After being on PC and Xbox One for a bit, SMITE has finally come to the PlayStation 4 – this is a free to play release that will offer hundreds of hours of content. Welcome to the scary but fun world of MOBAs!
SMITE is the online battleground of the gods. Players choose from a diverse cast of deities and use their unique powers to triumph over the opposition in 5v5 team matches. SMITE is a new take on the MOBA genre rather than observing from above the action, the game’s third-person perspective puts players into the thick of combat.
SMITE: Battleground of the Gods – Cinematic Trailer | PS4
I don’t know about you guys, but the words MOBA usually scare me. I know they are super popular and currently dominate the esports scene, even appearing on ESPN! SMITE has now hit the PS4 combining the current MOBA strategy, but ditching the overhead view, giving us instead a pulled out 3rd person view.
I’ll get into more of a review down the line as the game is still in Beta on PS4, but I did want to give a quick overview of the game as a MOBA Beginners Guide. Essentially it is designed around gods from different cultures warring against each other for supremacy. The game currently has over 70 gods you can choose from, giving you a very wide range of choice. Here is where some of the Free to Play aspects come into the game. The game has 5 gods available for you to play at any point. From there they rotate 5 Gods, making them playable and removing the prior 5, giving you a chance to try all of the characters before you need to purchase them. It’s a good system that really does help with choice in the game
What took me a bit to understand was how the characters worked. For every game, everyone starts at Level 1 and you basically build your characters power by choosing which abilities to level up and by purchasing armor as you play. So while you are on the field and see your rank increasing, you need to run back to the base to increase your abilities and purchase new items to make your character stronger and customize to your liking. There is no long term thinking with this process – it’s about what works best right now in this situation taking into account your opponents and teammates skills.
The game itself controls well on the PS4 controller with the main attack being mapped the to the right trigger and the special abilities being mapped to the face buttons. Each god’s attacks are different and can be used in unique ways. For instance, in the tutorial, it talked about how one of my abilities could be used to chase after an escaping god quickly, but I also found that when low on health I had to get back to the base for more health.
The game has a good tutorial that will give you the basics of Smite, walking you through four different matches including the Joust and Arena modes. Arena mode is where I spent most of my time as it’s very similar to a Deathmatch. You and four other teammates work together to defeat the opposing team. You have minions on the ground and you need to protect them while defeating the opposing teams. The game starts off with 500 points for each team and as you defeat a minion or have your minions go through the opponents portal it will remove points from their score. The first one to zero loses. This mode is good as it gives you a great introduction to the game and to the gods – great place to use new gods for the first time to get the hang of them!
Joust is more goal orientated since you have to defeat the opponent’s Titan. You must, however, get past a defensive tower and Phoenix before you reach there while still dealing with pesky minions. It’s one lane only, making it easy to control the direction of the action. You play this one with two other teammates.
As I mentioned the game is still in Beta, and currently there are no available trophies. The Xbox got achievements a few months after launch so we will have to wait it out for a bit.
I’m still early in playing this as I have quite a few more modes to try and would like to develop a solid group of people to play with. This game has hooked me and I’ve been playing a few matches a day and getting better each time. The game does have an Ultimate God Pack available for $29.99 which will give you access to all of the gods, so if you are enjoying the game this could be a great investment.
I will be back soon with more info on the game, however in the meantime feel free to ask me any questions in the comments and I will try to answer as best as possible!
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