Smite: Battleground of the Gods is a third person combat-based game. In Smite, you play as gods from the world’s various polytheistic religions, such as Zeus, or Thor, or even more obscure gods that most people without a degree in religious studies would have ever heard of, like the Egyptian god Geb, or the Roman god Sylvanus. There are a few modes, but they all involve either defending or attacking a base.

 

The most basic game type is Arena, a mode where you try and takedown enemy gods and get your weaker, mortal bots to the enemy’s base while keeping them from doing the same.  If enough bots get through the portal, or you kill enough of your enemy’s bots, then you’ve won.  Most game types are somewhat along these lines, except with different defenses and team sizes.

 

Now the playable gods come from the following religions/mythologies like Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Hindu, Chinese, Norse, and Mayan. There are a variety of deadly deity’s, some who toss projectiles, others who get up and personal with melee, some with both, some with high defensive, some with high offense, and it goes on. There are also bot operated humans called minions that move on set paths until they reach opposing forces, at which point they attack. The little guys serve better as human shields than anything else.

 

As far as online requirements, you better have good internet, otherwise you won’t be having a very good time. Most gameplay is exclusively online with other players and it can be very… unpleasant… if someone has a bad connection, because everyone starts to teleport around, making the frame-rate plummet. Thankfully this is only an issue with bad internet connection.  You can play off-line against bots, but it’s a poor comparison to facing a skilled player.

 

Smite has been on pc for a while, but it recently came to Xbox One for alpha testing. People that play during alpha can thankfully keep their progress when the completed game is released. There are even some cosmetic appearances that are only available during alpha. Pc players can even link to their Xbox, allowing continuation of progress on either platform.

 

Overall, I give Smite 7 out of 10. There is intense multiplayer gameplay, and a large variety of playable characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. However, if you don’t like people or just have poor internet, I wouldn’t recommend it. I must note that there is no real storyline or ANY character development, but if you’re teaming up with your friends and playing characters like Thor, the god of Thunder, to take on a team of total strangers, who needs a storyline?