Smite 2 Preview - The Next Generation of MOBA

Over a decade on, the popularity of Smite cannot be understated. This is something I came to understand during my time at the Smite World Championships, which was held in Arlington, Texas just this past weekend. The event, which was nestled in the aptly named Esports Arena, set the stage for the “Season X” series of matches that would decide who would take home the title and be crowned World Champion.

Such a celebration was not to be understated. On the first day of the festivities, the folks at H-Res Studios had a number of announcements, including updates that players can look forward to later this month. Those reveals were only the tip of the iceberg, however, because the biggest surprise came way of the official unveiling of Smite 2 – a true sequel that hopes to build upon the original in so many ways.

What that means is there’s going to be a huge jump just from switching from Unreal Engine 3 to the now current generation Unreal Engine 5. New gameplay mechanics and god characters are also expected, along with a deeper focus on getting people to just simply play Smite.

Following the public announcement, I had the opportunity to play a very early build of the game – one that’s only been in the works for about a year now but is still plenty playable. After a bit of an introduction as to how MOBAs operate, I, along with several other members of the press were split off into two separate teams to have a go at the newly minted Smite 2.

But circling back around a bit – understanding the base gameplay mechanics of a MOBA was something that shouldn’t be understated. Smite and now Smite 2 aren’t just simple action games – everyone has a role to play and the characters you select are meant to round out into said roles to support your team.

There was also a bit of learning when it came to how the map worked with the different lanes (right, left, middle) and the towers, and other objectives that would take place during the course of the match.

Of course, none of this preamble would prepare me fully. Having never played the original Smite, or any other MOBA for myself until now, jumping right into Smite 2 was like jumping into the deep end of a pool without knowing how to swim. The chances of drowning at that point are pretty high, and at first, I did just that.

As I am keen on playing ranged characters, the first one I decided to play out of the selection of gods currently revealed for Smite 2 was Anubis. Now, Anubis was already available in the first Smite and his abilities have been seemingly transferred smoothly over to Smite 2. You’ve got his Plague of Locusts area effect attack, Mummify, which can stun a target, and Grasping Hands to slow down enemies.

Getting into Smite 2 is relatively simple – after character selection, you’ll pick how you want to optimize your character. This can be done with presets or manually, depending on how you want to go about building them up.

Once that’s done and the rest of your teammates are ready, the match begins, and depending on the balance of the teams, it can be quite a long one. I was actually fairly surprised how long a single match went on for – well over 40 minutes the first time around. It's really not something you're just going to pick up and play for a quick burst.

Granted, a lot of that, at least for me, was spent dying. Because Smite 2 is not an easy game. I found that it was quite difficult, and as a newcomer, I probably would have been even more lost without some helpful coaching from the staff on hand.

With that first round a complete loss, I was able to switch to controller and that’s about when everything clicked for me. I had seen all the mechanics and being able to parse out more of what I was supposed to be doing, I selected Cernunnos, another ranged character, for the second game of Smite 2 I played.

This time I was able to rack up a handful of respectable kills and assists, and was aware of the strategy to take down towers, phoenixes, and the eventual titan to win the game. While the match still took a long time to play out, I found myself quickly getting used to how MOBAs are meant to be played.

I still died a lot, which I’m told is intentional, but getting used to the gameplay loop still proved to be rewarding in itself. There’s also an element of figuring out just what character works well for you. Anubis didn’t click for me as much as Cernunnos, so there’s a bit of trial and error involved in figuring out your comfort zone as a newer player.

Having seen a whole lot of the original Smite being played during the championship games, my first impression of Smite 2 is that it already looks gorgeous. The jump in graphics is present, not only in the maps but in the level of character model detail and animations.

This is something that was further detailed by the developers during the event, so it’s clear that they’re putting a lot of time and effort into making Smite 2 more than just a simple update.

The amount of gods available in the preview build was also something to take note of. Rather than throw the lot of them from the first Smite at us, a select few were playable and that’s something that will extend beyond that build for now. The reason being is that the development team doesn’t want to overwhelm players. As a new player myself, I can understand their reasoning as the number of characters I was already able to pick from seemed like more than enough to try and learn about.

That being said, there’s still a way to go until the public release, and the folks at Hi-Rez Studios are preparing to let people try Smite 2 in several months. It will be interesting to see what all changes between now and then, considering how early the build was that I sampled. With everything the team is aiming for, however, I think it’s a good time as any for people to give what they’re working on a look.

TechRaptor was invited to an event to preview Smite 2 by the publisher.