Smite Review — An Awesome Take on A Growing Genre

Since the rise of eSports, the free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game is a genre that is on an incredible rise. New to the battleground comes a unique take on the gameplay style from developer Hi-Rez Studios called Smite.

Smite puts players in the role of an ancient god taken from a variety of religions and cultures. Greek, Norse, Mayan, Hindu and more are all represented in this battle for deity supremacy. The gods all have abilities relevant to their backgrounds like Zeus having the use of lightning at his command, and Poseidon being able to “Release the Kraken” and send a wave rushing to enemies at will.

In a genre starting to see more and more releases, Hi-Rez Studios did something different to make Smite stand out from the rest of the pack. Instead of the game being the typical top-down point and click battle game, Hi-Rez put players in a third-person perspective with a first-person shooter feel.

Everything players do in terms of attacks are skillshots which means that players won’t be able to simply rely on auto-attacks in order to deal damage. From the basic left-click attacks to your most powerful abilities, the game takes some sort of skill to be able to have success with this game.

That being said, it’s not a difficult game to grasp by any means.

The game has a Meta when it comes to god building that is pretty hard to break. If you are a god based on magical power, you won’t be able to accidentally build physical damage, and vice-versa. Of course, there are ways to test out your own style like building a usually tank god into a damage dealing behemoth. It’s all about how you want to play the game.

Another area in which Smite differs from the classic MOBAs is in terms of game modes offered. The game offers the classic three-lane battle where the object is to destroy the enemy’s center hub — in this case the Titan – but there are also other modes to keep your entertained.

The game offers a deathmatch-style Arena mode that pits gods against gods in a five-vs.-five battle to get your minions into the other team portal. This mode, which eliminates jungling, laning and ganking, seems to the best way for players to get the feel of new gods before taking them to lane battles. It also provides players with the most fun experience that you can’t find in other MOBAs.

Smite also has a daily game mode that takes the game modes available – Conquest, Arena, Assault and Joust – and adds a special flare. One day it could be an assault map with only Norse gods available to use while the next day it could be an arena battle with nothing but Ares.

While you can certainly unlock characters and skins with earned in-game currency, Smite also offers the option to basically buy the game. Doing this gives players access to all gods – past, present and future – for a one-time price. This allows you to use your earned Favor towards purchasing skins for your favorite gods. You can also buy gods individually. It all depends on what you want.

There are some visual glitches, and some of the gods — mostly female — look absolutely ridiculous, but none of that deters from the fun gameplay that Smite has.

At the end of the day, Smite is a game that takes the MOBA action and turns it into an experience that no one has seen before. It offers up a nice refresher to an expanding genre that makes it stand out from the crowd.