Today marks a very important moment for Smite 2. The Unreal Engine 5 sequel to the iconic, godly MOBA hasn’t had the smoothest of rides in early access so far, but after plenty of hard work to improve the experience, it’s now arrived at the point where it must spread its wings and fly as a free-to-play game.
When it comes to discussing the most successful and best MOBAs ever, the conversation usually revolves around two names: Dota 2 and League of Legends. And rightly so. However, if you were to award a bronze medal, Smite is, in my eyes, the obvious candidate. While its player counts and revenues are likely a long way off the two genre leaders, it boasts some impressive longevity and is still standing today thanks to the incredibly passionate fan base it’s cultivated over the years. However, the transition from the original Smite to the sparkling new Smite 2 hasn’t been the slickest.
The early access alpha state it launched in wasn’t best received by those that paid to be founders, but it has made some significant improvements and added plenty of new content. The result has been some dramatically improved Steam user reviews – while its lifetime rating is a concerning 59%, it’s a much rosier 71% if you look at reviews from the last 30 days.
However, now comes the time for it to join its predecessor and become a free PC game. Even though Smite 2 is still in early access, it is now firmly in its open beta state and willing to let in anyone that wants to try it.
Smite 2 has gradually grown its roster of reworked and rebalanced Smite gods over recent months and kicks off its free-to-play era with a grand total of 45 playable characters. This also includes Aladdin, who is a completely new god that wasn’t in the original game. Instead of Smite’s approach to categorizing gods into distinct classes, Smite 2 does away with them, giving you the freedom to itemize each character however you want.
There are also six game modes available to play, ranging from the classic three-lane MOBA experience in Conquest to the more experimental 3v3, single-lane Joust mode.
As I write this just a few hours after Smite 2 went free-to-play, there’s already a noticeable influx of players on Steam. Daily concurrent peaks prior to today have roughly ranged between 1,000 and 2,000 players, but right now there are just over 11,000 players in the game on Steam, and that number may go higher yet. With Smite 2 also playable on the Epic Games Store and on Xbox and PlayStation consoles, the overall outlook is probably much brighter too.
While often overshadowed by LoL and Dota 2, there’s no denying that Smite has a commendable legacy, and I really hope Smite 2 can now push on and keep that legacy going for many years to come. However, with Valve’s most recent MOBA project, Deadlock, continuing to attract a lot of players, and surprise newcomers like Supervive seeing success as well, it won’t have it easy.
For more challenging games like Smite that you might enjoy, why not take a look at our best strategy games guide? Or, if you just want that sense of might and power, here are the best god games on PC.
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