#smitexboxone

Smite has just entered the alpha phase on the XBox One (shout out to Yannick Giroux on winning our Smite code contest), but you might as well call it a beta. With the game being released a year ago on the PC, this is really a stress test. For those that don’t know, Smite is a MOBA. A genre made popular by games like DOTA and League of Legends.

Basically, two teams of five try to destroy their opposition’s base. From a large pool of characters, champions with different strengths are selected in an all out brawl to the finish. While a terrible explanation, it’s very much a team based game. It’s advertised as such, despite people playing it as if they’re the only person that matters.

Now the thing that separates Smite from its predecessors is the perspective. It is a third person shooter. Most MOBAs are top down so you have to give Hi Rez Studios some credit for at least trying something different. The game isn’t going to win any beauty awards, but the fluidity of the gameplay is astonishing. Everything works as it should, and each character is unique. The selling point is that you pick one of the many Gods and heroes from folklore, beliefs, and so on. It’s rather peculiar to see Cupid shoot an arrow threw Zeus, but that’s part of its charm.

Now, how’s the transition to the Xbox? It pretty much plays as you’d expect. There is a reason MOBAs don’t work well on a controller, and Smite shares some of the genre’s pains. You need that extra second or so to land your abilities using your right thumbstick. Even if Smite does an admirable job, the mouse and keyboard cannot be replaced.

Smite really is a great choice for any person new to the tantalizing genre of MOBAs. If you can only play the game on the XBox, it is a great alternative. Unfortunately, its counterpart is the better version due to the controls alone. The UI for the Xbox One is too clunky with little in the way of innovation to solve the controller’s responsiveness issues. There is little reason to move over from the pc, unless you’re one of those weirdoes that likes to play in front of a large television on a big comfy couch. You could have converted your pc to use the television, but who has time for that. I sure don’t.