SMITE ( Hi-Rez Studios )

[Der Helm]

Can I be next in line ? Really looking forward to this one. 

[ezrast]

Sent keys to Dark_MadMax and Der Helm. The game doesn't seem to give any notification of when friend keys are disbursed, so anyone with access interested in sharing the love should check their account page.

[Der Helm]

Key worked like a charm, I'll give mine away as soon as I notice getting them. Thanks. 

[Der Helm]

Ok, apparently I have now 3 keys to give away.

First 3 posters with 10+ posts get them.

FIGHT! 

[Dark_MadMax]

Thanks to  Haemish and Ezrast who sent me keys, so I played a ten or so matches

-3d person perspective for moba works just like it did in LOCO.  Nice interface and I like VCG a lot. Only thing i miss is free look camera
-They straight up copied a lot of thing from LoL.  Just streamlined them. Also no last hitting (which kinda kills  a lot of gameplay in laning)
-very limited amount of champions . though they one there are done pretty decently. But monetization would be pretty tough for hirez given that there is no things like runepages and runes themselves

My biggest issue  - they didnt fix the worst part about LoL -rages  quitters and afkers. In those ten games 6 games had afker on one side or another.  No ranked also. So  honestly as it is right now I dont see it a big player in MOBA. LoL has  deeper gameplay and more features. The worst part about LoL(afkers/leavers) is the same in this game, and except 3d there is not much going for it

Albeit the 3d part is well done

p.s. Also realised what make the champions feel lacking  -they lack voice overs ,taunts, dances etc. Nice part about LoL champs that champions had distinct personality and flavour beside their abilities

[HaemishM]

I think they are just getting started on champs. And there is last hitting of minions - you get more gold and exp. from last hits.

[PalmTrees]

Interested to try this if they're still keys floating about.

One of the things that always limited me in LoL was that I always lost track of my guy in team fights amidst the many sparklies. 3rd person should fix that. Also click to move and attack not my strongest control scheme.

[Der Helm]

Key sent.

[Gets]

I would like a key, please.

[PalmTrees]

key sent

I've played a bit. Liking it so far. 3rd person definitely helping keeping track of my guy in team fights. Haven't strayed from the auto build yet, haven't had theorycraft time for it, but I'm doing ok.

[Falconeer]

I've been following this for a while and I must say it took me this long to admit it's pretty good.

The game is easily explained. It is 100% DOTA/LOL/HON clone but in 3rd person, or if you prefer, in MMORPG-perspective.

It plays exactly like your traditional hotbar based WoW-clone, but it's DOTA. Lanes, creeps, heroes and all that stuff. Except for the fact you move with WASD instead of a right click, even the keys are mostly your familiar LOL ones. Even progression and heroes (and heroes' skins) unlock work the same way.

Game has 30 heroes already, and it's officially still in closed beta (although you can access it by paying, and you get a few friend passes by doing so). The heroes are gods from different mythologies, and at the moment there's characters from the Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Norse, Roman pantheons. The background pages are slightly more interesting to me than the generic fantasy fluff from all the other games. Also, I can already foresee a few amazing new gods coming, and some more exciting pantheon addictions.

Here's a Tutorial video which shows enough of the game, both features-wise and gameplay-wise.

As I said earlier. I tried to ignore this for a while, but it seems to me it has enough to do pretty well by the time it'll get out of closed beta (especially because, you know, it'll be free). Personally, as much as I always loved the idea and the gameplay of DOTA and its very well executed clones, there's somethng that just doesn't keep me interested in point-and-click rts style combat. The way they have been handling the concept and simply morphing it in the 3rd person style works very well for me. Keep an eye on this.

I'll leave you with a couple more random videos:

- God Reveal, Freya Queen of the Valchyries.

- God Reveal, Bacchus, God of Wine.

- Know your Gods #2, Anubis God of the Dead.


EDIT to add: Looks like they just introduced the Mayan pantheon with the first Mayan god Xbalanque, The Hidden Jaguar Sun.

[HaemishM]

I haven't played it in quite a while, but when I did play, it was surprisingly more fun than I expected. It literally is LOL with different champs and a 3rd person view, but it actually just worked. Seemed a little faster-paced than LOL but more approachable because of the perspective. I keep meaning to log back in but that eats into LOL time.

[Azazel]

Wouldn't mind a key if some are still floating about...

[HaemishM]

Sent you a key via PM.

[Falconeer]

In June, some Hindu leaders became upset at the inclusion of several Hindu gods in Smite and the fact that they are player controlled. The deities that were in question were Kali, Agni, and Vamana, and there is also opposition to how Kali is dressed. Rajan Zed, the president of Universal Society of Hindus, released a statement urging Hi-Rez to remove these gods from the game, claiming their presence is trivialized and in other words, offensive to the devoted. Since players control the gods, this is seen as offensive to the faithful.
In response Todd Harris, CEO of Hi-Rez, had this to say:.

“Smite includes deities inspired from a diverse and ever expanding set of pantheons including Greek, Chinese, Egyptian, and Norse. Hinduism, being one of the world's oldest, largest and most diverse traditions, also provides inspiration toward deities in our game. In fact, given Hinduism's concept of a single truth with multiple physical manifestations one could validly interpret ALL the gods within Smite to be Hindu. And all gods outside of Smite as well. Ponder that for a minute. Anyway, going forward Smite will include even more deities, not fewer.”

Despite the response from Hi-Rez, in early July, the Hindu leader who spoke out against the game has not given up on his quest to rid Smite of Hindu deities, since his initial statement he has gained new backers from other faiths that have come together in support of his stance that the game's content is offensive. Rajin Zed was joined by Rabbi ElizaBeth Beyer and Buddhist Jikai’ Phil Bryan in condemning the game's content as offensive. These leaders have labelled Kali as being depicted in a "pornographic style" and seems to be their main concern.

 

[Ragnoros]

To be fair, it's rather hypocritical to throw Hindu Gods in the mix, knowing that there are well over a billion followers as the worlds third largest religion, and that you know there is no way in a million years Muhammad or Jesus will be giving cameos.
Cause you know, that would get you killed might make people mad.

[Ceryse]

If anyone has a key left, I'd appreciate it. Interested in the game but I've never played one of these before.

[Falconeer]

I see your point and I am with you Ragnoros. I think their excuse is that they can't do very well with monotheistic religions, but still I think at some point a Fighting Jesus or a Battle Holy Spirit will be mandatory. Or I'll counter-protest them.

[Lantyssa]

It'd also be boring.

"Player 1 chooses the Christian God.  Player 1 wins."

[Cadaverine]

Other than a self rez, and being able to take a beating, what special abilities does Jesus bring to the table that would make him a valid choice to play over say, Odin?

[Falconeer]

I'd give him levitation, water or not, and possibly some multiplication of breads attack. Like, a rain of death-loafs. Also, ability to uncripple people, so eventually healing skills. I don't know...

[Lantyssa]

He could build wooden fortifications which slow creeps?

[Falconeer]

Oh, and fish. Don't forget about the multiplied fish of compassionate doom. But, not invincible in the slightest. They are all gods, after all...

[HaemishM]

Jesus support OP.

[Zetor]

Turning the water in the enemy gods' bodies into wine could be pretty brutal, too.

e: even though Bacchus would be immune

[UnSub]

Other than a self rez, and being able to take a beating, what special abilities does Jesus bring to the table that would make him a valid choice to play over say, Odin?

Jesus gets to disbelieve the other gods' illusions.

[Falconeer]

New god: Hercules, the champion of Rome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hq_wRvCx9A0


EDIT: I'm a child at times, but I find the skit at 4:34 in that video hilarious.

[Falconeer]

New god. Vulcan, smith of the gods.

[Falconeer]

Game is now in open beta.

[Lantyssa]

So is there any PvE in this?  I'm guessing it's going to be another one of those "not for me" DOTA clones, but I like the graphics, so I want to at least ask.

[HaemishM]

So is there any PvE in this?  I'm guessing it's going to be another one of those "not for me" DOTA clones, but I like the graphics, so I want to at least ask.

It is LITERALLY a DOTA game with a 3rd person perspective. You will ALWAYS be playing against 5 other real life players mongoloids with your own team of 5 players mongoloids.

[Falconeer]

Yes. Except, they added a 1v1 mode. Anyway, I think these games are awesome if played with friends, but I can't find the fun in random matching. It's just a personal thing, of course, but it's the reason why I couldn't get into Dota, LoL or HoN.

[Lantyssa]

I hate people too much.  Shame.  I liked Nessus in Realm of Immortals, but even their 3-vs-AI was pushing it for me.  Now it's pure DOTA.

[Mrbloodworth]

Here is some candid feedback on our (Hi-Rez Studios) history and thoughts around the future of Smite:

Some players will look at the HiRez history of game development and arrive at misinformed conclusions, so here are more facts to help everyone understand us and the game development/publishing world. Some of the following was already posted in a post several months ago but people were nice enough to downvote it into the negative zone.

The first and most important thing to note is that MOST games fail (remember that most people tend to remember the ones that did well), SOME games break even, and a tiny number of games are very successful. That’s the nature of the gaming industry. So for every WoW, LoL, CoD, and TF2 there are hundreds of games that are dead.

Global Agenda was our first game and it lost a lot of money. It was not a total loss since we did build significant technology and platforms that would help us develop our next games (Tribes & Smite). We continued to fund Global Agenda for more than a year after it was released and losing money, we continued to create content and new features but no matter how much work we did the user base kept declining.

We created Tribes Ascend since we love Tribes, we made it F2P so everyone can have easy access to it. We didn’t think Tribes Ascend would be a financial windfall but it was worth a risk to try. Tribes Ascend ended up being break-even at best. It’s very possible we made some mistakes in how we monetize it, but our priority was to get as many people to play as possible (without losing too much money in the process). Tribes received exceptional reviews, we kept adding new features and content, but just like Global Agenda the user base kept declining no matter what we did. (That happens to 99% of the games) Some people have asked for us to provide more tools for community content creation, but our infrastructure and development platform does not support that ability well and the cost and time to develop those features is extremely high. Contrary to the belief that we were ‘milking’ tribes to support the development of Smite, if we didn’t develop another game that could support the studios the company and the Tribe servers would have closed down. Tribes was also reviewed by outside publishers for both console port potential and other regions like China, the evaluations we received from numerous potential publishers was that it was too niche and difficult as a mainstream product (their words, not ours) and they were not interested in publishing it. We would have had to significantly change the game-play which our current Tribes user base would disagree with (for example; much much slower movement, reduce or no skiing, instant fire, etc)

How much did it cost to do the above? At that point I personally funded all the game development with over $30 million of funding (losses) and generated about $10 million in revenue (split fairly evenly between GA and Tribes) so overall we spend about $40 million running the company vs $10 million in revenue. Yes, my wife thinks I’m crazy, but what does she know about playing and making video games :)

Smite is very unusual.

Smite is one of those rare games that’s actually growing every month, and is also profitable. This is allowing us to grow the Smite team and deliver weekly updates and content (from 15 people initially to about 80 people now). In addition, many outside publishers were interested in Smite and we are fortunate enough to have made a deal with Tencent who is the most prestigious partner we can have for our type of game.

Given everything we know Smite should have a long and successful future which is why we are very excited as a company and continue to work our butts off to make Smite the best Moba game in the world.

Erez

Source

[HaemishM]

I haven't played it since early beta. I didn't even know it was considered "released." It was fun but not so fun that I stopped playing LOL.