Mountaintop’s Spectre Divide brings clever gameplay to PvP multiplayer shooter

Nate Mitchell scored a nice startup victory as a cofounder of Oculus. And now he’s coming out with another startup, Mountaintop, which showed off its Spectre Divide shooter game this week.

The PC game is a 3v3 multiplayer tactical shooter game with a unique twist: your spectre. You get to start out in the game with a twin, a virtual self, in the same match. And you can switch between the bodies during the match and use your twin to outmaneuver and outflank your enemies. You get the benefit of one mind, two bodies, Mitchell said in a game preview. That’s duality.

The company started in 2020 and the game has been in the works for four years. It raised $30 million and then disappeared into the ether. I attended an online preview event to be one of the first to play the game. Mitchell, CEO of Mountaintop, said he was psyched to show off the game.

“For the past four years, we’ve been dreaming of this moment,” Mitchell said. “It’s been a true labor of love. We can’t wait to hear what you think.”

Mitchell said the team of about 70 developers are super fans of shooter games such as PvP extraction games. They made the game with help of creators like Shroud.

Lee Horn, the game director for Spectre Divide, was previously the lead for product on Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends and he also worked at Riot Games on Valorant. He also played Counter-Strike since the days of its beta and has put in multiple thousands of hours into playing the game. That makes him a lifelong shooter diehard.

“This game is a love letter to the tech shooter community. We’re really excited to show you Spectre Divide today. The game is driven by a new feature we call duality, which we think is gonna massively evolve the genre and bring in some exciting new magic.”

Spectre Divide is a competitive 3v3 tactical shooter with duality. There are three players per team, but every player will control a second body and you can swap between these two bodies at any moment. If one of your bodies is shot in the match, you reappear in the second body. If you lose that second body, then you’re eliminated from the round.

The cool thing is that you can toss a puck to an upper floor position and then press a key to switch from your body on the ground floor to animate your second body in the spot where you throw the puck. The enemy may think you’re still on the ground, and then you can flank around and ambush the enemy from above.

A four-minute tutorial

I went through a short tutorial where the hardest thing was memorizing the keyboard buttons to push (because, yes, I’m an Xbox controller player). At the beginning of a match, you can use your rewards to buy more weaponry or upgrade it. You can select a sponsor which, like in The Hunger Games, gives you certain unique weapons or advantages that you can take into battle. You can set special traps that the sponsors give you, and your selection of them grows over time.

The bomb is called a Zeus and you have to defuse it or plant it. I found I had to many keys to remember for doing things, so it’s a reminder for me to write it down and have it visible in front of me when I really play.

You can drop a scanner that detects people hiding behind barriers and gain a jump on those enemies. But the scanner has limited use. There’s a “slow” device that will make you feel like you’re running through mud when you come within its range.

There was a pretty good set of weaponry to carry around. You could pack grenades or smoke or a knife. In the store, you can pick up cosmetic items to decorate yourself, and you can pick a variety of character looks and styles. You can lob a grenade in an arc or roll it on the ground.

Defusing the bomb

We played a classic mode of attacking or defending a bomb. One team picks up the bomb and then drops it into a part of the map where it can be activated. A countdown starts. The enemy has to defuse the bomb or lose the round. The first team to eight round victories wins the match. It’s a lot like Search and Destroy in Call of Duty games.

But it’s far different when you have two bodies. The map we played had two sites, A or B, where you could defuse the bomb. During the pregame, as a defender, you can set up your spectre at one location and then start out at the other location. If the enemy comes to you, then you fight. But if the enemy goes to the other location, you can switch to your body double with a button press. (The game has only support for mouse and keyboard play right now).

With duality, you can play both sides across the map simultaneously, instantly reinforce teammates and even cover your own sniper cross, Horn said.

“We know the deeper nuances of movement and gunplay field as well as game balance can make or break a tactical shooter. We’ve been carefully tuning the game from day one through regular community play tests,” Horn said. “Additionally, we’ve partnered with the best in the business among [esports players/streamers] to help bring a pro player perspective to the game since early alpha.”

It’s interesting to see the strategies these highly skilled players use to get results, Horn said. I found that I could start using some tricks fairly early on in my gameplay, even though I only completed two different 3v3 matches (where we fought to get to eight wins first).

The Spectre Divide gameplay makes you think of how you can use duality in clever ways. The devs tuned the game around small team multiplayer combat. And that makes it fresh. Mitchell said the team is self-publishing and fully independent. It’s fueled with venture funding.

“We built the game that we wanted to be playing on nights and weekends, and now we’re excited to be developing it,” Mitchell said.

Art style and back story

The environment and characters have a blend of realism and anime. It’s a modern metropolis with uprisings in various districts, each with its own culture and personality. A popular underground sport called Santai uses the military technology called Duality to enable the players to compete with one mind and two bodies.

Santai battles can pop up anytime, anywhere, and they lure a rabid fan base throughout the city. You play for fortune and legacy in your quest to become the next Santai champion.

The look of the world blends sci-fi comic book art and classic Japanese cel animation. The aim is to create a style that balances graphic aesthetics and a visceral combat experience.

Strategic positioning

Duality is a strategic positioning tool that lets you teleport from one place to another on the map. Your equipment also reflects this duality. You can carry a sniper loadout with one spectre, and the other one can have a light machine gun. You get moving and shooting freedom. You don’t have to stay in one place and peek around a corner to get a head shot. Your spectre gives you mobility. The economy gives nods to duality, and you can even create different looks for each of your spectres.

“No need to stand still and get those sweet head shots,” Horn said. “Mastering your weapon of choice is still key to domination.”

To hit V, you can wield the puck and lob it somewhere. If you then hit X, you swap to the other body. You can swap back just as quickly.

You have to think about where to put your spectre. You don’t want it in a place where it’s easily killed, so you have to put it in a hiding spot where others won’t find it. If they do, your defenseless spectre can be easily killed, robbing you of one life.

As far as traps go, you can lure someone to attack you by peeking around a corner. When they charge at you, you can swap to your spectre hiding on the side and take them out with a flank shot. But your spectre can hear footsteps and warn you that someone is near it.

“This is a big change to the genre, with more dynamic gameplay, and more freedom — a lot of movement freedom. So definitely pay attention to this,” Horn said.

Players will climb the career ladder and get more stuff. The game is free to play, and a purchase will help you flex your unique style, but you cannot pay to win. You are grouped into a kind of clan of 60 players, and you can see over time how you perform relative to that group, with weekly contests.

Right now, there are eight sponsors, four maps and 20 weapons. Play is grouped into casual, ranked and custom game modes. Players can purchase or grind for new sponsors. You can buy character or weapon cosmetics, but there are no Web3 integrations or loot boxes in the game. The release date is TBD.

“We hope our game becomes your next 10,000 hour obsession,” Horn said.

Gameplay

I was teamed up with a demoist from Mountaintop and another game journalist. We completed the tutorial and jumped into a match. I purchased my loadout and hopped in.

The matches started with a pregame session where you could change weapons, plant your spectre on the map, and position yourself to enter the map. In the first match, I had to remember to aim down the site to get a better bead on enemies that were far away. Just running and gunning didn’t work.

You can shop in between rounds. I ditched the shotgun right away and got a nice assault rifle for the next round. I played conventionally, forgetting about my spectre in the heat of battle. Luckily, the enemies weren’t spectacular, and my team had a ringer.

I really appreciated having the spectre around as my second body — a lease on life after I was eliminated the first time around. But it takes time to think about how to properly use the spectre in combat. I was kind of slow with the mouse and keyboard so I’m anxious to get a controller.

In my first game, I got about 15 kills, 15 deaths and five assists. That’s a lot better than I usually do in fresh shooter games. So I was glad to get the hand of it early. In the second game, I fared better. I’m actually very excited about seeing more of this game. I’ve seen just a small slice of the action so far, but I like what I see.