The gaming industry dances to the tune of customization these days, with many franchises providing previously unseen aesthetic options for gamers. Splatoon 3 is already at the forefront of this progressive train. For instance, the game removed the gender lines of hairstyles and allowed players to express themselves in a gender-fluid environment. Now more than ever, customization options hold sway in the gaming industry, and franchises must update these options frequently to satisfy their fans. Splatoon 3 is heeding the call, with Nintendo intending to add a catalog of new cosmetic items every three months for the next two years, and the franchise could benefit from implementing weapon skins similar to Call of Duty's Prestige Weapons.
Call of Duty is one of the pioneers of the customization movement in weaponry, underscored by its recent development of the Gunsmith in Modern Warfare 2. Splatoon 3, on the other hand, while making decent moves to stay ahead of the modern-day customization battle, seems to be lagging on the weapons front. Currently, gamers cannot change the color of their weapons or add attachments, a feature that sticks out like a sore thumb for a shooter. Call of Duty has an intriguing system Splatoon 3 could draw inspiration from to answer calls for more personalized features.
Prestige Weapon Camos Could Be The Answer to Splatoon's Lack of Weapon Customization
Call of Duty 4 introduced gamers to a key customization component that some may take for granted: weapon camos. There were three options on offer, and each required players to meet a goal of 150 headshots to upgrade their weapon skins. Over time and in later editions, unlocking camos became cumbersome, but the franchise has corrected these flaws in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In Modern Warfare 2, there are five camos available; Base, Gold, Platinum, Polyatomic, and Orion. Base camos are universal, meaning they can be used on all weapons once unlocked.
The other four camos are Completionist types and are only available for the specific weapons players use to unlock them. Base camos in Modern Warfare 2 are unlocked when a player completes a set of challenges upon leveling up a weapon. Gold camo challenges become available once the base camo challenges and require the player to make a certain number of kills without dying a specified number of times. Platinum camo challenges can only be accessed when players unlock the Gold camo for all weapons in a weapon class. For Call of Duty enthusiasts, these should be relatively easy to accomplish, but it gets significantly harder from the Polyatomic camos.
These camos require the player to have the Platinum Weapon Camo on 51 different weapons as a starter, and then a challenge is unlocked for all 51 weapons to gain Polyatomic camos. Modern Warfare 2 gives players a break on completion of the Polyatomic camos tasks by gifting them the Orion camo without any extra challenge since they have displayed adequate mastery of the game. Despite the innovation in weapon camo progression, some players have been left dissatisfied with the ultimate reward due to its slow animation speed and have called for a change in the Orion camo.
Weapon camos serve as a badge of distinction and prestige, visually conveying the message of a player's competence and skill. Splatoon 3 could take the idea of a weapon progression system and make specific weapon skins available when players accomplish a set of tasks. Taking a leaf from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, these tasks can get progressively more difficult for players to attain -- the rarer the weapon skin, the more elite the player should be. Adding a challenge-based customization feature would enhance the competitive nature of Splatoon 3, as gamers have more motivation to become known as elite players. An Orion camo can strike fear into the hearts of Modern Warfare 2 players in the multiplayer mode, and Splatoon 3 could harness this in its signature Squid-like fashion.
Splatoon 3 is available now on Nintendo Switch.
