Okay, let’s talk about this Spectre Divide closed beta thing I got into.
Getting Started
So, I finally got access. Signed up ages ago, almost forgot about it, then boom, email landed in my inbox. Felt pretty chuffed, not gonna lie. Getting the invite was probably the most exciting part, looking back.
First thing was the download, obviously. It wasn’t too bad, size-wise, but my internet was being a bit slow that day, so it took a chunk of my evening just waiting for that progress bar to fill up. Standard stuff, install went smooth enough, no weird errors or anything, which is always a plus.
First Look and Feel
Fired it up. The first load screen took its sweet time, but okay, beta, I get it. Main menu pops up. Looked… alright? A bit basic, maybe? But functional. You could see where things were supposed to go, even if some options were greyed out or just not there yet. Spent a few minutes just clicking around, checking settings. Tweaked the graphics a bit, trying to find that sweet spot between looking decent and running smoothly on my rig. It’s always a bit of a gamble with betas.
Then I jumped into the tutorial, or what passed for one. It walked me through the basic movement, shooting, the core ideas. Felt okay, nothing revolutionary. The controls seemed straightforward enough, didn’t have to remap much immediately.
Diving In – The Actual Gameplay
Alright, tutorial done, time for the real deal. Queued up for whatever the main mode was called. Matchmaking was surprisingly quick, which was nice. Didn’t sit there staring at a timer for ages.
Got into the game proper. Dropped into the map, started looking around. The environment looked decent, atmospheric even. Started doing the usual stuff – running around, trying to find gear, figuring out the map layout. It felt a bit empty at first, wandering around these big spaces.
Then I bumped into another player. First firefight. This is where things got a bit… iffy. The shooting felt kinda loose? Hard to explain. Not exactly bad, but maybe not as tight as I’m used to. Took me a few encounters to sort of get the hang of the weapon handling. Died pretty quick the first few times. Classic beta experience, right? Either you run into someone who’s already figured it out, or you just flail around.
- Found some interesting gear eventually.
- The map had some cool spots, visually.
- Movement felt generally okay, vaulting and climbing worked mostly.
Bugs and Jank: Oh yeah, there were bugs. Expected, but still. Had one weird glitch where my character got stuck on some geometry. Had to wiggle around like an idiot to get free. Saw some textures pop in and out. Nothing absolutely game-breaking in my sessions, but definitely noticeable stuff. Submitted feedback when I saw something obvious, used their little bug report tool. Hope they actually read those things.
Overall Thoughts After Playing
Spent maybe 10-12 hours with it over a few days. Tried different approaches, messed with the few loadout options available.
It’s got something there, I think. The core idea is interesting enough. But man, it needs polish. Lots of it. The performance was okay-ish, but dipped sometimes, especially when things got hectic. The gunplay needs tightening up, for sure. That’s pretty crucial.
Was it fun? Yeah, in moments. Had a couple of tense encounters that felt good. But there were also long stretches of just running around, or getting frustrated by the jank. It feels very much like a beta, which, well, it is. You see the potential shape of the game, but the rough edges are very apparent.
So yeah, that was my time with the Spectre Divide closed beta. Glad I got to try it, definitely gave me something to chew on. Curious to see if they can iron out the kinks before it actually launches proper. We’ll see, won’t we?
