Smite is one of the worst free to play games

GameRevolution's Dave Aubrey: "Smite isn't just a bad game, its monetization practice feels outright predatory. There are a dizzying amount of purchases in the game, which reduce it to a fancy catalog."

[chris235]

well, to be precise: there IS no good free to play game.

[Michiel1989]

to be precise, there IS no good free to play game that YOU know of.
Look at Path of Exile for example.

[Razzer]

Uh.....coming from you? More like:

"well, to be precise: there IS no good game."

[BlackDoomAx]

War thunder, warface and Apex for me.

[PMind]

Not with that attitude. Warframe and Path of Exile are perfect examples of F2P done right.

[Jdoki]

I guess it's a slow news day at Game Revolution.

Smite is no better / worse than many F2P games. The arguments made in this article are poor at best.

Arguing it costs a lot to buy all the champions is ridiculous. Most players, and certainly any that are more than just casual, will eventually decide to main a particular role - Support, Carry etc, so there's no need at all to buy all the Gods. Also, people will usually settle on a couple of favourites, and maybe be tempted by Gods that are in the current Meta. Pretty much everything else is cosmetic / optional. There are a decent number of game modes - it's not like you have to dig through menus to play the game, the button is right there.

This is hardly different than League of Legends (which the article conveniently doesn't mention, which is strange as it's so similar). DoTA also has voicepacks and skins coming out of the wazoo!

Comparing Smite to Fortnite, Warframe or Apex Legends doesn't really make sense.

Fortnite's base concept is that all players start equal. So their monetisation can only ever be around cosmetics or XP boosts etc. Epic also create a FOMO situation as many of the skins appear to be limited availability, so if you are a collector then you are very much going to have to spend to get all the gear.

Apex Legends is far too early in its life cycle to know how the MTX will go - but it is very likely that once the roster of heroes expands then there will be meta champions that people will want to buy. Plus it's already clear that the game is going to lean on skins and other unlocks using one of the three currencies for monetisation - and I absolutely expect them to package up bundles.

Warframe is the exception, not the rule when it comes to MTX. And even that game has a dizzying array of things to buy or unlock.

[RabbitFly]

I agree with most of that. Just not that warframe is any exception. It is just as predatory as the rest.

I dont even understand why people think its not. So much of warframes end game progression is effectively locked behind a paywall. People are ignorant to it because they can trade for everything, not realizing their progression is funded by whales.

[TiredandRetired]

I've never payed a dime into Smite and have had a blast with it on PS4 and PC. It's a nice change from the standard overhead MOBAs. Aiming is indeed easier on the PC version, as expected.

They give you a set of Gods there in the beginning, weekly challenges, daily login bonuses. I never felt the desire to own every God. I actually have a few I unlocked that I didn't care for with my preferred playstyle. Even with new Gods that I've unlocked, I still like going back to Artemis as one of my favorites, and she is free with the game upfront.

I guess if you have that desire to "catch them all", then sure, go ahead and buy that pack that unlocks them all and future ones as well. It's been on sale for PS4 and PC for cheap a number of times.

There's plenty of fun to have with Smite without microtransactions. Skins and voice packs affect your gameplay in no way whatsoever. I've gotten some through events and extra gems I've had, sure, but it wasn't priority for me. As for unlocking Gods, you're free to unlock whichever one you want first, assuming you've collected enough. Just do a little research before you pick your God to unlock. I watch Youtube videos to see if a particular character's playstyle appeals to me. Also, the game lets you rent some of the Gods for a trial period after leveling up some. It's enough time to know if you want to purchase that God with your collected currency or not.

I'd never buy the full God pack, because half the fun for me is feeling rewarded in progress. It would kind of kill it for me if I had them all at once. Many of them take a lot of practice and know how to use correctly in battle, otherwise you're going to be ill-prepared just grabbing out of your massive toy chest of characters. Better to learn them on a slower basis.

*Edit- also, there was a time when I was logging in daily just to build up the weekly bonuses of gems, even if I didn't play a single match. Just a simple login, takes a few mins, then log out. There were times I hadn't played in a long while, but had been logging in, so I had a nice amount of gems to spend. All for doing nothing more than starting up the game on my PS4 before I went to play other games.

[bluefox755]

I kinda liked it, and I don't even like mobas. Love the mythology theme.

[BlacKJesu5]

Bring back Paragon!

[averagejoe26]

I wish!

I tried going back to Smite after Paragon and it now feels like a cheap mobile game.

Luckily, 3 or 4 different studios are remaking Paragon with the released assets. It'll be back in a year or so. Open alphas are starting soon.

[DrShoe]

Does Dave like anything? He's the most negative Nancy games reporter ever.

[Rangerman1208]

Correction: the article's headline is "Smite is one of the WORST EXAMPLES of a free to play game".