Splatoon is a pretty competitive, team vs. team shooter first and foremost, but with Splatoon 2's new Salmon Run mode, we have an imaginative new way to sling ink with friends. We first saw a short gameplay trailer of this cooperative horde mode during a Nintendo Direct in April, but this is the first time we've gotten our hands on it.
As explained in the video below, Salmon Run seems fairly straight-forward at first. A team of four inklings head out to collect Power Eggs - counted as individual scores earned by defeating the oddly cute hordes of Salmonids - and Golden Eggs, the game mode's main objective.
Salmon Run is separated into three waves, and during each, the team must collect a certain number of Golden Eggs while they are attacked by enemy Salmonids. These Golden Eggs only appear after a big boss is defeated, and they then must be brought back to the containment center somewhere on the relatively small map. If time runs out before all Golden Eggs are returned to the basket, or if the team is wiped either before or after the Golden Eggs are collected, the mode ends in a loss.
Though a bit chaotic at first (mostly due to our own lack of communication), Salmon Run was fun and exciting. Different wave bosses required careful coordination, specific strategy, or timed attacks to be defeated with any sort of efficiency. It's an important feat to strive for when your team is under a time-limit. Splatoon 2's Salmon Run also has great potential to offer just the right amount of challenge to players of all skill levels because of the great way it scales its difficulty: by percentage.
I can see teams quickly formulating the most effienct strategy to get through Salmon Run as fast as possible.
We played on only five percent difficulty (out of a full 100) and still found it fairly challenging, failing our first foray into the Spawning Grounds of the Salmonids. On our second go-around, we knew how to counter the boss Salmonids, and called out to each other much more frequently. With open communication, we always knew if a party-member needed a revival or backup; and when and where a boss Salmonid spawned. At one pivotal moment, I ushered my teammates to escape with the Golden Eggs while I covered their retreat, distracting the small-fry Chum Salmonids from the goods.
I can see teams quickly formulating the most efficient strategy to get through Salmon Run's most challenging difficulty as fast as possible in a sort of indirect competition. Who will complete the most difficult Salmon Run first, and how will it be done? Almost more importantly, what exactly is at stake? "Quite fresh" rewards are teased at the end of the Nintendo Direct trailer, but we still don't have a clue on what these could be.
Hopefully, the official Splatoon 2 headset in conjunction with the odd Switch voice chat app on smartphones will work well enough that players will actually use it. Victory, especially on 100 percent difficulty, would be near impossible without communication between squadmates.
During our hands-on with Splatoon 2, we also learned that Nintendo is certainly planning big Salmon Run events, and adding more maps besides the Spawning Grounds. This was great to hear, as without additional content, once Salmon Run is "solved," so-to-speak, it could easily suffer from a lack of a variety.
When asked if Salmon Run events would take the place of Splatfest, the Nintendo representative simply said they "weren't discussing Splatfest at this time."
Many Splatoon fans with a Nintendo Switch played Splatoon 2 in the Global Test Fire back in March, but besides new weapons, sub-weapons, and maps, Splatoon 2 doesn't feel all that different from the pretty well-regarded original Splatoon. Salmon Run adds an entirely new way to play with friends, and I'm curious to see what strategies players come up with to annihilate it.
Casey DeFreitas is an Associate Editor at IGN. Follower her on Twitter.
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