Game Review: Smite

[Green1]

Got a nice new laptop and wanted to try different sorts of games to test out the performance of this beast i7 beast. But, after buying it, I must choose between beer or games. Beer wins, so maybe a fast free game or demo?

On the top of the suggested list on Steam is a MOBA called Smite. Free... I groan and overcome and hit install. Maybe I can be wrong.

Let me explain...

I have always had a fear of MOBA games. That, and "freenium" games.

The first great MOBA was the venerable Defense of the Ancients, a mod for the last great Warcraft expansion Warcraft: The Frozen Throne on battlenet. Exploring after getting trounced repeatedly by map hackers and RTS gods, I decided to check out the mod.

What did I encounter?

A game I was totally lost in. What does this Hero do?  What does this do? Items? What am I supposed to do? No practice mode? Maybe play games, get my behind handed to me a few times, get better? Always worked before.,,

But NOOOO.

Maybe I was bit more vulnerable to negativity and rejection back then, But DotA had a vile community that made the notorious FPS Halo XBox live community seem like Pope Francis. At least X Box Live you could mute the jerks. In DotA, you did one mistake, OMG BOOT DA N00B!!!! You were not absolutely friggin perfect, it was like you personally took a big dump on their laptop and the hatred they reserved for you was on par with someone who slapped their mom and tortured their pets. How dare you... n00b... dare to even draw air and exist!

Not a newbie friendly community at all.

Fast forward to today.

MOBAs are to the late 00s to mid 10s like platform jumpers were to the 90s. Everyone and their brother has one from DotA 2 from the original devs, League of Legends, Blizzard's own Heroes of the Storm, and of course the topic, Smite.

The premise seems pretty cool. All the characters are based on real life gods and goddesses from history. You start with a few permanent gods everyone starts with along with gods that rotate in and out ever so often. After playing, you can gain a currency called "favors" to unlock more gods. Not getting enough favors? You can also buy a god by buying gem packs or pay around 30 bucks and get all of the gods and all future gods (and there are tons of them) for around 30 USD. The stock gods are not underpowered and are viable, which surprised me. Most freenium games have a "pay to win" component to them that left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, who wants to lose to someone who plops down their credit card? Fortunately, I did not feel like I was losing because someone had a god I did not, but that I needed to increase my skill level. Definitely not Pay to Win.

I played a bit of the DotA style maps, but to be honest, the real draw for me are the arena and adventure maps. It hearkens back to what I liked about battlegrounds for the MMO World of Warcrack but without the weeks long grind not to be killed or the 15 USD subscription coming out of your account even if you do not play. Mindless killing (or in my case, being killed)

The gameplay is pretty deep. You build your god and keep minions going into the enemy tower while trying to kill other gods and avoid being killed yourself. Each of the dozens and dozens of gods each play different. I loved playing Ra and scorching and healing folks. Or playing Posieden and unleashing a kraken on a group of opposing gods. I love that game mode.

However, on the DotA Conquest and Joust portions, I still ran into toned down echoes of my trama with DotA back in the day. Maybe I will try that some more, but that game type has a very steep learning curve and I am doing good just to not be ganked and 3 shotted by someone who takes this stuff way to serious. In fact, that happens more than I care for.

But that is the point in games? Having fun? I have a job if I want to be yelled at. But, arena seems more my speed.

Mindless killing and being killed. With gods.

I think I found a great get in get out time waster when I do not feel like some deep epic strategy for a break.