Spectre Divide’s developers will be the first to tell you that the fledgling FPS game hasn’t had an easy start to life and is on the back foot. Mountaintop Studios’ transparency about its player counts and how it’s looking to bounce back is refreshing, and it knows as well as anyone that its Season 1 update is essentially a soft relaunch for the tactical shooter and a chance at redemption. The developer has now shared some new, expanded plans about what to expect from Spectre Divide Season 1, including when this delayed debut season will now arrive.
Spectre Divide took me by surprise for two reasons when it launched last year. First, it went from an unannounced project to a fully released live service game within a matter of weeks. Despite being in development for several years, its whirlwind launch (and lack of a proper early access window) probably didn’t do it many favors. Second, it wowed me with its novel core gameplay mechanic that lets you swap between two bodies during a match. Combine that mechanic with its tight gunplay, generous lineup of playable factions known as Sponsors, and a great art style, it’s nailed so many elements an FPS game needs to succeed.
However, it quickly became clear that it still needed work in some areas, and the initial pricing of its cosmetics didn’t sit well with some early players either. As a result, Mountaintop said that it would be heading into the game dev equivalent of an eco round – hunkering down, stopping marketing, and focusing on polishing its game for another go of things with Season 1. Initially, Mountaintop CEO and co-founder Nate Mitchell estimated that Season 1 would arrive in late December or January.
In a fresh update today, however, Mitchell says that it has been pushed back further to give it “more time to cook.” Spectre Divide Season 1, titled Flashpoint, will now arrive in “late February.”
All of the content previously promised for Season 1 remains – there’ll be a new Sponsor called Monark Tactical, a proper battle pass, a career and match history tab, and ranked rewards. The prices of cosmetics are also going to be reduced again, and $50 of free currency is going to be given to anyone that has already bought premium currency in Spectre Divide.
But Mountaintop has revealed a few extras that will now arrive with Season 1. The big one for me is a new sprinting mechanic that will speed up Spectre Divide’s fairly sluggish movement. Mountaintop has already cranked up movement speed once before, and now the sprint mechanic will help you rotate around its fairly large maps much more swiftly. There will also be a brand new map called Canals, which brings the total number of maps up to five, and Spectre Divide will also be launching on consoles to further expand its reach.
Season 1 is certainly packing a lot of heat, and it needs to be. I’m really excited to see how all these additions and improvements land and if another marketing push (plus a console launch) can spark some new life into the 3v3 shooter. Until then, check out some of the multiplayer games and free Steam games that it’ll be going up against.
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