At a glance...

SMITE preview

Although I played SMITE at last year's Gamescom, I was still surprised at how much of a difference the third-person camera makes to the standard MOBA formula. Suddenly fog of war isn't an artificial mechanic; if you have a clear line of sight then you can see everthing, no matter how far it is away. It becomes easier to sneak up behind players as, if they're focused on the action in front then they're not watching their back. It really is hard to overstate just how much of a difference it makes to have the camera behind the player rather than overhead and to control the character directly rather than issuing orders to them.

If you're not familiar with SMITE then you should know that it's a free-to-play game from Hi-Rez studios in the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre which also includes the likes of League of Legends and Dota 2. Most MOBA games use an overhead camera and RTS style controls but with the player mostly controlling a single hero character. In contrast, SMITE has controls and a camera more usually found in RPGs like World of Warcraft or Skyrim, using the W, A, S and D keys to move the player, the mouse to turn and look around and with the camera fixed directly behind the player. This makes a big difference to the way the game plays even though it retains many of the characteristics which define the MOBA genre.

At the Hi-Rez studios booth, I played a game of SMITE with some other journalists and then put some questions to Bart Koenigsberg, eSports Manager. When I asked him what makes SMITE different to other MOBA games, aside from the camera, he called out three specific things. Firstly, the level curve is different with players gaining the early levels quite quickly, usually reaching level 6-7 within the first five minutes of the game. With faster levelling, the average game time is also shorter with most games taking between 25 and 35 minutes. Secondly, jungling works differently as each set of creeps will give the player that kills them a specific buff such as faster move speed, faster attack speed or increased armour. These can make a jungling player extremely powerful in the early game. Thirdly, last hitting in the lane is less important as getting the last hit in on a creep only grants a 30% bonus to the gold received when compared to merely being near the creep when it dies. Although a skilled player can still get an early game advantage by outplaying his lane opponent, it's usually less important than making good use of buffs gained by jungling.

A common complaint about MOBA games is that they're hard to get into, with lots of conventions, mechanics and terminology not found in other games so I asked Bart what Hi-Rez are doing to help new players start playing the game. Like Tribes: Ascend (another Hi-Rez game), SMITE will have video tutorials in the game to introduce players to the game and help them understand how it works. They also plan to bring more video features which already exist in Tribes such as community videos, Twitch.tv integration and a featured video section highlighting the best work produced by their players. In addition, Bart argued that simply by not using the same RTS controls as other MOBA games, SMITE is easier to pick up for players who aren't already familiar with RTS games, since that genre already has a large set of conventions and nomenclature which other MOBA games have chosen to build upon. Finally, there will be a separate pool for very low level players so that they can learn the game without constantly being killed by very experienced players.

We moved on to talking about how matchmaking will work. Currently the game is in closed beta and there is a single matchmaking pool which matches players based on a hidden ELO ranking. By the time the game is ready to be released, they hope to include both a ranked and an unranked pool. The ranked pool would display all players' current ranking and attempt to match players with opponents who have a very similar ranking. The unranked pool would be more relaxed about how it matched up players, but would still use a hidden ELO ranking to avoid including very new and very skilled players in the same game. Matchmaking will also be split between players playing solo or in a small group (up to three players) and players playing as part of a pre-made five man team so that full teams only play against other full teams. During the beta, there is only one set of servers located in the US but by release Hi-Rez plan to have servers all over the world as they do for Tribes: Ascend and players will be able to choose which region they wish to play in when they log in.

We also talked about how Hi-Rez plans to monetise SMITE as the division between what's available to everybody, what can be earned by playing the game, and what can only be bought using real money has been a contentious issue for some free to play games. Bart was quick to state that Hi-Rez are committed to allowing all items which affect gameplay to be earned through playing the game without having to pay real money, and that any items which were only available by paying real money would be purely cosmetic. At the start of the game, new players have access to five god characters and can unlock both gods and some skins by either earning in-game currency or by paying real money. There would also be premium skins which would only be available to paying players. SMITE currently features 21 gods, and this is planned to increase to 30 by the time the game is released. That leaves 25 gods and many more skins which players can unlock by playing or paying and Hi-Rez plan to continue to add more content after the release, ensuring that there will always be more stuff for players to buy and use.

SMITE is currently in closed beta with an open beta expected late this year followed by the release early in 2013. Bart reported that they currently have over 500,000 players registered and are inviting more people into the beta all the time. If you'd like to register for an invite, you can head over to the official website.

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