Splatoon 3: Side Order is a new DLC experience available for popular ink shooter that blends in roguelite gameplay mechanics with the iconic splat and swim features that made the series so popular. Side Order comes as part of the Splatoon 3 Expansion Pass and continues Agent Eight’s story which was originally introduced in the Splatoon 2 DLC called Octo Expansion.
In short, Splatoon 3: Side Order follows the traditional rogue-lite genre that sees players rinse and repeat the same objective over and over again as they slowly nudge themselves forward with minor upgrades and gear improvements. These games are meant to be a time-sink where you’ll mindlessly complete levels, try not to die and do it all over again when you do.
The whole “trying not to die” thing gets easier the more you play the game and enhance your character. Splatoon 3: Side Order is no different. Agent Eight wakes up in a drab and colourless virtual world which has been taken over by a digital AI entity known as Order. They need now climb a tower level by level to fight this Order thing and save the virtual world.
The tower changes each run and is infested with skeleton fish that use black ink to damage the player and paint over your ink. Different levels offer various objectives to complete but the freedom to choose from a selection of objectives before you enter the level determines the difficulty and rewards.
When it comes to the general gameplay, there isn’t much “new” here. You spend your time shooting things, diving into your ink to get away from enemies and using the various weapons and super attacks to fight your way through the tower. This means the iconic Splatoon gameplay is strong in Side Order and the more you invest in the DLC and its upgrades, the better the experience gets.
During the start of each run, I was able to choose a loadout that came with a weapon I had unlocked by opening a locker and some pre-set abilities. These loadouts are called “Palettes”. They are essentially empty decks that have slots for cartridge-like chips in them. You get chips after each level and they come with buffs to your overall stats. The more of a certain chip you have, the more that stat is improved. For example, three “shoot distance” chips meant my gun would fire much further than usual.
Keep in mind that at the end of each run, you lose this Palette. So the character build you’re going for is reset giving you the opportunity to go in a different route the next time around.
However, I did feel as if most of these chips were pretty useless. After a while, I ended up focusing only on faster run speed and overall firepower because the later levels rely on this more than anything else. It is kind of like the game wants you to experiment with different builds but the gameplay doesn’t let you. I would rather just go with what works than have a hard time trying to make a build viable.
This mechanic is pushed even further due to Side Order’s difficulty. This DLC can get tough and frustrating at times. You can also choose when to try a “hard” level for extra rewards but you’ll need to be prepared for the fight.
Splatoon 3: Side Order does feature all the cool mechanics from the main game. There are also loads of weapons to play around with and fun to be had here. But I couldn’t help but feel as if the DLC got tiresome faster than I expected.
With only around five different objectives scattered around the tower and a handful of different enemies, the experience got as dull as the colourless world where the tower had been built. Although, I need to mention the whole “dull world” thing totally suits the DLC and looks great. The contrast between the world and your ink clearly represents the whole “outsider” characteristics of Agent Eight.
A few hours in I was repeating the same objectives and fighting the same boss throughout the tower. I get that this isn’t a fully-fledged standalone roguelite game but variety is in short supply even for DLC.
With that being said, the DLC does encourage replayability. When you fail a level, you can then upgrade various permanent traits on Agent Eight to help with the next run. These include extra armour, health, damage etc. So the more you die, the better things get. I enjoyed this because it meant I could actually finish this DLC after maxing out the stats and move on with my life.
Splatoon 3: Side Order is a fun chunk of content. I enjoyed that it was a single-player experience. Although, co-op in this roguelite mode would have been the cherry on top. There’s no doubt a lot of Splatoon love poured into the DLC and if you’re a fan of the series and you’re looking for more, this DLC is worth it. You’ll just need to remember that is just DLC so don’t expect the world from it. However, what it does deliver is enjoyable.
This Splatoon 3: Side Order DLC review is based on a code sent to us by Nintendo. The DLC is now available for the game as part of the Expansion Pass.
Summary
The Splatoon 3: Side Order DLC provides the best gameplay mechanics from the series bundled together with an addictive roguelite mode. The DLC can get tiresome after a while but the signature gameplay and traditional roguelite “one more run” approach kept me coming back for more even after completing it twice over.
