Splatoon Raiders

This game isn't perfect, but it is so much fun.

I played this on my Switch 2.

Splatoon Raiders is the fourth Splatoon game and, well, it's a Splatoon game. If you've played one then you should understand the general mechanics but, if not, I'll explain: it's a shooter where your weapons paint the ground and walls with ink (in addition to also doing standard shooting-game stuff). You can also turn into a squid (or octopus) to sink into the ground and swim through this ink to refill your ammo and regain health. There's a bit more to it than that, but that's the general Splatoon formula.

Where Raiders differs from earlier entries is that it's almost entirely a single-player affair. Granted, yes, there's co-op, but the brunt of this game feels designed for solo-play. The important thing to note is that there's no competitive multiplayer to this game; no Turf War or Splatfests to get involved in. The other Splatoon games have had campaigns, but a game entirely built around one of those campaigns is a change for the series. And probably why there isn't a "4" in the title. 

For as much of an evolution and a followup to Splatoon 3 as this is, it is very much a spinoff. There are certain things missing that I think make this game feel like an experiment to tide us over until the next "proper" installment. The biggest, and most notable to me other than the aforementioned competitive multiplayer, was the game's soundtrack. It is, unfortunately, rather underwhelming.

The earlier Splatoons were games largely defined by their music, to me at least, so having a Splatoon game that doesn't have the energetic and varied soundtrack I've come to expect from the series was a significant disappointment. There is music, sure, and a fair amount of it, but it's all fairly unremarkable and almost entirely instrumental. Earlier Splatoon games had instrumental songs, yes, and not everything was a banger, but the, uh, ratio of hits-to-misses here is sorely lacking. This is a subjective thing and maybe the music choice(s) won't bother you as much as they did me, but I've come to expect a certain something from Splatoon's music and I just don't think this game has it. There are a few exceptions, namely during the bossfights (and the final boss in particular) but for the most part what you'll be hearing is entirely forgettable, and that's a shame.

It took me a while to adjust to this next change, but the aesthetics of this game are also fairly different. The earlier games all had a largely urban/industrial feel to them, but this game opts for outdoor arenas and beaches, generally speaking. There are exceptions to this and there is variety to the environments chosen, but due to the setting of the game it's all much more rugged and natural than what I've come to expect from the series.

While the setting change ultimately doesn't bother me, when coupled with the story and aesthetics of everything it all feels a bit, problematic? I'm not going to pretend I care all that deeply about this next point but you sure do kill a lot of native Salmonids. This game is effectively a fleshed-out "Salmon Run" (the egg-hunting side-game from earlier Splatoons) but by theming it all around "raiding" it gets complicated a bit. Salmonids in Salmon Run are treated as mindless hordes that you can shoot without remorse, and that's still largely the case here, but some of the key collectibles in this game are Salmonid relics. 

Combined with the ruins you're traversing, it all paints a picture of Salmonids as a race with art, and culture, and history, and that makes your mass-slaughtering of them feel somewhat... bad? The game never directly addresses this and it's all largely just window-dressing around a standalone "Salmon Run" game, but it seems like a problem that probably could have been avoided with, I don't know, some different theming or writing or something. As it stands this didn't stop me from enjoying the game but I did, periodically, think, "huh, these Salmonids aren't exactly mindless".

 

Despite my criticism, however, I want to be clear that I did enjoy this game. It's some of the most fun I've had all year, in fact.  Splatoon's core gameplay has always been solid, and the later games' single-player outings have been a ton of fun in fact. Raiders feels in some ways like an even further evolution of Side Order's conceit, that is to say a focus on mechanical complexity and "builds" rather than fixed loadouts. Where Side Order was essentially a rogue-lite, Raiders is a Diablo or a Borderlands; a "looter-shooter", if you will.

Most of the level-design is pretty underwhelming, or at least fairly straightforward "kill X enemies" or "get to the end of the stage" stuff, but building a Splatoon game wholly around getting more powerful is remarkably fun. There have been skill trees in earlier entries, and Side Order followed a roguelike's escalation and progression curve, but going into a mission and earning a slightly-better gun, to use alongside an upgraded gadget, is just so much dang fun. This is gaming. Pure, "numbers-go-up", gaming.

 

There's always something to be gained by playing (or replaying) a mission, whether that's new stuff to play with, materials to upgrade that stuff, or currency to pay for upgrades to that stuff. You're also earning XP and leveling up your character where you'll be gaining access to new abilities and cosmetics. There's a really satisfying treadmill to run on in this game if you're willing to see it through. So much of what works mechanically in this game is, ultimately, stuff that's been fine-tuned over the past three entries. The weapons all function the way they did in prior games and the enemies are similar to what you'd see in Splatoon 3 (as far as I can recall, anyway). What's changed is the way it's all presented to you.

The other games had single-player outings, yes, but to some extent those felt like they were propping up the "real" game: the competitive multiplayer. With that not being part of the formula here, the mechanics are allowed to shine on their own, and also get unbalanced in a way that a multiplayer game might not necessarily allow. Again, Side Order had a similar feel to it in some ways, where you'd become vastly overpowered with the right build, but Splatoon Raiders takes that idea and builds an entire $60 game around it.

There's a story in this game but it's rather barebones and straightforward: Deep Cut gets stranded on some islands with their helicopter pilot and they decide to loot the place for all its worth while they're there. There are some developments but that's about the long-and-short of it. These characters are fun, and it was nice to see more of Deep Cut, but I suppose I expected there to be a little bit more to it all than there was. There's a focus on spirals and drills that did make me think of Gurren Lagann one or two times though, and that was nice.

For some final points, there are some "arcade" minigames in this that, while entirely optional, are brutal. There's an unlockable outfit that you can only get if you A-rank every game, and for whatever reason I spent hours toiling away at that arcade machine trying to get it. I eventually succeeded, but it was a genuine challenge. This game, generally speaking, is tough. There's a lot of gear and a lot of ways to level up, so this isn't a critique at all, but this game ramps up the difficulty hard. There's a real escalation to things that, while sometimes frustrating, gives you something to work towards and gives you a reason to grind for better loot and gear. Difficulty, especially when it's gated behind an optional "Spicy" mode, is great, and absolutely welcome. So many recent Nintendo games have felt too easy (for most of their runtime, anyway) but the Splatoon series has been consistently challenging for me and I've liked that.

And that's about it. I have a lot to say about this game because I'm ultimately pretty torn on how I feel about it. Objectively speaking, I think it's fantastic. The weapons and abilities are fun to use, the sound and visual effects are solid and satisfying, the upgrade curve feels substantial (but fair) and there's a lot of #content to burn through if you so choose. But the entire time I was loving this game, I kept wishing it would have some more memorable music, or more writing, or some more of the charm I've come to expect from Splatoon. It's not bad by any means, I had a great time with it (and I may even stick with it to see more of the post-game) but it feels like something that could have easily been the best in the series if there were just some different decisions made behind-the-scenes.