Spectre Divide Review — Divided We Stand

Spectre Divide is a new free-to-play Tactical Shooter aiming for the throne in a relatively niche yet popular genre. Having played in both the closed beta and after launch, I can say that while the gameplay is familiar enough to hook in any diehard fan of the genre, Spectre Divide does a few key things very differently that make it stand out from the competition, making it worth checking out for fans of similar games looking for something new.

I want to begin this review by saying that I am not what you would call a fan of the tactical shooter genre. While certain things interested me when I saw Spectre Divide, and there are aspects of the game I enjoy, I wouldn’t consider myself the game’s target audience. I’m not versed enough in the tactical shooter genre to tell you the intricacies of what makes the genre work, but I have played enough titles to tell you accurately how Spectre Divide stands out from the crowd.

If you’re a pro Valorant or CS:GO player, I’m what you would call a noob, but if you’re a new fan of the genre or looking to get into it, my opinions and experiences might align more with yours.

For those same people, I want to explain that a tactical shooter is a multiplayer FPS title that pits two teams of players against each other in a death-match-style game. Each round begins with you buying weapons and ends when one team kills all of the members of the other or successfully plants or defuses a bomb set up on an objective point. Gunplay is always a significant factor in these games, with fights ending in seconds and determined by whoever has the better aim, reflexes, and control of their weapon.

The genre was pioneered by Counter-Strike, but you might be more familiar with Valorant these days. My understanding is that developers from both games came together to make Spectre Divide.

As I said above, Spectre Divide feels very similar to other games in the genre, especially Valorant. This is down to the gameplay, which is nearly identical with a few important tweaks, and the style, which feels genetically similar to Valorant but like it branched off. It has a similar sort of low-fi future feeling but goes for a more street punk, and comic book feel that I think works for it really well.

In my opinion, The most important way Spectre Divide is different from other Tactical Shooters is the “Spectre” or “Duality” system in which the game gets its name.

In Spectre Divide, you play with not one but two operators, one of which being your “Spectre,” a sort of hologram or clone or something in lore (I accidentally skipped the opening cutscene, so I’m not quite sure what they are.) What matters is that these spectres act as functionally a second body, with the player placing them at will and swapping back and forth at the push of a button.

Effectively, this allows you to be in two places at once, with your spectre not operating on its own but giving a warning when in the vision of enemy players. This is, of course, useful, but I think what really makes this system especially interesting for the genre is that you functionally have a second life every match.

The tactical shooter genre, in my experience especially, is infamous for frustrating moments where you are clipped and killed often seconds after seeing an enemy if seeing them at all. Tiny mistakes can not only lose you a match but effectively lock you out of playing in what can be dreadfully long matches of people crawling around and cautiously peeking around corners. If you’re especially bad at the genre (like me), you can find yourself in infinite death loops where you die early into each round and spend most of a 20 minute match just watching other people play.

The duality system in Spectre Divide not only gives you more map coverage and tactical options but also gives you a second chance. It allows you to learn from mistakes immediately and meaningfully because depending on your spectre’s placement, you often have time to correct your death seconds after it happens. It is a remarkably simple way to give each round so much more playability, effectively turning a 3v3 into a 6v6 where everyone gets a second chance after they get popped.

Another way in which Spectre Divide stands out, though in a much smaller sense, is with its character customization.

Spectre Divide allows you to fully customize your operators, both you and your spectre, with hair, face options, voice options, clothes, etc. It’s a small but fun way to make the game stand out in the genre by adding some nice personalization to the characters you’re going to watch get shot repeatedly.

My only criticism of this feature is that more free items should be unlocked for your character’s customization. I understand that Spectre Divide is a fully free-to-play game, and these games need to make money; Spectre Divide does so by selling weapons and operator cosmetics. However, I feel like having all of these options locked behind a paywall somewhat defeats the point of customization, as every free-to-play character basically ends up looking the same.

Spectre Divide is an interesting twist on the familiar gameplay of the tactical shooter genre. While still very close to its competitors, it stands out enough to give fans of the genre a new and interesting take, which for a free-to-play game is much more than enough to give it a try.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Spectre Divide is available on Steam.