Splatoon 2 TEST FIRE

[Ansible]

I think the lasers are still there, though I haven't seen too many videos of players using them (well). But the laser seems to be a lot thinner or better blends into the the ink color.

Does anyone know if you can superjump without opening up the map?

 

[Ulk]

With regard to chargers... I honestly must say I don't see how this is going to end well either. The charger was at no point an underwhelming weapon. Far from it. Many agreed it may have even been too powerful in the original Splatoon. While weapons like rollers received changes rather than specifically buffs and nerfs in this game, the chargers were simply severely buffed. I really don't see how this is going to end well. Once people learn to use the chargers as efficiently in the original, I really think we're going to feel the consequences of that. On the other hand as a charger main myself I'd definitely be excited if the E-Liter returned with the same new attributes.

 

[Lonely_Dolphin]

Did anyone find out if the vertical flick has more 1HKO range than the horizontal? Also, so glad they gave the Roller it's Suction Bombs back as now it can do stuff against elevated enemys.

 

[Maave]

I definitely noticed some lag in the motion controls this time around. Not much but a tiny bit.

 

[Flareth]

Well, I'm very much a charger scrub, so doubt I'd notice if the charger was weakened at all. I'll leave it to the pros to figure that one out.

This last session has left me with a few flashbacks to the days of old, when Turf Wars first transitioned from playful free-for-alls into chaotic deathmatches; seems the demo sessions have kinda devolved into this as well. If I hold any share of blame for this, I do apologize.

I will say, although the Inkjet is a bit cumbersome to use, it is pretty fun to chase people with it. (Like that A-hole that sniped-and-squidbagged me late in the last match, who soon found himself on the receiving end of like 5 giant ink barrages courtesy of this guy.) Not to mention the multiple aerial duels with opposing Inkjetters, which go about as well as you'd expect yet feel epic nonetheless.

 

[Award]

I think the lasers are still there, though I haven't seen too many videos of players using them (well). But the laser seems to be a lot thinner or better blends into the the ink color.

Does anyone know if you can superjump without opening up the map?

I haven't seen a laser, not my own, or opponents. The charger character glows in a bit of white while holding the charge now but no longer projects a laser. My guess is this is the fix for the fact that the lasers never tracked accurate with online connection precision being what it is (the infamous, I got hit and the laser was across the room" issue.

With regard to chargers... I honestly must say I don't see how this is going to end well either. The charger was at no point an underwhelming weapon. Far from it. Many agreed it may have even been too powerful in the original Splatoon. While weapons like rollers received changes rather than specifically buffs and nerfs in this game, the chargers were simply severely buffed. I really don't see how this is going to end well. Once people learn to use the chargers as efficiently in the original, I really think we're going to feel the consequences of that. On the other hand as a charger main myself I'd definitely be excited if the E-Liter returned with the same new attributes.

I think there's changes into how it hits though that makes it hard to be as good with them as the first one. Smaller hitboxes, faster/smaller targets, etc. Snipers are more invisible but the weapon doesn't feel to me as destructive as the originals at all (though that's with a mere 2 hours in and only 1/4 that time spent with chargers so it's far from a compete inspection>)

Did anyone find out if the vertical flick has more 1HKO range than the horizontal? Also, so glad they gave the Roller it's Suction Bombs back as now it can do stuff against elevated enemys.

Can't say as an absolute but it definitely appears to be. The regular flick seems carbon-like. More spatter but damages only up close. It doesn't flick like a splat roller did at all IMO. But that horizontal flick has some serious ohko range. MOST of my roller kills are coming from vertical. I'm REALLY loving the new roller. It shocks me but it might end up being a more primary main that duelies for me if the honeymoon lasts. It feels super versitile if you use all its modes well. Not digging the special though. Feels pretty meh. But the main/sub are good enough I don't care much :)

 

[Lonely_Dolphin]

I haven't seen a laser, not my own, or opponents. The charger character glows in a bit of white while holding the charge now but no longer projects a laser. My guess is this is the fix for the fact that the lasers never tracked accurate with online connection precision being what it is (the infamous, I got hit and the laser was across the room" issue.




I think there's changes into how it hits though that makes it hard to be as good with them as the first one. Smaller hitboxes, faster/smaller targets, etc. Snipers are more invisible but the weapon doesn't feel to me as destructive as the originals at all (though that's with a mere 2 hours in and only 1/4 that time spent with chargers so it's far from a compete inspection>)



Can't say as an absolute but it definitely appears to be. The regular flick seems carbon-like. More spatter but damages only up close. It doesn't flick like a splat roller did at all IMO. But that horizontal flick has some serious ohko range. MOST of my roller kills are coming from vertical. I'm REALLY loving the new roller. It shocks me but it might end up being a more primary main that duelies for me if the honeymoon lasts. It feels super versitile if you use all its modes well. Not digging the special though. Feels pretty meh. But the main/sub are good enough I don't care much :)

The Chargers still have a laser, watch other people's gameplay. Since you're not focusing on playing the game you should notice it.

That's great to hear about the roller! The special yeah, seems more underwhelming now that we know you get no frames of invincibility while using it, but I think it'll still be great in ranked.

 

[Magic8Ball]

The Chargers still have a laser, watch other people's gameplay. Since you're not focusing on playing the game you should notice it.

That's great to hear about the roller! The special yeah, seems more underwhelming now that we know you get no frames of invincibility while using it, but I think it'll still be great in ranked.

I loved using the Roller a ton. It was so much more versatile and pretty gosh darn quick with its kill frames compared to the Splattershot and Dualies. Not only that but I feel it's able to space much more effectively now. The Splashdown is a ton of fun to use, especially during a Super Jump, and it clears the bombs surrounding it. The Vanilla Roller in the original game had no way of "getting out" when it was in sticky situations.

I heard this before, but I never thought I would agree with it: the Dualies felt slow in their movements. Their strafing felt off and the rolls, while effective at points, is something that has to be mastered to use effectively. Of course, run speed up should fix this, but I was a little disappointed. Still tons of fun.

 

[Inyo]

You don't realize how much you miss your favourite gear until you are stuck with a pre-set build. I died so many times because I was used to having Ink Saver Main or Ink Resistance on every build.

Anyways, I felt like I couldn't hit anybody, which is actually not that different to how I felt playing Splatoon 1. Still, things felt slightly different.

A bit cool on some of the specials but I guess they are just harder to use than the old ones. Probably the only one that I feel needs work is the Stingray, it's very awkward and nobody really cares when you have it blasting. I think it should splat in less hits because it moves so dang slow, but that's just me.

Had quite a few DCs in the early Testfires (none of them me) but by the 8pm one Saturday I saw maybe one the whole hour.

I like the new maps though the Gym is pretty small, feels like the enemy team is always right on top of you. That hill in the middle is a deathtrap but you gotta hold it to control the map. I like the bridge in The Reef.

I hated the Curling Bombs at first (even though I'm Canadian) but then I figured out how great for pressure they are. Got a funny splat by curling one towards a Superjumper's landing marker across the map.

 

[WiseSquid]

Some splatoon 2 matches! I get better at the duellies in later footage.

 

[Torloth]

Finally getting to play last night... (Had ISP issues Friday night)

First the Motion controls... I didn't like them and didn't want to waste playtime trying to adjust them... (Turned them off)

I tried all the weapons.. feel that my performance with some weapons was way worse than others... (I captured footage for the whole event will upload and link later *please don't laugh too hard*)

Splatdualies are super cool but man I need more practice with them.. them switching the jump button really messed me up (also since I have been playing LoZ and the jump button there is also X).

I ended up playing Splattershot the most I love that new Special Tenta missiles (or however you spell it)

I like the charger A lot more than I did again not use to it need try it out more.

Roller... Still isn't my style. The changes are good.


The changes are good. I noticed the rate of Fire on the Splattershot felt. A little different... can't quite put it into words. But it was definitely different.

All in all I'm even more hyped then I was before

I tired both the pro controller and the Joycons both are good. Liked the pro controller more with the Motion off.

 

[RespawningJesus]

I will definitely say that controller wise, players will want to use either the Joycon grip, pro controller, or the joycons attached to the console to play. Playing with both joycons, one in each hand, felt weird. I am too used to moving both of my hands to tilt the controller to aim with the gyro controls that aiming with just the right joycon (left joycon does not affect aiming in any way, shape, or form,) was odd.

 

[Torloth]

I will definitely say that controller wise, players will want to use either the Joycon grip, pro controller, or the joycons attached to the console to play. Playing with both joycons, one in each hand, felt weird. I am too used to moving both of my hands to tilt the controller to aim with the gyro controls that aiming with just the right joycon (left joycon does not affect aiming in any way, shape, or form,) was odd.

I guess they figured that they would use your right hand to aim like in the Wii days... But I'm sure there are some people that prefer it the other way.

I personally would love rebindable buttons in the full game. But I don't think that will happen

 

[Award]

That late night run last night was brutal. I think all the veterans came out in force suddenly for that one! I did notice a number of the classic netcode problems, so I'm thinking they fixed nothing there. See the roller go by THEN get splatted, flick at someone with the roller and it should be ohko, and they don't get hit etc. That's unfortunate to see, though it's hard to say if they really fixed nothing or if the Switch's notoriously bad WiFi is making a lot of people more laggy than otherwise used to be.

Most depressing is they didn't get rid of the stupid predictive AI thing that makes it like a racer which makes everything FEEL smooth but makes precision sort of a gamble. I was really hoping they'd remove that. That's the one thing that at a competitive level really will hold it back versus most other games.

So rollers are super fun now, but IMO they don't stand a chance against a room full of duelies :P That's the one catch wit this testfire was EVERYONE was playing duelies so playing a weapon that wasn't duelies tended to be problematic. They're not OP, but a whole team of them tends to be able to cover a lot more ground a lot faster than a mixed team. Won't be an issue in the real game, but for the testfire it created some pretty hard to handle situations for rollers/chargers and made it harder to evaluate (and, well TW was never a great place for a charger...)

Splatdualies are super cool but man I need more practice with them.. them switching the jump button really messed me up (also since I have been playing LoZ and the jump button there is also X).

LOL this exactly. Non-stop I would sit in the middle of the map standing still like a total noob with my map open when I was trying to jump off a ledge. And then I'd hastily try to correct and end up flalling through that stupid grate in Musselforge. Curse you Zelda and Splatoon 1!

I didn't mind the motion controls so much, they felt odd to me at first but I adapted fast. The gyros are higher resolution than the gamepad's so that might be it. And/or too much or not enough smoothing.

 

[Fullmental]

I got the chance to play in 4 of the test fire hours and tried a variety of the weapons and switch controller methods. I have to say the pro controller feels great. It seems a little more latent than say the wii U gamepad, but it also feels like it's more precise and I didn't feel like I had to reset the motion controls every match. The joycons were ok, but I was disappointed in the range of the analog sticks, they just don't have enough of a range of motion for precise movements, though the motion controls felt better in the joycon grip for some reason. Handheld was ok, but I wouldn't prefer it due to the small screen.

I like the dualies and want to love them, but the roll does seem a little annoying to use. It can be effective, but usually the lag after makes you an easy target. Also, I can't tell you how many times I tried to jump while shooting and accidentally rolled instead. Given that most other weapons allow jumping while shooting, I can't expect this to dissipate as we learn the game much either. The range is also lacking, which I found in the test fire maps in particular weren't that great. I think these would be great weapons in maps with more close quarters combat, or ones with plenty of places to hide and ambush.

The roller was fun to use. I barely use them today but I found it very easy to get used to. It's definitely a bit OP though, for someone like me to be able to use it as well as the splattershot, it's probably a bit much. The special is very useful for those situation where you wind up surrounded by enemies, or to just rush forward and surprise a group of enemies bunched together in a fight against a teammate. Love the suction bomb sub on it too, that's desperately needed for vertical fights, even with the extra flick now.

I'm bad at chargers and couldn't figure out how to use the "charge keep" function, I can only assume it works and is OP for any charger mains? I was unimpressed with the sub and the special though, the special is too weak and slow, and a burst bomb set would have been more useful for close quarters combat.

Splattershot was about what I expected, being a shooter main. I felt no considerable difference to current offerings and loved the special, even if it wasn't effective at killing enemies it was good to get a quick view of where everyone was on the battlefield. I consider it almost more of a recon tool or a useful TC special than a general purpose one.

In all I can't wait for a new test fire or the game release, whichever comes next. I'm very interested in seeing some more new maps in particular. Hopefully we don't have to wait until late Summer to see this game's release...



One more thing though. Regarding the wifi connection issues people are all claiming, I have to wonder if it's not the switch but the wifi router itself? I have a "gaming" router which touts low latency and consistent performance, and I never experienced a DC in game or got any "connection unstable" messages. I also didn't see a ton of enemies that were lagging severely, though I did note several DCs in game for other players. I think the problem here may be twofold. Being a portable device, the Switch may indeed have a less powerful wifi chip than the Wii U did, but you also have to consider the fact that most people use their absolute basic Walmart routers, or an ISP provided router which is usually of questionable quality. We also can't forget about the congested 2.4GHz spectrum (most people don't use 5GHz still) and the fact that these routers tend to choke under consistent traffic draws (due to cheap/underengineered chinese chips, this is all too common on any router priced under $100...). I wouldn't be surprised if something as simple as a router upgrade would solve these problems for a lot of people.

 

[Award]

I got the chance to play in 4 of the test fire hours and tried a variety of the weapons and switch controller methods. I have to say the pro controller feels great. It seems a little more latent than say the wii U gamepad, but it also feels like it's more precise and I didn't feel like I had to reset the motion controls every match. The joycons were ok, but I was disappointed in the range of the analog sticks, they just don't have enough of a range of motion for precise movements, though the motion controls felt better in the joycon grip for some reason. Handheld was ok, but I wouldn't prefer it due to the small screen.

I like the dualies and want to love them, but the roll does seem a little annoying to use. It can be effective, but usually the lag after makes you an easy target. Also, I can't tell you how many times I tried to jump while shooting and accidentally rolled instead. Given that most other weapons allow jumping while shooting, I can't expect this to dissipate as we learn the game much either. The range is also lacking, which I found in the test fire maps in particular weren't that great. I think these would be great weapons in maps with more close quarters combat, or ones with plenty of places to hide and ambush.

The roller was fun to use. I barely use them today but I found it very easy to get used to. It's definitely a bit OP though, for someone like me to be able to use it as well as the splattershot, it's probably a bit much. The special is very useful for those situation where you wind up surrounded by enemies, or to just rush forward and surprise a group of enemies bunched together in a fight against a teammate. Love the suction bomb sub on it too, that's desperately needed for vertical fights, even with the extra flick now.

I'm bad at chargers and couldn't figure out how to use the "charge keep" function, I can only assume it works and is OP for any charger mains? I was unimpressed with the sub and the special though, the special is too weak and slow, and a burst bomb set would have been more useful for close quarters combat.

Splattershot was about what I expected, being a shooter main. I felt no considerable difference to current offerings and loved the special, even if it wasn't effective at killing enemies it was good to get a quick view of where everyone was on the battlefield. I consider it almost more of a recon tool or a useful TC special than a general purpose one.

In all I can't wait for a new test fire or the game release, whichever comes next. I'm very interested in seeing some more new maps in particular. Hopefully we don't have to wait until late Summer to see this game's release...



One more thing though. Regarding the wifi connection issues people are all claiming, I have to wonder if it's not the switch but the wifi router itself? I have a "gaming" router which touts low latency and consistent performance, and I never experienced a DC in game or got any "connection unstable" messages. I also didn't see a ton of enemies that were lagging severely, though I did note several DCs in game for other players. I think the problem here may be twofold. Being a portable device, the Switch may indeed have a less powerful wifi chip than the Wii U did, but you also have to consider the fact that most people use their absolute basic Walmart routers, or an ISP provided router which is usually of questionable quality. We also can't forget about the congested 2.4GHz spectrum (most people don't use 5GHz still) and the fact that these routers tend to choke under consistent traffic draws (due to cheap/underengineered chinese chips, this is all too common on any router priced under $100...). I wouldn't be surprised if something as simple as a router upgrade would solve these problems for a lot of people.

Old charger main here, I'm still unimpressed with the new chargers, BUT since it was TW only it's not entirely a fair test. Overall it felt "off" and I'm not sure how. I also wasn't too impressed with the charge-hold, at least on these maps. It's SUCH a short duration you get, you don't really get to reposition with it like I imagined, it's really just the charger's equivalent of the duelies dodge-roll. You get enough time to side-step-swim and back up...but the time it takes to re-acquire a target, I can imagine it being devastating for the top .05% of charger users at the very high level and mostly ignored by everyone else. I find it hard to get enthused about that kind of update. Loved chargers last time but from what I'm seeing here, as a former charger/sploosh main with rollers a an aside, this time around I might focus mostly on rollers/duelies and give chargers a pass....just seems boring and fiddly. It'll have an audience, and maybe my mind will chane again once I get into ranked.

As for WiFi issues, it seems to be a known issue that the Switch has very weak WiFi (or is very prone to interference.) I have an enterprise wifi router and get 2-bars if I take it 8 feet away from it, and even still so-so upload speeds if I have it almost touching the antenna (could be gain overload too), I went wired and saw a 10% increase in download and 400% increase in upload performance against an enterprise router in the same room. yeah, Switch has some WiFi issues! Personally I think it's the drivers for the broadcom nic and will be improved upon in some patches (broadcom drivers ALWAYS suck out of the box...numerous laptops tell me this...) But I do think the big metal shielding plate in the back probably isn't helping. WiiU had a great wifi signal that could cut through anything. My PS4 has an even worse signal than my Switch though...

 

[WiseSquid]

The thing about the duellies I think is that you really need to roll a lot in combat situations. It's the only thing setting it apart from the splattershot. The splattershot's got more range a better sub and more power in it's favor so you better make sure you roll! Also it's really fun to do. Roll, roll brrrr. roll, roll, brrrrr.

 

[Torloth]

I'm sorry people had Bad WiFi Experiences.. I use the Eathernet adapter I bought for my wiiU I had no D/C's on my console. Noticed other players having issues...

 

[Ansible]

Going through some of the video playbacks and I'm seeing a few vicious rollers mixing up both their horizontal and vertical flicks—carbon mains perhaps? lol

Not sure how I feel about the Splashdown, it seems to have a long windup time which is good or bad depending on which end of it you're on.

Stingray it seems you need to keep a constant stream on the target to splat them. To me it's looking like if the target takes a few hits but gets of the stream then gets in the stream again, their hit counter restarts. I'm sure that'll be fixed and/or it'll get a mild buff.

Wonder when the next Nintendo Direct is.

 

[Green Waffles]

Oh! OH!

I played test fire! I WANNA SHARE MY THOUGHTS! xD

For reference I played all but 2 of the times (so 4 hours total?)
First, the negatives
- Lag was still as present as in Squidy Potter and the sorcerer's ink, I pray to the great fax machine that they fix this or NOT charge us to play online

- I played with almost zero japan players, despite joining a new lobby between each match. I had about 3 games where a Kanji name showed in lobby. AND on top of that, quite a few times I actually got paired with the same players throughtout the hour, not just getting popped back into the lobby I left mind you, I would get a slow trickle in of the same players I played against over the course of a few minutes

-Some lobbies, especially the 4am ones, lasted a looooong time, most likely due to the game desperately trying to keep the matches regional

-The new splat roller felt like hot trash. The 1hko range felt less like the splat roller and more of a carbon, no jumping then horizontal flicking at the apex really screwed with my muscle memory of playing so much sploon 1 roller. (Iflicked a n inkjet what *felt* like was within my kill range 4 TIMES, back-to back flicks, and he he still livedI couldn't grasp the roller's vertical flick effective range for the one hour long play session I devoted to it.(the rest I played ~80% splat charger with ~20% dooly sprinkled here and there, and about 2 games with the splattershot xP)
This is most likely just me personally not adapting well to the roller changes, but I feel there is some merit in sharing regardless

-The the new charge hold mechanic on chargers felt very niche as you can only hold it for ~1.5 seconds before it goes away completely
for your average encounter, its much more effective to simply keep charging and firing as you can easily recharge in the time it allows you to hold one.

POSITIVES!
-That being said, the charger shot hold definately felt nice when facing another charger, allowing for sneak charge from behind cover and popping out for a near instant splat. I can also see this being much stronger on eliters since their charge time is much longer than splatcharger. Of course this also means the mechanic will be utterly useless on the fast chargers; Bamboozler and squiffer so...

-Stingray! Not the most amazing special, in the grand scheme of all Splatoon's specials, a well placed grenade or tentamissle strike while you are using it will spell sure death(you move VERY slowly while firing the stingray, and you can;t stop firing until it ends.) HOWEVER, it felt VERY powerful when used at proper distance. When you are far enough away, ex. standing just above the first dropdown on The Reef, the slow turn is a non issue on targets at mid and even less so the further back they are. You can easily track from a good vantage point of the stage, splat enemies your teammates have pinned down in their "cover" and then move on to splat squids as they leave their spawn! I got numerous double Splats with the stingray(though, remember the n00b factor here) and even one triple splat ;P
It's very Killer Wail-esque in that if you use it while too close to enemy squids, you're as good as dead, but if you are positioned just right, it can be deadly... This time around you just need to practice your enemy tracking skills in order to follow them despite not having line of sight 100% of the time

-Splat Dualies(too much to write, find someone else's post talking more indepth, I recommend looking up a fellow called LHoT10820)
The short version? Aerospray 2.0 now with superior aim and combat movement capabilites!

-The in match UI is very detailed, I'll cut this down too, I've gone on for too long already xP Plus I'm sure many have already expanded on this bit already.

-The loss music is more mellow, great for us more salty squids xP

And that's only what was in the testfire, we haven't even gotten our tentacles on the character gear/customization or Single player! And there might even be more they haven't reveled

TLDR? I'm still pretty mixed about this new splatoon 2, honestly.
There is still A LOT to be wary of, but equally as much to be excited for.