly push an already solid concept in the right direction.

On the other hand, Splitgate 2 retains many aspects of the original game design unchanged, and I’m really not sure if it's enough to avoid the same fate as its predecessor. From my hands-on experience, the sequel does improve compared to the original Splitgate, but will these improvements be enough to keep my interest? Time will tell.