Launching on Steam on August 1, Spectre Divide set to answer question no one had asked but everyone instantly wanted the answer to: What if you could control two characters in Counter Strike.
The new title, developed in partnership with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive legend Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek takes the tactical shooter genre and added a unique wrinkle to the smooth iron-sights gameplay: Duality. But why has this game caused a stir, and will it be able to hold a candle to titles like CS2 and VALORANT?
What is Spectre Divide?
Spectre Divide is a 3v3 tactical shooter in the vein of Counter-Strike and VALORANT, with one major wrinkle: Duality. Duality is a mechanic that allows you to place down a second spectral clone of yourself, then switch between them to cover multiple positions.
This is combined with iron-sights shooter mechanics, and classic tactical gameplay to create a new experience. What’s more, Shroud backed the project, stating:
“I witnessed firsthand Mountaintop’s desire to bring something fresh to the tac shooter genre. And over the past two years working together, we’ve honed in on something I really think you’ll love.”
The game is currently in limited playtest, which you can apply for on Steam. There’s multiple characters with varying abilities, similar to VALORANT, but honestly the gunplay feels most similar to an Apex Legends, rather than CS.
So what’s stopping this unique take on the tactical shooter genre from taking over the genre right now?
Why Spectre Divide Could Struggle
For one, it’s incredibly difficult to get players of tactical shooters, Counter-Strike and VALORANT, to switch games. The very nature of the game makes you itch for one more match, as you are inevitably killed by something seemingly out of your control, or lose by a small margin that makes you want to requeue and go again.
It’s why VALORANT’s success, by leveraging a wider audience outside of CS, was so surprising. And it’s why rather than release a new version of CS:GO, Valve nuked it from orbit, overwriting the old game with CS2. Getting people to play new tactical shooters is almost impossible.
Beyond this, there’s some other issues. The core mechanic of Spectre Divide feels like it makes the game rife for camping. Early tests have wins feel somewhat cheesy, and losses feel like your team had three while the other team had six. This pushes it a tiny bit beyond just the standard unfairness that CS players are used to.
There also doesn’t feel like there’s as much there right now. CS is traditionally filled with skill tricks from smokes to boosts and other knowledge and practice-based maneuvers. VALORANT has its power-based skill shots and abilities. Spectre Divide doesn’t quite have either to the same degree. There’s powers and utility, but they don’t quite feel like they have a big affect on the gameplay as the core mechanic of Duality. There’s a part of me that feels like Duality would be a great concept for a VALORANT character, if there isn’t already one like this.
If these little teething problems can be fixed, either by players becoming more familiar with the mechanics, or tweaks to the mechanics, then Spectre Divide could become another core entry in a slowly expanding genre.
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