Getting into Splatoon 3 about a year after launch, I've heard much about the game's apparent mishandling. Starting the game up, the pure amount of stuff thrown at you from every angle is overwhelming in a way the first two games never were. A dizzyingly big hub, seasons and challenges and the catalogue, so many different little currencies, all the objects to collect and a locker that can clearly be customized to be bigger and colored but who knows how that's done. So much stuff to spend money on with the feeling of knowing how long it would take to even begin catching up... it's so much to take in and feels so tangentially plagued the same way more monetized GaaS games are, it puts me off from wanting to engage with the multiplayer systems entirely.
Luckily for me, I've never really been able to get super invested into Splatoon's multiplayer anyways. The base game campaign of 1 was the highlight of the entire experience, and 2's, while I understand the flack it gets for its general derivativity, was still a really solid time. And of course, Octo Expansion is one of the best single player campaigns Nintendo has ever made. I got 3 almost exclusively to try out the campaign (and have it for when Side Order releases) and--surprise, surprise--its another one of them!
The campaign builds off Octo Expansion akin to 2's campaign built off one, also in a way that feels a tinge derivative. Fortunately for the game though, there's a LOT worse things you could be derivative of than Octo Expansion. The bite sized level system is a joy, offering a ton of variety in its use of all the weapons the game has to offer. It's a refreshing treat to go into a level and the only thing on your squid is a sub weapon or a super, and you get to explore that item in novel ways you never would've been able to in a normal multiplayer battle. One of my favorite levels in the whole game gave you a single Curling Bomb in each section that you had to carefully aim to maneuver through enemy ink. The game never stops offering fun, new ideas to play with, even into the secret level after finishing the game, and I appreciate it a lot.
Keeping secrets out of levels was a boon to the pacing; it never was much fun scrounging every nook and cranny of the levels to find a Sunken Scroll. Scrounging every nook and cranny of the hub however... now that's a lot more enjoyable. Each one is laid out almost like a little puzzle box, slowly chipping away at obstructions by completing stages, finding little items dotted everywhere, trying to find the path to new areas in the hub. It's a fairly simple joy, but it led me to really appreciating the construction of each hub, especially towards the end of cleaning up, once I've cleared enough goop to be able to do the balloon challenge that laps around the area.
Despite all this, the strain of the series' relative inertness is becoming fairly apparent. This is the fourth Splatoon campaign and seeing the same core set of enemies with a new texture on them has gotten incredibly dull and knowing Side Order is going to be utilizing them essentially-unchanged for the fifth time is the only real knock against my anticipation for it. Even going into this game's finale gauntlet, it was just a bit frustrating realizing--oh, this is just a carbon copy of how Octo Expansion handled its finale. The entire game felt a bit of a retread of Octo Expansion, but just a notch lower (probably because the prior one was a dedicated campaign vs one made as more a tutorial for a general audience of the game). Again, Octo Expansion was incredible, so this isn't much of a knock against the game, I just hope Splatoon 4 offers something that feels truly new single-player wise. The series needs it.
Luckily for me, I've never really been able to get super invested into Splatoon's multiplayer anyways. The base game campaign of 1 was the highlight of the entire experience, and 2's, while I understand the flack it gets for its general derivativity, was still a really solid time. And of course, Octo Expansion is one of the best single player campaigns Nintendo has ever made. I got 3 almost exclusively to try out the campaign (and have it for when Side Order releases) and--surprise, surprise--its another one of them!
The campaign builds off Octo Expansion akin to 2's campaign built off one, also in a way that feels a tinge derivative. Fortunately for the game though, there's a LOT worse things you could be derivative of than Octo Expansion. The bite sized level system is a joy, offering a ton of variety in its use of all the weapons the game has to offer. It's a refreshing treat to go into a level and the only thing on your squid is a sub weapon or a super, and you get to explore that item in novel ways you never would've been able to in a normal multiplayer battle. One of my favorite levels in the whole game gave you a single Curling Bomb in each section that you had to carefully aim to maneuver through enemy ink. The game never stops offering fun, new ideas to play with, even into the secret level after finishing the game, and I appreciate it a lot.
Keeping secrets out of levels was a boon to the pacing; it never was much fun scrounging every nook and cranny of the levels to find a Sunken Scroll. Scrounging every nook and cranny of the hub however... now that's a lot more enjoyable. Each one is laid out almost like a little puzzle box, slowly chipping away at obstructions by completing stages, finding little items dotted everywhere, trying to find the path to new areas in the hub. It's a fairly simple joy, but it led me to really appreciating the construction of each hub, especially towards the end of cleaning up, once I've cleared enough goop to be able to do the balloon challenge that laps around the area.
Despite all this, the strain of the series' relative inertness is becoming fairly apparent. This is the fourth Splatoon campaign and seeing the same core set of enemies with a new texture on them has gotten incredibly dull and knowing Side Order is going to be utilizing them essentially-unchanged for the fifth time is the only real knock against my anticipation for it. Even going into this game's finale gauntlet, it was just a bit frustrating realizing--oh, this is just a carbon copy of how Octo Expansion handled its finale. The entire game felt a bit of a retread of Octo Expansion, but just a notch lower (probably because the prior one was a dedicated campaign vs one made as more a tutorial for a general audience of the game). Again, Octo Expansion was incredible, so this isn't much of a knock against the game, I just hope Splatoon 4 offers something that feels truly new single-player wise. The series needs it.