Smite 2’s Aladdin will trap players in a lamp with an angry genie as the MOBA becomes free-to-play
God-wrecking MOBA Smite 2 is going free-to-play next week after four months of paid early access. The game of omniscient deities scrapping over lanes and minions has been playable since September last year by early bird “founders” willing to pay some bucks (it had plenty of closed alphas since May too) but now it’s finally opening up to the rest of us mere mortals. And it’s throwing in a new “god” too, the genie-toting thief Aladdin.
It’ll be free-to-play from Jan 14th, say developers Hi-Rez in a Steam post. There’ll be 45 playable gods, including the fresh addition of the thief from One Thousand And One Nights. Aladdin can trap enemy players in his lamp where they’ll have to fight both the pilferer and his genie (you can read more about his skills here if you like). Other characters to be added in the free-to-play update include Mulan, Geb, Ullr, and Agni – all gods returning from the original Smite.
The usual many-laned Conquest mode will be there to induce many a teamfuss. But it’ll also be adding a few extra game modes. Joust is a 3v3 single lane mode, for example, while Duel mode is a one-on-one scenario. Assault mode is also returning from the previous game, and is “similar to the regular conquest mode, but instead features a single lane and no jungle.”
Lacking in Smite wisdom, we placed freelance offerings at the shrine of Matt Cox (RPS in peace) and he blessed us with his early access Smite 2 review. He thought it was okay, but noted that the supreme beings of Hi-Rez’ pantheon have to compete with the agile and exciting heroes of Valve’s Deadlock. And the comparison does not make Thor et al look as godly as they might like to think.
I haven’t spent a single second wishing I wasn’t playing Deadlock instead. Valve’s third-person MOBA shooter has emerged with wildly unfortunate timing for Hi-Rez, rendering me incapable of not dwelling on how it innovates where Smite stagnates. Smite sells itself as the MOBA where every shot’s a skillshot, but Deadlock is the MOBA where every shot is an actual shot, comboed with a sprinting dodge-jump into a powerslide.
It’s god eat god out there in the MOBA realms, my friends. Meanwhile, Hi-Rez are not shutting down Smite 1, they say, but their attention has shifted heavily to the sequel. In October, the company laid off a number of workers, leaving only small teams to work on “light updates” for both Smite 1 and Paladins.