SMITE Makes Right

SMITE stands for Super Magical Internet Time Experience. SMITE isn’t really an acronym for anything, it’s just…in all caps, I guess?

SMITE is yet another MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) or in other words, another DotA-style game. If you’re a gamer you’ve probably heard of DotA, but in case you haven’t…DotA stands for Defense of  the Ancients, an incredibly popular mod for Warcraft 3 back in the day. Basically you had two teams at either side of the map, with 3 lanes connecting each side, and the goal was to destroy the other team’s Ancient while destroying deadly towers and farming exp and gold to make your chosen Hero stronger, as well as kicking the ass of any enemy Hero who got in your way.

SMITE is a slightly different twist on the MOBA/DotA-style genre. Instead of the usual top-down/isometric perspective and navigation by clicking, it’s more like a 3rd person RPG with WASD controls. In another slightly unusual twist, the heroes/player characters are all deities and demigods from various world mythologies and legends. It looks like Hi-Rez Studios really did their research as well, because all the gods have abilities and designs that are pretty close to their actual mythologies.

Let’s hit pause here for a bit: it’s a bit unusual for me to be talking about – and liking – a game of the MOBA genre. You see, I’m not much of a MOBA person – I’ve firmly resisted all invitations to play DotA 2[1] for at least a year (maybe more?) and I’ve never properly played any MOBA. It’s ironic because I am personally responsible for drawing 2 of my friends into the dark, twisted world of MOBAs, leaving them cripplingly addicted while I went on my merry way and never looked back. It’s like giving kids meth. My theory is that after trying the original DotA and its derivative Heroes of Newerth (HoN), my lack of skill at and comprehension of either game coupled with terrible, terrible losses caused me to develop some kind of subconscious trauma which erased all desire of liking or trying games in that genre ever again.

Until now, of course.

I’m not sure what exactly it is about SMITE that appealed to me, but I can theorise.

1) All of the characters in SMITE are gods and goddesses from mythologies all over the world. I’ve always been interested in myths and legends, and it definitely helps that there are characters whom I recognise and am actually familiar with. It creates an emotional connection, unlike, well…every other MOBA, since they all use original creations. The designs of the characters are pretty good as well, and Hi-Rez paid close attention to the original myths as well as adding in their own style. It’s worth noting that some (all?) designs are pretty fanservicey, so if that sort of thing makes you angry, you should probably avoid this game.

2) The 3rd person perspective helps a lot as well, somehow. I think it helps make the game feel more dynamic, and closer to PvP matches in MMORPGs, which I have been a relatively active participant of whenever it’s available. All the abilities are skillshots, which means the player has to aim carefully instead of locking-on to a target and pressing a button.

3) I’m not sure if other MOBAs already have this feature, but SMITE has an automatic leveling and item purchasing system. In the original DotA and HoN, you had to put points into your stats and skills yourself, and decide what items best suited you. In SMITE, you can simply prepare a skill and item build beforehand, put it into the character builder and everything will be done for you within the match (there is, of course, an option for manual skill leveling and item purchasing). You would lose out on the flexibility of adapting your build to whatever Heroes the other team has, but if you have no head or desire for that kind of planning…

4) SMITE has a variety of game modes: Arena (more or less a straight up 5v5 brawl, with no lane objectives), Joust (1 lane, 3v3, otherwise a quite standard MOBA mode), Conquest (the standard 3 lanes and team of 5), Assault (all random all mid) and a new Siege mode currently in beta. There’s also a Co-Op mode where you fight against AI instead, which I find pretty handy for learning how a god plays. I find Arena the most fun, although I found Joust simple enough to understand as well.

5) This didn’t specifically draw me to the game, but SMITE had a deal (unsure if it’s limited time or not, wording is a bit ambiguous) where you could buy all released AND unreleased gods for 30 USD. Normally, since SMITE is a free-to-play game, players only get a set of gods that get unlocked when they activate a new account plus a weekly rotation of free gods. These gods can either be unlocked through in-game currency or through the cash shop, or you can just buy the pack for 30 bucks and get everything.

I’ve really been having fun with SMITE so far, which is definitely surprising. The game is fairly easy to pick up and there are modes that have significantly simpler objectives than the standard MOBA 3-lane-towers-jungle-farm-slay ancient style of gameplay, so it’s not as intimidating.

Oh and by the way, I didn’t just stumble upon SMITE – I actually found out about it through TotalBiscuit’s SMITE launch video. Quick shout out to Mr Biscuit, though it’s not like he needs it (he claims to have more YouTube money than God), least of all from me, but – the Cynical Brit does first impressions of video games as well as a variety of other video game-related stuff (not Let’s Plays) and I don’t think I’d be wrong in saying that he’s one of the more well-spoken and evenhanded video game commentators on YouTube. I’ve discovered a few good games through his ‘WTF is…?’ series and if you’re looking for a way to discover if a PC game is good or not, TotalBiscuit’s channel is a pretty good place to go to.

[1] I did play through DotA 2’s tutorial, but never continued playing afterwards. I partially blame the tutorial’s choice of Hero – Dwarven Sniper is pretty simple to play but holy shit he was boring as hell.