When it comes to competitive shooters, you fall into one of two camps: players who use a keyboard and mouse or those who like the feel of a controller. Although playing with a controller might feel more comfortable, especially for those who have predominantly played on consoles most of their lives, the precision that keyboard and mouse give is unrivaled. At PAX East 2025, we met with 1047 Games to preview their upcoming game Splitgate 2.

For those who have never played Splitgate, it is a free-to-play sci-fi shooter that combines FPS shooter mechanics with a portal system. These portals help players to outthink and outmaneuver their opponents. Despite most of the maps revolving around close-quarter combat, the right portal could change the pace of the game and the flow of battle.

I was first introduced to Splitgate at E3. At the time, I was rather unfamiliar with playing shooters with a mouse and keyboard. Needless to say, I got absolutely destroyed, getting only 6 kills in a first-to-50 match. As someone who loved competitive shooters like Gears of War, Call of Duty, Halo, and Team Fortress 2, this decimation was absolutely embarrassing.

Now, multiple years and some practice later, it was time to redeem myself. The demo itself was held at the Lenovo Booth located between the Pokémon and Samsung Galaxy booths. For those who participated in the demo, any individual who broke the hour/day kill count had a chance to win a prize.

At the booth, laptops were folded in half and fastened to a display board; below, a keyboard and a mouse lay on a wooden block. As someone who is taller, this display set up was rather uncomfortable because it was harder to see and meant bending down to play and see. Despite the uncomfortable conditions, we still decided to play two rounds.

For the demo, we were given the option to pick between three character class types. Each class had five categories to alter: Primary, Secondary, Equipment, and two Character Modifiers. The demo featured 5 primary weapons, three secondary, 3 equipment options, and 5 modifiers per slot.

With the weapon class set, we loaded into the game and paired off into two teams. At times, a character on the team might die because there was no one at the computer, leading to some players getting a score advantage.

As you rack up kills, you can charge your special skill; the primary skill that we used was a tracking skill that would help show where enemies were; this skill would also help your teammates see their opponents and notify the enemy that they are being tracked.

Still being a rookie with a keyboard and a mouse, we did better than we did at E3. In the first match, we were able to get 13 kills and only die 7 times. In the second match, we did a little bit better.

Unlike the demo that I previewed at E3, Splitgate 2 had a more vibrant, colorful environment, and the gameplay was a lot smoother/precise. Just like many other games, the technological changes over the last decade have only improved the gameplay mechanics, graphics, and controls.

Shooting through the portal did not feel like it had a delay, and felt like a natural thing, as if shooting through an actual doorway. Yes, you have to be precise and anticipate what your opponent might do, but it didn’t stutter as if trying to figure out what way to shoot the bullet out.

The character modifiers and weapon choices remind us of some of the good aspects of Halo Reach, allowing each player to have different builds and playstyles.

It will be interesting to see how the final game looks and feels when it launches, but based on what we got to experience at PAX East, Splitgate 2 seems like it is going in a great direction and is a great sequel to the original.

Splitgate 2 is set to launch later in 2025 across Windows PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and PS5.