It is not uncommon for a successful IP to see a sequel arrive within some time. Making a follow-up to a popular work allows authors to build on a solid foundation in order to develop new content and remedy mistakes made in the past by listening to community feedback. What happens though, when wasn't a sequel really needed? In reality, this sentence is never necessarily right, as it all depends on how the developers are able to initiate new stories and experiences, and we found ourselves facing a dilemma of this type with Splatoon 3. 5 years after the sequel, designed to collect the ashes of the experience seen on Wii U - after the sales of the console did not allow a great success - we are faced with a third chapter that, we can say right away, he could and should have given us more. Let's find out the details in the Splatoon 3 review, both for the single player department and for the multiplayer.
Back to splatting
With Splatville which becomes the new gaming hub, and with changes in the general setting, you are immediately faced with news for the shops and for the progression system. Even before being able to launch into history, it is in fact possible to see some news for what concerns the clothes, which as always being enhanced give new skills to the players, usable both at a competitive level, and for weapons and objects useful to embellish your locker, with the Catalog that is used to give daily prizes by climbing man level hand. Already starting from here, we notice how we are not dealing with big changes, but for sure the infrastructure manages to provide users with the desire to proceed to obtain new objects and to enhance clothing, also changing its aesthetics from time to time.
Moving on to the campaign, which can also be used immediately for all those who are not subscribers to Nintendo Switch Online (the latter is also useful for obtaining bonuses in case you have some Splatoon 2 saves), we find for sure improvements compared to what has been seen in previous chapters, despite having to do with a plot that intentionally is not who knows how relevant. In fact, we do not find a simple extended tutorial as already seen so far: only some of the levels have this purpose, while the others are finally real challenges to face, with an excellent variety of contents. In less than 10 hours you get to the "credits", in quotation marks since the focus remains multiplayer, and consequently putting your hand on Splatoon 3 only for its campaign is not worth the candle. We can still be satisfied, with a few laughs that were snatched from us at the right time.
From the early stages of the game, with a graphic sector who knows how much refined compared to the previous chapter - but in any case optimized at best for colors and models - you realize how much in reality the new chapter does not offer any transcendental improvements, what is the big point against the experience, at least for those who have played the second episode arrived on Nintendo Switch. Among the innovations introduced in the multiplayer sector, there are in any case some innovations, given the presence of new maps both for the Mollusca mix, Both for the Competitive modalities and both for the salmon run, now much better organized in terms of schedules and resets. Splatoon 2 has been enriched in every respect, but what about the troubleshooting, and above all, is this enough?
The contents are not lacking, but ...
While the experience certainly doesn't offer infinite variety, between a game of Splattance, the new card game, a Mollusca Melee to try out new weapons and level up in order to unlock others, and the competitive ones with which to play the game, the work is certainly full of possibilities offered, and we would in fact find ourselves promoting it with flying colors in case it was the first episode of the saga. We must emphasize that good or bad all modalities have received improvements, thanks also to the arrival of new weapons and systems, but the real problem is to be found in the complete reset of the progress of the players (who receive only a small bonus if they have played Splatoon 2) and in the presence of a series of novelties not in able to justify the full price of the ticket, as everything would have been applicable with a simple (but big) patch.
This does not mean that there cannot be games that only extend what has been seen in the past without revolutionizing it, but considering the novelties however limited, and the fact that this is not the definitive experience that it could have been, the entire existence of Splatoon 3 is in some ways difficult to justify.
This does not mean that those who start to embrace the saga with this chapter will not be satisfied, but certainly those who have already had the opportunity to have fun with Splatoon 2 will realize how something did not go for the right guise.
The gameplay, designed as always to color players to be defeated and maps, once again finds some obvious imbalances for weapons, secondary and primary skills, with higher-level players not only having better equipment, but also a more expanded arsenal, a big drawback on the competitive side.
This is mitigated thanks to a matchmaking that considers the abilities of the users, but the defect is still present and rather negative for the real competition, which should exclude the presence of non-aesthetic enhancements and imbalances of any kind in-game. Speaking of the latter mode, as usual, many scenarios and style of play are proposed, with the most important point of the experience that is ... once again, Its Achilles heel.
Unlike other shooters, in fact, the Splatoon saga requires - at most wanting to exclude the Mollusca Melee - a coordination between teams is not indifferent, and sadly the Switch platform doesn't help. The developers, even in this chapter, have not thought of a more useful way to offer a ping system worthy of being called such (or a worthy alternative) to players, which in fact they need a voice chat in order to function better as a team, whether it's the Salmon Run jobs (especially against the new boss, the Salmonarch) or the competitive one. The ecosystem of Nintendo Switch makes a hell of what is customary in PC games and other consoles, since third-party apps (or the Nintendo mobile app) are needed to communicate, and since matchmaking in our tests gave major problems. , while the interface for joining games is anything but intuitive. Playing alone is certainly a one-way ticket to start putting up with the experience less and less, and at the same time being able to organize games with voice chat with other users is not an easy task.
Review- Splatoon 3 (Tested on Switch) 7 Final Vote
In general, we can unfortunately define ourselves as disappointed by Splatoon 3. The vote you see here is not negative, and in fact this sequel only improves from every point of view what we saw with the previous chapter. The problems lie in the fact that it is actually, for more than half of the news, a medium-large patch, which would have been applicable at a small expense or for free, with the problems that plagued the old episode that they are still in sight, between balance and communication problems. For sure, competing on Nintendo Switch in one of the available games is not an easy task, which greatly penalizes the experience.
