SMITE ( Hi-Rez Studios )

[Mrbloodworth]

Gods vs Gods in 3rd-person DoTA-inspired Battleground

ATLANTA - April 21, 2011 — Hi-Rez Studios, the award winning independent developer of Global Agenda, announced today they are developing SMITE, a free-to-play online battleground between gods. Players choose from a selection of mythical gods, join session-based arena combat, and use custom powers and team tactics against other player-controlled gods and non-player controlled minions.

“As a studio and as gamers, we love competitive multi-player games that reward teamwork and strategy”, says Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios COO. “With SMITE, we draw inspiration from DoTA-style RTS titles, but leverage the Unreal 3 Engine to introduce original action oriented combat mechanics, great graphics, and a mythology-themed setting. These session-based games depend upon balanced class design, sophisticated stat-tracking, and matchmaking functionality. These are features we understand well from Global Agenda and our studio is excited to progress team-oriented PvP in new and original directions with SMITE. At this point we already have a really fun playable version of SMITE and we look forward to sharing additional details about the project in the coming months”

For more information visit:

Website - http://www.smitegame.com

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/smitegame

About Hi-Rez Studios

Hi-Rez Studios, Inc, located just outside of Atlanta GA, was established in 2005 to create exceptional online interactive entertainment. In February 2010 the company released the squad-based Shooter-MMO Global Agenda. Hi-Rez is currently developing other competitive online games including Tribes: Ascend and the recently announced SMITE.

[Nightblade]

If the artwork is any indication; this is going to be a pile of shit.

[Malakili]

I plan on keeping an eye on it just because Hi-Rez is pretty decent, though I'm not a big DOTA fan, so I don't know much I'll really get it into it.

[Falconeer]

The website is just an ugly redirection to Facebook?

[Mrbloodworth]

Its just an announcement.

Here is some promo art stuff:

[Nonentity]

The one potentially interesting thing is that all the combat is done from a third-person perspective.

There was some Korean MMO I played a while back that was a ghetto attempt at DotA in third-person, and it was actually half decent. Map awareness suffers, though.

[Mrbloodworth]

First screens:


Linky.

[Malakili]

Looks pretty.  Tough that they are going to have to compete with DOTA 2.

[DLRiley]

Will this be more fun than globa agenda roll d6 

[Mrbloodworth]

Will this be more fun than globa agenda roll d6 

You know you are crazy right? Just checking.

[Dren]

Will this be more fun than globa agenda roll d6 

You know you are crazy right? Just checking.

Yeah, not sure what that meant.  Love GA right now and impressed with Hi-Rez.  I'll take a stab at a F2P given that.

[Mrbloodworth]

Will this be more fun than globa agenda roll d6 

You know you are crazy right? Just checking.

Yeah, not sure what that meant.  Love GA right now and impressed with Hi-Rez.  I'll take a stab at a F2P given that.

I think he got killed in the tutorial or something.

[DLRiley]

Globa Agenda was fun when it was shooting robots, unforunately i bought it to shoot players and that part made me uninstall.

[Mrbloodworth]

Started playing LOL, and that reminded me of of this title.

Seems there is a game play video out, there are some marked differences to other DOTA titles it seems. For one, in Highrez fashion, its twitch based, 3ed person.

SMITE Gameplay Trailer

[HaemishM]

I'm not entirely sure what positives a 3rd person perspective will add to the DOTA experience.

[Mrbloodworth]

*shrug*

I dunno, I just started playing one.

[schild]

(Super) Monday Night Combat is already DOTA in "twitch" form.

[Nonentity]

(Super) Monday Night Combat is already DOTA in "twitch" form.

Having played Smite last year at PAX, it's not QUITE the same - SMNC is faster and more shooter-y, Smite still leans heavily on round-to-round itemization, hard levels, and a few other more DotA-esque tropes.

[Mrbloodworth]

SMITE Gameplay Video PAX 2012

[Malakili]

MOBA is a tough market to break into right now, so I worry this won't have a huge following.  I liked what I saw in that video, but it is going to sink or swim on how intuitive it is to fight from that perspective I think.  Casting spells  (targeted AoE, skill shots) on the fly in a DOTA like fashion from this over the shoulder perspective sounds clunky to me.  If they have managed to make it feel as good as it looks, then they might really be on to something.

[Phred]

Graphics wise it looks like it should be smooth to play even on an older machine

[Mrbloodworth]

[HaemishM]

Pre-order? Is this not F2P?

[Malakili]

Pre-order? Is this not F2P?

It is as far as I know, but so is Tribes: Ascend and they did a pre-order for that.  Basically, you put in some cash up front and in return you get into beta and the cash you spend is a bit more efficient that it would be post release.  I think I got equivalent gold + a booster with my Tribes pre-order as compared to post release where the amount I spent just got the gold.

EDIT: https://account.hirezstudios.com/smitegame/buy.aspx

Looks like they are giving the "Starter Pack" of heroes, which they say is 30 dollars, for 20 dollars if you pre-order.

[Hayduke]

Anyone playing this?  There's no NDA of course since you can buy you're way in with the pre-order.  I've played a handful of games today and really like it so far.  Two main concerns are gameplay balance (not experienced enough to know if that's an issue or not), and whether or not the game will reach critical mass needed to sustain a multiplayer game.  But given that they're not going to release for up to 8 months that might give them enough time to build word of mouth.

About the third person stuff and controls?  It's really not so bad.  Hardest one to use I've found is Ymir (he's like a mix of Alistar and Anivia, frost tank with lots of CC).  His wall is kind of hard to position especially if you want to use it as an escape tool.  UI is functional but I haven't really browsed the items too much (just been using the recommended loadouts).

Graphics are pretty nice as well, which I wasn't expecting since I was a little turned off by the videos and screenshots.  Many of the gods look fantastic.  Wukong however looks like shit.

I think this game could very well end up being more casual friendly than LoL.  Towers babysit you like they do in LoL (and don't in HoN or DotA), but don't drag games out like they do in LoL.  There's no established meta yet.  Jungle is too chaotic for wards to really win games.  Less gods to learn.  Last hitting is harder to pull off because you need line of sight, it's not as critical since you get gold regardless of whether or not you last hit the creeps.  You just get 50% more if you do last hit.  The respawn timers get really long a lot faster than in LoL, but there's buyback so I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.  Because of the camera control I find myself a little more involved while playing, but for whatever reason I don't find losing as demoralizing as I do in LoL, though that could just be the shininess of something new.

[Rokal]

I've been playing it and it's a pretty neat take on the genre. The 3rd person camera changes the game in some refreshing ways (what direction you attack from matters way more, etc.), but I also think it means that the game will never be as popular/competitive as isometric MOBAs like DOTA and LoL.

You run into obvious problems when an ability like Ymir's icewall blocks your path and you can see only that wall (with your back towards it, assuming you want to attack the players who are now in your face) and nothing else.

I also have problems judging whether basic attacks (as a ranged character) are hitting or will hit though. That's one huge disadvantage to the perspective. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, imagine playing an FPS where bullets only traveled 3 yards in front of you. A target reticule that changes colors to indicate in/out of range would go some way towards fixing this, similar to what TERA does.

I do like that the phoenix (inhibitor) and minotaur (nexus) fight back. Feels a bit like AV where the goal is actually a threat too. Imagine if in LoL the nexus was replaced with a Baron Nashor mob for each team and you can see some of the potential.

[Rokal]

It turns out there is a targeting indicator for range. If a target is in range of a regular attack they will have a small red glow under their character. If they are in range of a regular ability their entire character glows red.

I've been playing it quite a bit over the last few days and it's really growing on me. It looks like all beta players got a few free keys and I can spare two of them. If anyone wants one of them, reply saying as much.

[Mosesandstick]

I'd like to try it! Thanks.

[Nightblade]

What the hell? Why not.

[Rokal]

Sent.

[HaemishM]

If you get anymore, toss one my way. I'm intrigued but skeptical.

[HaemishM]

Thanks to Hayduke, I got in this tonight. Played 2 games, and after a few minutes of getting myself oriented, I think I've got the hang of it. First person perspective really does give it another dimension, no pun intended. It's fun. Original selection of gods (champions) is a bit sparse, but I'm sure they'll add to that since that and skins appear to be the only things they are selling.

I have 2 beta keys if anyone is interested.

[Cadaverine]

I'll take a key if anyone still has one.

[HaemishM]

Key sent. 1 key left.

[Dark_MadMax]

I am interested.Really fed up with LoL community and the 3d moba I played before (LOCO) was superior as far as combat goes to isometric MOBA games