I SMITE Thee – The Good

I’ll be honest, I’d heard of SMITE far before a friend told me there was going to be a beta for it on PS4. But I’d always brushed it off due to it being a MOBA. I expected the typical isometric view, the lack of control over your character that usually came with it, the weird robotic movement and heat-seeking attacks that were commonplace in this genre, only adding to the sense you’re watching an amazing character instead of playing one. SMITE, on the other hand, has a centred Max Payne style camera, while the gameplay has a heavy emphasis on accuracy for both basic attacks and abilities, complimenting proper timing and positioning. After the sensory and information overload that is learning your first MOBA, I was hooked.

Apart from actually enjoying myself, the other thing that surprised me was that you weren’t forced, hell, even encouraged to play the “proper” mode Conquest. Seeing Arena (Which is basically 5v5 Team Deathmatch with cannon fodder minions.) surprised me and I’ve played it almost exclusively since. Though I’ve put some time into Joust (3v3 mini Conquest), Siege (4v4 dual lane and jungle + Siege Minions), Clash (5v5 Small dual lane chaos) and recently a lot of Assault (5v5, one lane, random gods.) as it’s nice to be thrown against a team who can’t clutch to their comfort zone gods. Talking of gods, there’s a god for one and all! Different pantheons, stories, species and sizes. It baffles me I can recognise them all considering the diversity.

Although SMITE may not have as many characters as its competition, I think it can be seen as a strength. Every god can be played effectively in the right hands and there’s more than enough variation between them all to match the play style of any given player. On top of that, the gods themselves are lively and full of character, with fitting animations and voices. (Though complete voice packs and emotes have price tags, but hey, they gotta make money somehow, right?) With so many to choose from you’re bound to find a few favourites. Best part is you can try them all for free in the practice area before you rent/buy them for real with favor (free) or gems (premium). (I’ve spent 343+ hours in SMITE and haven’t paid a single real penny.)

Seriously though. The appeal of fighting tooth and claw as and against gods that have existed for thousands of years from across the world is, to be scientific, pretty goddamn cool. All of them have their own reason to fight, be it to defend their home, to retain honour, to settle a score, looking for a challenge or my personal favourite: red-hot insatiable revenge. Upon killing certain enemies as your chosen god, you can sometimes hear specific quips for killing them. I think it’s the personality SMITE has that keeps me invested, both in the game and the gods I play. It’s no masterpiece of multiplayer gaming. It has its issues, definitely. (What MOBA doesn’t?) But there’s got to be a reason I keep coming back to it regardless, right?

SMITE at the very least deserves a chance to see if it can sway your opinion of what a MOBA can be if they typically aren’t your thing. It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows and I’ll get to that in another article. But considering it’s free, the worst that can happen is you waste time downloading. Though I’d advise you to stick with it if you initially feel like giving up, since the learning curve is so steep with these sort of games. I know I wanted to quit at times. Fortunately you can practice all you like in Co-Op and offline. Eventually, it clicks. You know what you’re doing, you know what every god is capable of and have a general understanding of how to deal with them. When you conquer all that, go online and show everyone who’s top god.

• Assassins: Melee based physical gods – Huge burst damage and high mobility, but a tiny health pool means they die very quickly.
  

• Hunters: Ranged physical gods – Reliant on consistent basic attack damage gathered from item power, lacks ability damage overall.

• Guardians: Melee based magical gods – Tanks. Initiates and disrupts, frontlines fights, sets up kills and saves teammates.

• Mages: Ranged magical gods – Almost exclusively fight with strong ranged ability damage. Versatile. Can be healers/basic attack gods.

• Warriors: Melee based physical gods – Durable fighters, dependant on either basic attack or ability damage to harass the enemy.

 

Thanks for reading and good luck in the battleground of the gods!