SMITE Game Review!

So as I have mentioned in a few of my previous articles, this year thanks to some nice gift cards for the Christmas season, I was able to go and procure an XBox One. While I love big games like Halo and Battlefront and Mortal Kombat, I also love the freebie games and have a habit of at least trying them out whenever I can. Sometimes you can find great hidden gems in the free and cheap indie games just like you can find crap coming in from the big names. So I am planning on trying some of these smaller games and letting you guys all know what I think of them and the first Indie game on my list is called SMITE. This is a free game that is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) type of game similar in ways to League of Legends and ones like that…they are even trying to get this into the whole E-sports thing by having leagues and such. I haven’t really played any MOBA games yet but this caught my attention because it lets you play as gods and I am a HUGE mythology geek.

To start things off let me tell you the best thing about this game is it’s FREE. You also get to play as a god from various religions like Norse, Greek, Mayan, Hindu and Chinese. It’s a cool little game with various types of games that show several players against several other players and depending on the game type will depend on what it is you are trying to do. I will talk a little about the classes of gods you can get as well as the first gods that are free.

All in all the game at the moment has about 60 gods that you can get but in the free edition you have only five one for each class. The classes are as follows Mage, Hunter, Assassin, Warrior and Guardian so let’s break down what each of these are:

• Warrior- Less damage than an assassin but more durable though not as durable as a guardian class this class falls somewhere inbetween, close up personal combat style.
• Guardian- High defense and crowd control abilities, normally low on damage dealing. Some powers include setting walls of some sort and changing the flow of traffic.
• Assassin- quick close up physical attacks, special moves help time attacks and get the player in and out of range fast.
• Hunter- Ranged basic attacks that do physical damage, special attacks tend towards straight line multi-hit single attacks or several single attacks with poison ect.
• Mage- Magical damage, needs mana, mostly range attacks and ones that can do AOE or Burst damage

So now that we have a small knowledge of the classes let’s talk the beginning gods you get to play as. Normally it’s not a good thing when you try and play god but here in this game that’s the whole point of things is to play as a god so here are the first five you can play as!

Guan Yu the Chinese saint of war. Guan Yu is the warrior of the group and wields an cool looking polesword of some sort. I haven’t done much studying of the pole sword so I am not sure of the technical name of this weapon is. Guan Yu has a passive ability that pumps up another of his abilities called Conviction, this ability when used heals Guan Yu and nearby allies. Guan Yu’s second ability is an attack called Warriors Will. This attack is a straightforward dash with his weapon straight ahead hitting anyone in the path of the dash, during this time he is immune to knockback, cripple and root effects. Then we have Taolu’s Assault in which Guan Yu spins his weapon in circles around his body front and back for 3 seconds hitting anyone close enough as he moves. During this time he is immune to knockback type moves. His last and ultimate move is called Cavalry Charge where Guan Yu mounts his warhorse and charges into battle. If he hits someone while using this power he slows them and hits for damage, any extra hits taken after that go up in damage by 20%, this power lasts for 4 seconds unless you cancel it early. This is the link to his wiki http://smite.wikia.com/wiki/Guan_Yu

Neith is an Egyptian goddess known as the Weaver of Fates and is the free god for the hunter class. Neith wields a very large bow and has a good ranged with her arrows. Neith has the passive ability to see where the weave of fates have broken when enemy gods die, if she uses her powers near these broken weaves they grant her extra bonuses. Neith’s first ability is known as Spirit Arrow which allows Neith to take an arrow and fire it through several targets. Each target that is hit gets touched by the root effect, if the arrow touches a broken weave it will explode doing an AOE damage and root effect to everyone it hits. Neith’s next ability is called Unravel, this ability lets her undo the weave of fate around targets and thus damages them and the damage done to the targets heals Neith. If this ability hits a broken weave it will disappear and heal Neith as well. Her next ability is called Back Flip and is exactly what it sounds like. Neith will backflip hitting enemies for damage and creating a broken weave, enemies caught in the area are slowed. Neiths ultimate ability is something called World Weaver where she charges up an arrow and “shoots it across the world” seeking its target even through obstacles, enemy gods take damage and are stunned, this can be fired before full power is achieved. This is the link to her wiki http://smite.wikia.com/wiki/Neith

Ra is the Egyptian sun god and the mage class of the free gods available. Ra has some long distance spells for his normal attack and his passive ability is that his movement speed is enhanced whenever he uses his other abilities. Ra’s first ability is called Celestial Beam and is a ray of light summoned from the heavens that damages anyone it hits and travels in a straight line. Ra’s next ability is called Divine Light and a circle of light envelopes Ra and any enemies caught in it are slowed, the slow will build in them the longer they stay in it. Eventually the circle of light explodes dealing damage and yet another slow to anyone within the blast, those facing Ra when the light explodes are also blinded. His next ability is called Solar Blessing. This conjured circle of light heals allies and damages enemies. Ra’s ultimate power is called Searing Pain and basically has Ra calling upon the sun to severely damage the foes in front of him. Ra’s wiki page is here http://smite.wikia.com/wiki/Ra

Thor is believe it or not the assassin of the group for free gods you get with the free version of the game. As most of you probably already know from school or from the Marvel movies Thor is a thunder god from Norse mythology. His passive ability is called Warrior’s Madness which gives him physical power for every enemy god within 30 units of him. Thor’s first power is called Mjolnir’s Attunement which has Thor throw his hammer at his enemies and then it will return to him. Minions hit twice will take half damage on the return but gods hit twice will take double damage. If the trigger for the power is hit again while the hammer is out then he will teleport to his hammer. His second ability is known as Tectonic Rift, when this is triggered Thor’s hammer is slammed to the ground forming a rift in front of him that stuns enemies and blocks movements. Being a true Norse warrior Thor’s next ability is called Berserker Barrage, not sure but I do believe this was the name of a special move that Wolverine had in an old X-Men game back in the 90’s in this case though instead of the rampaging mutant slashing with his claws we have a hammer wielding norseman spinning around in circles with his hammer held out far from him to damage whatever it hits. During his spinning Thor is immune to knockback. Thor’s ultimate ability has him flying up into the air and then slamming down into the ground again damaging all enemies in a certain area in a move called Anvil of Dawn. You can find his wiki page here http://smite.wikia.com/wiki/Thor

Last but not least is the god Ymir the father of Frost Giants and the free Guardian class god of the bunch. Ymir’s passive ability Frostbite is something that affects enemies hit with Ymir’s other abilities which then makes them take 100% more damage from his regular attacks. Ymir’s first targeted ability is called Ice Wall and is exactly what it sounds like it creates a wall of ice that blocks player and minion movement. His next ability is called Glacial Strike and has Ymir slam his club on the ground doing damage to all enemies in front of him and inflicting frostbite. The third ability on his list is called Frost Breath this too applies frostbite as it stuns the enemy and encases them in a block of ice damaging them. Last but not least is Ymir’s ultimate ability called Shards of Ice. With this ability shards of ice start forming upon him and all around him, Enemies in this effect are slowed and then eventually damaged as the shards explode outwards. You can find Ymir’s wiki here http://smite.wikia.com/wiki/Ymir

An interesting thing about this MOBA is that most games of this type at least that I have seen are usually a top down view of the action. In the pictures I have placed below you will see a picture of League of Legends which is the biggest MOBA name I know of offhand and beside it you will see a picture of Smite which you will notice is not top down but more like a third person shooter in looks. This makes it play very well on the XBox console as some controls are more reminiscent of the typical third person shooter.

All in all I have been having a lot of fun with this game. I am still trying to get the hang of it and I’ll be putting up a few more reviews about this game at a later date that go into a bit more detail about the types of boards you can expect to see and play in. So just an FYI before I head out though, as I said this game is free but unlocking new gods isn’t. The way you unlock new gods is by winning favor points in game and by buying crystal packs with real money. Better yet however is a thing called the Ultimate God Pack I think it was…this bundle will for 20 dollars with XBox Live Gold member discount give you every god already released for the game and as new gods come out you get them unlocked as well forever. Needless to say I spent the money to unlock somewhere around 66 more gods all together right now for a total of 71 gods with more promised on the way every so often as far as I can tell.

So far I have been loving this game and my only real complaint so far is in having trouble claiming some free skins as the xbox code they are giving out are only 17 characters long and xbox codes need to be 25 long. I hope to be hearing back from their support office soon on this so hopefully this will be corrected soon. Honestly though the main default skins for each god are pretty damned awesome and the only reason I’m even getting these others is because they are free. I highly recommend this game to everyone and if you join in and play on the XBox then please feel free to reply to this post with your XBox gamertag and I will send you a friend request so that we can battle together in game sometime!

UPDATE: One quick email and Smite got me those free skins and added them to my account for me…quick simple and easy. Good CS so still no real complaints here for this game. More reviews will be coming!

All Smite Photos courtesy of smitegame.com

Smite and League of Legends gameplay pics from Youtube.com