What's the first thing that crosses your mind when someone mentions MOBA games? I can bet it's the hero fight from the top-down perspective.
After the legendary DOTA, pretty much every game has the same action viewpoint. All but Smite.
Smite is a free to play third-person over-the-shoulder MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) developed by Hi-Rez studios, that uses most elements from MOBA genre, but from a third person perspective. This completely changes the feeling of the game. If you look at gameplay briefly for a couple of seconds, you may think it's a fantasy TPS game.
Since it's not that click heavy top-down game, but more of an action MOBA it's a perfect fit for consoles. So besides PC, it has already landed on Xbox one and PS4.
Gameplay
Essence of the game is like in the League of Legends and other MOBAs - each team gets to choose five heroes, you level them up, collect items and try to destroy enemy base towers while defending your own. There are lanes, towers, minions, game mods, abilities, just like you might be used to.
As an interesting twist, Smite heroes are personified as gods from different mythologies. As there is no top-down camera view, you'll have to constantly look back to ensure no one's behind you. Positioning in the space is crucial when it comes to battle, especially if you are guiding lower HP gods like mages or assassins. So you'll have to move and rearrange all the time to find your perfect spot when the fight begins. You level up by killing enemy heroes, minions that spawn every thirty seconds in the base camps, and by destroying enemy towers and phoenixes.
Good team communication is obviously very important so that everyone is ready when the initiator jumps on the enemy lines, or when choosing enemy target.
Unlike other MOBAs played with top-down camera and a classic auto attack, to become good at Smite you need to develop skills, things like quick reflexes, good space coordination, aiming skills and ability to choose your abilities wisely and in the correct order. For a successful hit, it's not enough just to look at your opponent's direction, but you'll have to think ahead and anticipate his movement and plans.
Gods
As I mentioned above, heroes you control are ancient gods from different mythologies (currently there's 8 pantheons - Greek, Roman, Norse, Hindu, Mayan, Chinese, Japanese and Egyptian). First God from Celtic mythology is about to be released in the early 2017.
83 gods have been released so far and they are divided into five different classes based on the role they play. So we have hunters, warriors, guardians, mages and assassins. They can also be separated by the type of power they utilize into physical and magical gods.
To unlock gods, player must spend favor which you earn by playing and winning games, or you can purchase them using gems. Of course, just like in the League of Legends and other MOBAs there are many amazing skins and voice packs that you can unlock that add diversity and fun to the game.
Only five gods (Guan Yu, Neith, Ra, Ymir and Thor) are unlocked when you start the game. But you can purchase ultimate god pack with all the current and future gods for as little as $15 when the sale is active.
Game mods
Smite has 5 different main game modes you can choose from and a daily mode, a twist that changes every day. You can also choose to play normal, ranked or against AI.
Conquest is a standard and most popular mode, specific to all MOBAs and it's the one played in ranked and championship games. Two teams of five players on a map designed in a Greek style (the siege of Olympus), with three lanes, phoenixes, titans and neutral creatures on the map that you can kill to gain experience and gold. You can also get power buff if your team destroys fire giant. Game is won when you get to the enemy base and destroy their titan.
If you're more for a quick game without lanes, gold collecting and wide map that you can wander around, you can try arena. It's a short map created in Roman style like a Coliseum. 5 on 5, you try to nullify your enemies points (tickets) by killing their heroes and minions and by pushing your minions through their portal. Fun, easy, and good one if you're just starting out.
Assault is a dark Norse one-lane map. Played 5 on 5, each player get's a random god and some starting gold, but unlike other modes, you can't go back to your base to buy items or recharge your health unless you die. With a randomness of gods and this little twist, it's a little trickier than other modes, so maybe not suitable for beginners.
Being someone who has mostly played FPS, TPS and fantasy like games in the past, this was something I was looking for to enter the MOBA genre. Slowly it paved her way into my heart. Unlike any other MOBA, it heavily depends on skillshots, bringing the new dimension of gameplay and possibility to separate yourself from other players.
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