Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion

I enjoyed Splatoon 2 last year even if it was pretty much the same game as the first one but with some extra features. The recycled structure and narrative of that game’s single player mode was one of the things that knocked it down a few notches for me, even if overall it was a pretty well designed and challenging campaign compared to that of the first Splatoon. So here comes the Octo Expansion that promises to be a uniquely dedicated single player add on which sees you playing as an Octoling in over 80 new missions. At about 20 dollars you get a ton of new content here that attempts to test your skills at the game rather than really introducing you to new mechanics or ideas, and I hate to admit that the focus on unapologetic difficulty overrides the focus on fun occasionally.

The set up for this expansion is interesting; you wake up in an underground corporate facility as either an Octoling boy or girl, you have amnesia (SHOCKING) but you’re told that you have some connection to the Inkling hero from the main game, and you’re also told that you need to complete various “tests” in order to earn your freedom on the surface (a.k.a. “the promise land”). I think they might’ve been playing some Portal before they came up with these ideas… The tests are in the form of platforming missions or various challenges where you need to break targets under a time limit, kill a certain number of enemies under a time limit, push a giant eight ball to a goal, yada yada yada. Like I said earlier there’s 80 missions here but you don’t need to complete every single one in order to reach the end credits; the tests are actually dispersed along a sort of labyrinth style subway station map and you need to explore the subway lines until you uncover four “thangs” which act as keys to the promise land (supposedly).

I don’t wanna get into spoilers here but I’d like to say that the game really picks up when you find the four thangs and you’re faced with a number of interesting challenges on your way to reach the surface. I enjoyed the tests overall, the best ones being the “reach the goal” platforming tests; I wouldn’t say they’re quite as intricately designed as the missions from the main game but they can be pretty close at times. A number of these tests were extremely frustrating (the worst for me being the one where you have to protect an orb from waves of aggressive Octoling fighters for one and a half minutes straight!), but adding to the frustration was the fact that you’d have to spend in-game currency in order to just take the tests and then pay again if you fail. I just feel like the challenges were difficult enough as they were so that feature is kind of cruel, though I managed to complete every single challenge without ever running out of currency so I suppose it’s not too unreasonable. I was hoping for more of a boss presence too since Splatoon game’s tend to have really creative boss battles; but outside of the final boss the only other boss battles are alternate versions of 4 bosses you faced in the main game which was a bit disappointing.

Through completing the expansion you can unlock a number of pretty cool outfits which can then be used in multiplayer battles, including the option to play as your Octoling character (the “Octoling” clothing set is really sexy for some reason…). That said; I don’t really understand what’s so different between the Octolings and Inklings other than their hairstyles… Like it would’ve been really cool if there were distinct mechanical differences between the two species. I know I’ve been talking a lot of shit here but ultimately you’re getting a lot of decent content for just 20 bucks, I do appreciate the steep challenge even if it can be a bit excessive at times, and I found the expansion’s end game challenges to be especially enjoyable. I just don’t think this campaign stacks up to the bar that the main game’s story mode set, nor do I think this really adds much of anything new to the overall Splatoon 2 experience. This expansion is more for the diehard fans.