What is Splitgate? “Halo meets Portal” shooter taking Steam & Twitch by storm

Bill Cooney

Ever sat down and wondered what it would be like if Halo and Portal had a baby? Well, wonder no more because 1047 Games’ FPS Splitgate: Arena Warfare is here to provide an answer.

Splitgate is 1047 Studios first flagship game and originally released for beta in May of 2019. Fast-forward to 2021, and things are only looking up for this unique arena shooter.

In August, the game has started to absolutely explode on Twitch, with big names like xQc and shroud giving it a shot. which in turn has led to an increase in popularity on Steam as well. So let’s take a look at what makes the game fans call “Halo meets Portal” tick.

What is Splitgate?

Portals… Portals everywhere.

Just imagine a game that has movement and gunplay similar to Halo, and the mobility provided by Portals, and you pretty much have Splitgate.

There are no classes and there’s no supports or tanks – just a variety of different weapons players can choose from. Like Halo there are a variety of modes and different maps, but when you break it down it’s frag — or be fragged.

What sets Splitgate apart though definitely has to be the Portals. They can be used to flank an enemy from almost every direction, send your character flying across the map, and a ton of other uses to add another dimension to play, literally.

Splitgate has technically been out since 2019, but like we mentioned it’s experiencing a bit of a renaissance in 2021, and there’s no better time to try it out. Did we mention it’s free-to-play too?

How to play Splitgate

Splitgate: Arena Warfare is available for free on Steam. As with most F2P games these days, there are microtransactions. But, developers have stuck to their original promise of keeping them confined to cosmetics.

“As Splitgate evolved, we realized that players would be best served with a free-to-play model. We want to ensure that everyone who wants to play has the opportunity to do so,” Ian Proulx, CEO and co-founder of 1047 Games said in 2019. “Rest assured this will not detract from its hyper-competitive design – all items for sale in the game are purely cosmetic.”

So if you’re looking for something to play besides Warzone or Apex Splitgate could be just what you’re looking for. Especially if you want a little practice before Halo Infinite comes out.

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