When I close my eyes, I picture primary-coloured squid swimming through streams of ink. When I try to sleep, I’m analysing my last match, asking how I could have done better. Even whilst trying to write this essay, I’m wondering what gear and abilities to equip my squid with to push it that little bit farther. The game is Splatoon, and I just can’t get it out of my head.
Splatoon is Nintendo’s fantastic online shooter/ink ‘em up, which launched on the Wii U back in May this year. That’s practically a lifetime ago on the internet, but I’m perennially behind-the-times, so why be any different with this feature?
The core of Splatoon is Turf Wars, an online multiplayer mode in which two teams of four compete to paint the map their colour whilst their opponents do the same. At the end of the three minutes, the team whose colour covers more of the map wins. Area control is all that matters when it comes to scoring, with no extra points earned for splatting your opponents. Doing so does take them out of the game for several seconds whilst they respawn, however, earning you and your team a brief opportunity to expand your territory.
Besides its stunning visuals, Splatoon has some real good game design. Luck plays very little role, and most outcomes rely on employing strategy and teamwork with the group of online strangers with whom you’ve been matched up. A lot of Splatoon gameplay comes down to a number of risk/reward decisions.
Painting vs. Infiltration
Right from the start of a match when you first spawn into home base, you have a decision to make: stay and completely fill this area with your colour ink before moving on, or charge straight for the opponents’ base or some other highly contested area of the map.
When new to the game, I favoured the former. How much of the map is my colour is all that matters, I reasoned, I should play it safe and not worry about what my opponents are doing until we run into each other. And when we do meet up, our area will be better fortified and more easily defensible.
Nowadays, I take the opposite approach. I have a target area for each map, a bottleneck or a path into the opponents’ base, and I make a bee line straight for it, hardly bothering to paint until I reach it. My reasoning hasn’t changed much however: establish a fortified area against which we can easily defend against the opposing team. Where I am establishing this area has moved forwards, however, which allows players behind me to fill in the gap between us and establish a larger territory. There is risk involved, however; if my opponents choose to do the same, I can find myself in a fire fight for which I am not yet prepared and get taken out of the game for a few seconds, ensuring that I have achieved less than if I would have had I played it safer. But when the risk pays off, our team has an early advantage.
Defending vs. Advancing
Later into a match, you may find that you are comfortably holding an area, perhaps the very bottleneck you scouted ahead to at the beginning of the match. Whether you continue to hold that area or attempt to expand your territory relies on a number of factors. Where your teammates are and what they’re doing is one, and where your opponents are and what they’re doing is another. Who currently holds the most territory? You? It’s probably wise to continue holding and wait for the timer to run down. The enemy team is winning AND the timer’s running low? Perhaps it’s worth taking the risk to charge the offensive.
What about in other game modes? Besides Turf Wars, there are Ranked Battles which offer different objectives. One of my favourites is Splat Zones, wherein only one or two areas of the map actually require painting, and none other does. In this mode I sometimes find myself in the position of holding the splat zones against the opposing team. We already hold the only territory that matters, so why bother expanding it? But my trigger-finger’s getting tired and I’m not sure we can keep it up if we give them enough time to manoeuvre themselves around us. Is there another tactic we can use?
In this situation, I often leave my teammates behind to hold the splat zones whilst I advance towards the opponents’ respawn location that we are continually sending them back to, functionally a bottleneck itself. Firstly, this often takes the opposing team by surprise, as why would they expect to encounter opponents anywhere but in or directly outside the splat zones? It also allows me to cut off “supply lines”, the established paths the enemy is using to get from the respawn point to the splat zones, slowing them down. Perhaps I will encounter an enemy whilst I’m doing this? Ideal.
I’ve already taken a risk by stopping defending the splat zones and instead advancing, but this is where I start playing it safe. I of course attempt to splat the enemy, but my first priority is not to get splatted myself. I avoid my usual tactic of charging at the enemy and hoping to take them out at the risk of simultaneously getting taken out too. My goal here isn’t to paint more area, or to simply splat them (they will, after all, be back just a few seconds later, and I won’t be there to stop them this time), but to stall my opponent and ease the wave of opposition reaching my teammates.
I usually find this tactic fruitful, and for that little bit of risk I am rewarded with a win.
Myself vs. the Team
In the end, personal score matters very little. What matters is whether the team wins or the team loses. That’s why in a match I will favour my team’s survival over my own.
We’re back in Turf Wars. Let’s say a bottleneck is held down by two or three opponents. We need to get past to expand our territory. Anyone who charges ahead is sure to get taken out, but maybe they can take their opponents out with them? I often take this role as with my weapon of choice, a giant paint roller, I have great coverage but very little range. This effectively turns me into a physical unit, easy to pick off at a distance, but if I can get in close I’m likely to take a few opponents out.
If I were to stay out of this fray and stay alive, perhaps I could paint some ground elsewhere on the map. But if I were to jump in and take the opponents out at the cost of my own survival, my teammates may be able to make it through the bottleneck and as a result collectively paint more territory than I could have alone. Plus, when I respawn several seconds later, our expanded territory will open up more ground for me to paint, so even alone I end up covering more ground than I could have otherwise.
By having the penalty for getting splatted only several seconds out of the game and giving no score penalty, the game designers have encouraged players to take risky strategies in the pursuit of rewards and kept the action tight and manic.
Ultimately, what I think makes a winning team is diversity though. Charging ahead to forge a path into enemy territory is of little use if you don’t have teammates behind you backing you up and filling in the gaps. Different situations require different approaches, and all sorts of different situations are going to arise over the course of a map.
Splatoon is up for five awards at the Golden Joysticks 2015: Best Original Game, Best Visual Design, Best Multiplayer, Nintendo Game of the Year, and Best Family Game. I voted for it in all five categories. Admittedly, my gaming’s been on a tight budget over the last year so I hadn’t played many of the other offerings, but Splatoon is a game that’s really gotten under my skin and is fun whatever your skill level. With post-release support still coming through in the shape of new items and weapons, new maps and map updates, and a fantastic in-game community, Splatoon is sure to stay with us for a while to come.
Have you played Splatoon? What do you think of it? What are your favourite strategies? Maybe consider voting for it – or whatever game you think deserves to win – in the Golden Joysticks. As an extra gaming treat, everybody who votes in the awards gets a copy of Bioshock Infinite for £1!
Images: Nintendo
I really wanna play Splatoon - it looks so neat :(.
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