Share your first impressions of SMITE 2!

The first thing I noticed when playing smite 2 was the visuals. They are looking great. Chaac was the first god i played in smite 2 and with his new lightening affects you can really see the improvements from smite 1

The changes from the first alpha weekend to now are night and day. In addition to game feel getting better, the game looks significantly better and seems reasonably well optimized, at least for an alpha.

I'm a big fan of Smite 2 and really am more-or-less transitioning to just playing this instead of Smite, at this point. There are lots of balance problems right now (including how impactful autos are vs mages who don't rely on autos), but the game is just super fun and expressive so far.

Right now the biggest criticisms I can see are about the shop (still kind of unintuitive), lack of tutorials and ways to learn, and matchmaking (which is something that will improve with more players, of course).

Smite 2 is very good!!

It faithfully adapts Smite 1 into a modern engine, and while in its alpha state (many bugs), the actual gameplay of the game is pretty well without bugs and is overwhelmingly really well made, and has surprisingly improved in a rapid pace. At the start of Closed Alpha 1 I thought the game was gonna be something I'd never like, but after 4 closed alpha, a graphics overhaul, and many changes directly requested from the community in a short time, HiRez has done amazing work making Smite 2 a fantastic and deserved sequel, even in the earliest stage of the full 24/7 alpha. Amazing work, and as a player with over 5000 hours in Smite 1, I feel like it's a worthy sequel to the godly game of Smite!

Characters control correct- they feel right- and heck, they almost always feel better than Smite 1. I have no idea what kinda magic they used to do that, but it's very true.

My friends, who hated Smite 1, are playing Smite 2- and loving it! It's impressive, considering they're die-hard league of legends players who are fully committed to League, but after Smite 2 came out- they've played like 50 hours! It's an awesome time to be a Smite player, and somehow it being only the first patch of the 24/7 alpha is insane to me. HiRez, you've made insane progress, and I can't wait to see what the future holds!

I'm also very excited for the LAN! Having some form of e-sports be available again is such a blast. It's electric!

As someone who came from the original SMITE since its first season, SMITE 2 has a lot of potential. I think the overall foundation of SMITE 2 is better than the original, but as it stands with the first closed alpha build, it has its problems like any early alpha. My one main fear is balancing, something we will see how they’ll deal with in the second closed alpha.

With some of the gods being well overtuned scaling, like Bacchus or Susano, and gods having undertuned scaling, like Odin or Zeus, I’m worried S2 will fall under the weight of balancing, similar to some of the gods in SMITE 1. With the smaller god pool, I do think they should have an easier time with balancing the over and undertuned, but they all depends on how they are listening and who they are listening to.

I love and much prefer the 1 relic system, but one thing I wish they could carry over from smite 1 is the evolving of said relics. I think it would help nerf/buff the relics in terms of early, mid, and late game (Sunder is just too good in the early game, but I can see it staying the same for mid or late game in which most abilities outside of Sunder can one shot camps.)

The performance of the game is at a consistent 60-70 FPS, which is way better than how SMITE 2 started out. There are a few hiccups here and there but overall games run smoothly.

I expected bugs to be in the alpha, but some are more annoying than others. The fact my settings can just randomly revert back after each launch is probably the most problematic one outside of god bugs.

I love the items and building in SMITE 2, but I am still not a fan of the shop. It feels much less intuitive than its SMITE 1 counterpart. The role tabs aren’t all that effective either as there are items that should be in one tab, but it is in fact in another. Purchasing from the shop just feels a lot slower compared to SMITE 1. There are definitely some item buffs that need to occur though, specifically with anti-crit and tank items.

The jungle practice needs some work. Like being able to change the god bot, sellable starter and relic, have a moving target for aim practice, etc. I personally think even adding an empty conquest map to practice role starting positions and rotations would be a nice touch, especially for the esport crowd. I’ve heard that a tutorial is on the way, so I hope that improvements on pre-game practice will also be implemented. Also it would be neat to be able to change gods without leaving and coming back to the jungle practice, though I don’t know how practical that would be.

Skin/cosmetic costs definitely need to be looked at. There aren’t a lot of legacy skins in the game yet, but the fact that Joki Loki, a skin that originally costed 400 gems, now costs 2600 legacy gems? The founder pack’s 2x legacy gems are essentially useless now since the Joki skin costs 6.5x MORE gems. Also the fact that SMITE 2 exclusive skins cost legacy gems is kind of idiotic, legacy gems should ONLY be used for cross gen and legacy skins in my opinion, but even then Legacy Gems feel kind of pointless at the moment as all the skins except Joki and Meltdown require the S2 currency (which everyone starts off with 0) Diamonds.

Lastly, I hope they don’t ONLY test balancing with the flash tests. I think what they should do is use the flash tests as a good ground to balance the pre-existing gods in the closed and use the feedback for a bonus patch and keep the new gods and features saved for the upcoming true patch.

I have enjoyed Smite since its inception, during its highs and lows. This game may be considered niche to a lot of MOBA players who ignore it for other well-known games and that is fair considering how strikingly different it is from the traditional MOBA game. I would also argue it even has a steeper learning curve depending on the role and god you choose to learn but once you understand it and experience your first big game-changing play wow does it feel phenomenal. But let's talk about Smite 2 so far and my first impressions.

I first learned about and played Smite 2 through the occasional flash alpha tests that were put out before the closed alpha was released and wow the game was rough, abilities didn't match up or sometimes wouldn't even animate properly, everything felt slow, floaty, and clunky, it was a real mess but from the last few tests into now the closed alpha the game has made some incredible improvements, what is most important is... The game feels fun to play, it feels like Smite but with room to stretch and grow and become something great. The developers have been hard at work making fun new items and implementing old fan favorite Smite 1 items as well as revitalizing old god abilities, and the games have been a blast, my main gripe with the game at this point is it is even less new player friendly than its predecessor, certainly to be expected with a closed alpha however I think it is crucial to create a functional and compelling tutorial to gain new players favor and keep them coming back to learn more about gods kits and the map they will be playing on. Right now there is no such implementation and anyone trying out the alpha who hasn't set foot in the battleground of the gods before is in for some aches and pains, until that issue is worked out if you have been here before or you're willing to stick through the growing pains I guarantee you will find plenty of fun in Smite 2.