Smite Review - A God Killing Good Time
Reviewed On: Xbox One X
Also On: Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Amazon Luna
Genre: MOBA
Publisher: Hi-Rez Studios
Developer: Titan Forge Games
Release: March 25th, 2014
Rating: Teen
Join 40+ million players in SMITE, the Battleground of the Gods! Wield Thor’s hammer, turn your foes to stone as Medusa, or flex your divine power as one of 100+ other mythological icons. Become a God and play FREE today!
This article was originally published on Positive Plugs on February 2nd 2020. It has been ported here so that it may live on.
Smite and I have an odd history.
I first booted up the game on my Xbox One during its closed beta phase sometime in May of 2015 at the request of a close friend who was eager to have the MOBA on console.
I hated it.
We played the Arena game mode where two teams of five gods battle it out in a Roman coliseum. I opted to play as Thor, the god of Thunder, because he was the only god available to me that I’d heard of at the time and I mean, honestly, who wouldn’t?
Now almost five years later, I’m well aware of how Smite works including the breakdown of the five classes – Warrior, Hunter, Guardian, Mage, and Assassin – the latter of which Thor belongs to.
But in 2015? All I knew was I had a massive hammer and an unquenchable thirst for violence!
I found myself constantly frustrated as I walked up to Ares, Artemis, and other gods while swinging my hammer around wildly with the right trigger only to barely damage them while they in turn erased my health bar in one or two seconds.
“What the hell!? This is so stupid. I’m Thor and I can’t kill some lady with a bow and pig!? I should be slapping all of them across the map. Thor is one of the strongest gods ever!” I loudly exclaimed into the mic as I stared at the grayed-out respawn screen for the twelfth time that game.
My friend tried to help me understand what I was doing wrong and why I was getting absolutely deleted, but all the lingo was foreign to me and I absolutely hated every moment with the game. It was so confusing and I didn’t want to take the time to learn about abilities, items, and combos.
Thankfully, he was persistent and over the next several weeks managed to repeatedly talk me into giving the game another try.
Now, in February of 2020, according to my SmiteGuru page I’ve spent 757 hours and 57 minutes playing what is officially one of my all-time favorite games – and ironically that ‘lady with a bow and pig’ is my most played god of all time.
Over the years, Smite has been constantly updated, patched, balanced, and changed with new game modes and maps being added in while older ones are retired. The god count has also increased dramatically with more and more being added from various Pantheons each season and they’ve even taken to adding other popular characters who don’t necessarily classify as gods such as King Arthur and Merlin.
Thankfully, these days I have a much broader knowledge of the characters, items, and map strategies and am able to play the game, more often than not, without those early frustrations of not knowing what’s going on or why I keep dying so fast. (Luckily, I have a few friends who are walking encyclopedias for the game and whenever I do find myself needing some help on a build or understanding a god’s abilities I don’t hesitate to ask!)
That knowledge took a good bit of time to acquire and learning how to properly build your god to counter your opponent’s build takes even longer to do at a glance.
It’s because of this that whenever I recommend Smite to a new person I immediately let them know that they’re probably going to hate it. I then recommend that they play with someone who already has some solid knowledge of the systems in play so they can ask questions on the fly.
But if you’re interested in giving the game a shot and don’t have anyone to play with, I would recommend either checking out some YouTube guides or sticking to Arena at first as it’s the easiest game type to just jump into the action and experiment with gods and builds. Also, don’t neglect those tutorials, training, and vs. AI modes!
While the game can be intimidating when you’re first starting out, I personally believe that with practice and a whole lot of patience, you’ll soon find all the pieces falling into place and may end up with a new favorite game like I and several of my friends have!
Lastly, if you find yourself needing some extra help or want to find someone to play with, you can try joining the /r/smite community over on Reddit which is home to over 170k players who adore killing gods!
With Season 7 having just started this week, it’s the perfect time to join!
After all, the game is completely free to play – so what do you have to lose?