Author Topic: SMITE Review  (Read 12270 times)

Offline KingIsaacLinksr

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,332
  • A Paladin Without A Crusade...
SMITE Review
« on: June 17, 2016, 04:15:48 pm »
Well, I've been pretty busy lately. I moved from Oregon to North Carolina in April/May to look for work, which I found and have been in training for. Did I move from one coast to the other just for work? Pretty much yeah. There's a lot of reasons for that that I'm pretty sure I posted on the blog but I'm not going to rehash here. But things have started working out pretty well lately. Anyway, I've still been writing reviews for my blog among other things and while I'm still getting adjusted to my new life, I have a review of SMITE for all of you. Kind of my final thoughts on three years of playing it, where I think the game mechanics do/don't work and an honest discussion of League mode and the community. I also did an audio version that I'm throwing out there to see if people are more interested in that over reading my stuff.

http://kingisaaclinksr.com/2016/06/11/a-paladins-review-smite-battleground-of-the-gods-an-epic-firestorm-of-an-experience/

Audio version: https://soundcloud.com/kingisaaclinksr/a-paladins-review-smite-battleground-of-the-gods-an-epic-firestorm-of-an-experience

Anyway, thoughts appreciated and thanks for reading.
Casual reviewer with a sense of justice.
Visit the Arcen Mantis to help: https://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/
A Paladin's Blog. Long form videogame reviews focusing on mechanics and narrative analyzing. Plus other stuff. www.kingisaaclinksr.com

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2016, 04:32:34 pm »
Liked the written one. WAY too ADD to listen to the audio one. Got stressed AF from only a minute of it. But I'm not your target audience.
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline TheVampire100

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,382
  • Ordinary Vampire
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2016, 07:38:23 pm »
The biggest issue with SMITE in my opinion are the controls. they are terrible. Nothing else to add here.

Offline KingIsaacLinksr

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,332
  • A Paladin Without A Crusade...
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2016, 06:09:12 am »
The biggest issue with SMITE in my opinion are the controls. they are terrible. Nothing else to add here.

hmm? How so? I'm curious.
Casual reviewer with a sense of justice.
Visit the Arcen Mantis to help: https://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/
A Paladin's Blog. Long form videogame reviews focusing on mechanics and narrative analyzing. Plus other stuff. www.kingisaaclinksr.com

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2016, 06:33:10 am »
The biggest issue with SMITE in my opinion are the controls. they are terrible. Nothing else to add here.
Yeah, I'm genuinely curious about this one. I've never had issues with the controls.
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline TheVampire100

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,382
  • Ordinary Vampire
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2016, 11:10:34 am »
Compare it to other Mobas. There you use one hand to move the camera and your character, another to use your abilities and items. Some crazy people have mouses with thousands of buttons and can use these as hotkeys.
SMITE however has a pretty stupid control system. This is the fault of the gameplay, because the developers didn't know how to get hotkeys and controls for everything.
With one hand you control your the cmaera and attack, with the other you move your character around. Now you need a THIRD hand for abilities and items. Compared to other Mobas, SMITE has less active items you can use (thank god) but it still uses the "four abilities per hero" formular. And they decide to put the abilties on the 1-4 number keys. Genius move, really (not). It's a terrible design choice and it took me weeks to figure out where to put the hotkeys until I was satisfied. But even then I could feel, the game was clearly not well designed for mutliple hotkeys, you had problems to move your character and zse abilities at the same time. The whole thing was designed for game controlelrs it seems and that's the only way how you can enjoy this to play.
Another thing that frustated me: You couldn't easily see abilites of other heroes like in other Mobas. As new player you can hardly get a foot in this game. You are immidaitly bounced off. Mobas take always a good amopunt of time to learn but SMITE makes it not easier because in other Mobas you can learn heroes while you play but in SMITE you die and think "WTF JUST HIT ME?!".
So I gave up on SMITE.

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #6 on: June 18, 2016, 11:39:42 am »
Uh...no? You use one hand for character movement and abilities (and the two usable item slots) and one hand to aim and look. I don't see how you need a third hand? O_o

WSAD movement. QE actives and ZC for usables. That's one hand. Abilities on 1-4. I don't see how you can have issues with that? Even so, you can assign mouse buttons as well, so you could move any of those to the mouse.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2016, 11:46:58 am by Mánagarmr »
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline TheVampire100

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,382
  • Ordinary Vampire
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #7 on: June 18, 2016, 12:02:59 pm »
Maybe you cannot see it, but I wasn't the only one with this issue. there was a full thread about this problem and suggestions how to fix this.
To be more clear, whenever you have to activate an ability you have to move your fingers from the movement controls to the abilities, in other words you have to stop moving, becoming a great target for enemies. With these controls you cannot do both, you simply can't. Just try it on your board, you will see that you HAVE to move your fingers away from the WASD keys.
Fot a Moba that was designed to be more fast paced as other Mobas (also because it acts more like a third person shooter), this simply is a bad design choice.

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #8 on: June 18, 2016, 12:29:59 pm »
What? You must have very small hands then, I have no issues hitting all the keys I mentioned, while keeping my main fingers still on the movement controls. I mean, my hands are hardly large, so that must be a case of an oversized keyboard or a different keyboard design. I have absolutely no problems hitting those keys while moving. Never had, and I have about 1300 hours in Smite, so I should've noticed.
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline TheVampire100

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,382
  • Ordinary Vampire
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #9 on: June 18, 2016, 01:02:26 pm »
Okay, controls aside, because you focus too much on that, the other issue is still the UI and the lack of help for newer players.

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #10 on: June 18, 2016, 01:34:48 pm »
Okay, controls aside, because you focus too much on that, the other issue is still the UI and the lack of help for newer players.

UI is functional as far as in-game goes. It could be better, obviously, but I personally find MOBA UIs in general to be rather trash. Lack of help for newer players...I dunno, I started in early closed beta where there were no help at all, aside from other players. It has a lot of training missions, coop against bots and several tutorials now. I dunno what more it could do? Suggestions?

I'm definitely not saying Smite is perfect. If it was I would still be playing it. But I don't get the particular critique you're lifting against it, because I simply don't agree with that.
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline TheVampire100

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,382
  • Ordinary Vampire
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #11 on: June 18, 2016, 02:00:56 pm »
It's okay, it's an opinion after all and not a fact.
 All I say I will enver go back to SMITE again because I think it's not a good game.

Offline KingIsaacLinksr

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,332
  • A Paladin Without A Crusade...
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #12 on: June 18, 2016, 02:28:39 pm »
Can't tell if trolling or real comments...

(I know the first one is a troll, friend of mine but not the second one ;)
Casual reviewer with a sense of justice.
Visit the Arcen Mantis to help: https://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/
A Paladin's Blog. Long form videogame reviews focusing on mechanics and narrative analyzing. Plus other stuff. www.kingisaaclinksr.com

Offline Wingflier

  • Core Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,753
  • To add me on Steam, click the little Steam icon ^
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #13 on: June 18, 2016, 02:46:57 pm »
That was me :D
"Inner peace is the void of expectation. It is the absence of our shared desperation to feel a certain way."

Offline KingIsaacLinksr

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,332
  • A Paladin Without A Crusade...
Re: SMITE Review
« Reply #14 on: June 18, 2016, 02:53:09 pm »
That was me :D

Who needs enemies when you're surrounded by trolls friends.
Casual reviewer with a sense of justice.
Visit the Arcen Mantis to help: https://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/
A Paladin's Blog. Long form videogame reviews focusing on mechanics and narrative analyzing. Plus other stuff. www.kingisaaclinksr.com

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk