Bilawal Bashir 
Portal-filled first-person shooter Splitgate 2 is adding factions with unique abilities to the fast-paced arena gameplay.
The first Splitgate quickly became a fan favorite thanks to its old-school arena shooter gameplay. The portals added to the chaos with a new layer of strategy. However, despite being a decent shooter, the game couldn’t capture a large audience, and the developers moved on to the sequel in 2022. This made the game infamous for having a highly popular beta that never actually wrapped up.
Splitgate 2, however, is introducing many more changes to the game. Chief among them is the introduction of factions. With free-to-play games like The Finals and XDefiant already on the market, Splitgate 2 already has a lot of competition. While the original game revolved only around portals and shooting, the sequel aims to diversify the gameplay with factions that come with unique abilities.
What are the Splitgate 2 factions?
Splitgate 2 introduces three factions to the arena free-to-play shooter: Aeros, Meridian, and Sabrask.
Each faction has its own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. The developers showcased the new factions in a gameplay trailer featuring competitive players and content creators playing the game. Competitive players like Timothy “iiTzTimmy” An, Ian “Enable” Wyatt, and Geroge “KingGeorge” Kassa led the explanations.
Aeros
The Aeros faction is for those who love moving around fast across the map. It offers increased agility, faster reloads, and sprinting. Splitgate 2 is also introducing slides, so combining those with faster movement should result in faster fights. Aeros faction members rely more on portals, further increasing their hold on the map. Their faction ability lets them move even faster for a set amount of time.
Meridian
The Meridian take on a support role as healers with extra abilities to assist allies who are on the attack.
The Meridian faction might be the apparent support class in Splitgate 2, but they can also deal damage. The healing ability is excellent in a pinch for themselves and their teammates. The faction ability lets them scan enemies and potentially see them through walls. Another ability called “Time Dome” makes every team member inside faster. However, it has the opposite effect on the enemies, slowing their movement and firing.
Sabrask
The Sabrask faction is a defense-focused faction that doesn’t rely on portals and instead focuses on area control.
Splitgate 2 caters to players who just love arena shooters with this faction. Their Smart Wall ability throws down a portal shield on the ground. The shield stops enemy bullets but allows players to shoot through it, making it ideal for choke points.
The Splitgate 2 developers are hosting a live stream on August 14, 2024, and will show off the game more. With big hitters like Black Ops 6 around the corner, Splitgate 2 has to do a lot of legwork to entice FPS lovers.
