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The past few hours have been a rollercoaster for the live-service shooter genre. Following the news that PlayStation would be bringing Concord offline and issuing refunds to players, Mountaintop Studios’ new co-op FPS, Spectre Divide, has had the opposite experience. That’s because, as of writing, the shiny new shoot ’em up, which was helped developed by beloved community figure Shroud, has already reached a whopping peak player count of 30,971.
That’s according to Steam’s top 100 most played games chart, which currently has Spectre Divide sitting at 40, right above Rocket League and Red Dead Redemption 2. And with Mountaintop Studios having only released their multiplayer shooter today, you can probably expect this number to rise in the coming weeks as more people learn about and get hands-on with it.
Of course, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the new game on the block. Unfortunately, Spectre Divide has already fallen victim to a wave of review-bombing, with its Steam page currently displaying a ‘Mixed’ reception (only 43% of its 950 user reviews have been positive). A closer look at the onslaught of negative reviews indicates that the main culprit for player criticisms is the game’s microtransactions, with one user noting, “One skin costs 10 bucks, and the set costs $80.”
Another player pointed out that “4/8 [classes] are also locked behind grinding or [a] $20 paywall,” which, although unpopular, shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, other games, like Valorant and League of Legends, require you to pay in-game currency to access new characters. But as always, you’ll need to remember that spending money in-game isn’t necessary, and you can access Spectre Divide’s main content without shelling out hundreds of dollars of your hard-earned cash.
All that said, Spectre Divide is shaping up to be a mainstay in the FPS genre for years to come if its early hours are any indicator. And, if Mountaintop Studios can continue adding enjoyable content, like more factions, maps, and modes, it could even rival other established live-service shooters in the future.
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