Despite only being announced just over a month ago, today’s the day that new free-to-play tactical shooter Spectre Divide opens its doors. It’s been a rapid turn around from reveal to release date, and with backing and development input from star streamer Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek and a team of devs with a love of Counter-Strike, it’s no surprise to see it launch with strong player counts. However, it’s not all been smooth sailing, as server issues and long queue times have seen it launch to a ‘Mixed’ reception on Steam.
In the world of FPS games, I’m rarely taken aback by something that feels genuinely fresh and original. But with its novel Duality mechanic, which lets you take control of two bodies on the same map to make this 3v3 game feel more like a 6v6, Spectre Divide has done just that. It seems that premise, coupled with its lack of an entry fee, has drummed up a decent amount of interest. In its opening day today, September 3, it has peaked at just over 30,000 concurrent players, but that’s in spite of the fact that Spectre Divide has been hampered by some early issues.
These have been acknowledged by developer Mountaintop Studios, which says it is “working to fix a few known issues ASAP” in a new post on X. Chief among these issues are “matchmaking errors and long queue times in some regions,” which is causing some frustration among some FPS fans. It has also had its tutorial level disabled temporarily, and some purchases of in-game currency through Steam are resulting in errors.
These opening day niggles are one of a couple of factors that have impacted its Steam user reviews right out of the gate. As well as the tech problems, a look at the reviews and comments being made on the game’s subreddit show that players aren’t thrilled with the prices in Spectre Divide’s in-game store. There is also some disappointment at the lack of a ranked mode, despite this being a full launch.
Hopefully Spectre Divide can bounce back from these early issues and address the criticisms, because gameplay-wise it is a truly sensational shooter. If it can’t patch things up quickly and sour sentiment spreads, I do worry a bit about whether it’ll be able to sustain a healthy player count and convince people to part ways with their cash on cosmetics, which will be crucial for its long-term survival.
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