A few months ago I wrote a bit about Pokémon Unite, the Pokémon spin on MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games. At that time I'd mentioned that I'd previously dabbled in the juggernaut, League of Legends, and the free to play Smite, but I've been digging deeper into the latter to get a better sense of what it's all about and to see if it might be worth me spending more time with.
Smite does have a different feel from other MOBAs that I've played because of the "behind the shoulder" camera angle, where you control your character like in a 3rd person action game rather than from a top-down perspective. I was also drawn to the range of deities from all types of world mythologies, and although I stuck with the tutorial character, Neith, I did enjoy trying out some of the other characters as well. The game had three main modes available from the start. I spent most of my time on the 3v3 mode which only has one lane and which seemed more newbie friendly. Sometimes it took ages to get matched with a group, but once the game was underway everything ran smoothly. It's not too hard to pick up each character's moveset, although I'm sure I'm missing the finer points in terms of teamwork and strategizing. Neith in particular is a ranged character so I got way more assists than KOs, but I didn't mind that.
I dabbled in the other main modes, but I found them to be less interesting. The arena mode is 5v5, but it's in a wide open space with no lanes, which felt like a big "every person for themselves" brawl without much strategy involved. The main 5v5 mode has the usual 3 lane format, but I found these matches to be rather too long for my limited time (and attention span).
The game offers a "Welcome Pass" for new players, and working your way through all twelve levels will unlock three gods and a "Pick your own god" chest. I'm a little lost as to which god I should unlock, so I'm going to save mine for after I've had a chance to try some others out. Although I had a decent amount of fun with the game, the whole genre still doesn't really grab me (probably because I'm playing it solo most of the time), so I'm setting the game aside for now. I did find someone to play some games with me and we may play again together in the future, but otherwise I'm probably not going to sink that much more time into it. I am more curious now about the developer, Hi-Rez Studios', Overwatch alternative, Paladins, which I've also given a cursory look at but haven't really spent much time with. I'll probably give that a go next time I want to check out another well-regarded F2P game.