For anyone that doesn’t know me, I love competitive games and have, for a long time, played the likes of Gigantic, Team Fortress 2 and various other MOBAs along the way. Like most people who enjoy competitive games, I’ve been looking forward to playing Overwatch and yet despite the Beta being here, I find myself playing Paladins, from the creators of SMITE.

It’s inevitable that both Paladins and Overwatch will be compared, such is the timing of its reveal. However, it would be doing a disservice to Hi-Rez to suggest both are identical when there are fundamental differences in Paladins that make it unique.

Whilst Paladins plays like many other shooters utilizing classes or “Heroes” fighting over control points, it mixes things up in several ways. Players are granted access to mounts in order to work their way across the large expanse of land, in addition, unlike talents each player has a deck of cards unique to each Champion and when they level up, are able to select one of three random cards that adjusts their playstyle in significant ways. Some cards can be straightforward, such as improving your damage output, but others drastically change skills so that they’re significantly different. One particular card turns Barik’s turret that into a close range flamethrower whilst Grohk can cause enemies to become a lightning conduit. It’s clever stuff and surprisingly varied. I know many are likely to balk at the randomness and the desire to have some certainty when it comes to their loadout, but I find the unknown refreshing. Deciding how to build your Champion, on the fly - knowing the enemy is doing the same - is exciting. It feels like a game in itself, especially when you begin to learn Champion cards and choose appropriate counters.

Outside of the card system, Paladins plays out across a handful of large open maps. Each has three capture points and two fortresses, fitted with multiple gates. The objective is to take control of a capture point once it becomes active, hold it to summon a siege engine, and escort it to the enemies keep to destroy their gates. Though simple in design, it’s the encounters between champions that makes Paladins enticing, especially because the gun play is so fast and snappy. When I first began to play I ended up picking Pip by accident and yet he highlights perfectly the sense of fun that Hi-Rez are trying to instill. He’s swift, has a set of skills that not only deal high projectile damage (imagine a cute version of the Demo Man) but he also brings a healthy dose of utility through an AOE snare. In contrast, Barik plays drastically different as a more defensive character, offering turrets and a powerful shield that allies can hide behind. I eventually settled on Grohk as my go-to character not only for his healing potential but because he suits my playstyle as someone who prefers utility hybrids. His lighting staff can be difficult to maintain on enemies due to its tiny targeting but it’s also incredibly rapid at applying small ticks of damage that are capable of triggering a variety of card effects.

At this point you’re probably wondering whether or not Paladins is worth playing and despite its infancy, I think it is. There’s still a lot of work for Hi-Rez to do but the framework is undoubtedly here. What Paladins needs at this point is refinement on several areas, most notably its game mode. Summoning a siege engine to destroy the enemy's gates and needing to escort it over a large map is a great idea but the siege engine moves at such a speed that there’s actually no need. By the time it spawns, the enemy has too little time to formulate a way of preventing it attacking: it’s already at their door dealing damage. Hi-Rez need to make the siege engine a heavy, lumbering object that gains bonus speed for being escorted. Without doing this, the large map becomes redundant because there’s absolutely no need for it when you only fight on the capture points, as opposed to the surrounding areas. It would also help a great deal if the map was on screen, as opposed to being next to the scoreboard.

Other minor gripes include the inability to actually build a deck for your Champion as at the moment, you get handed the entire bag rather than make a strategic selection of a certain quantity of cards. Similarly to Hearthstone, I’d like to see the number of cards available restricted so you have at least some control as to how you want your loadout to be (even if you don’t always get the cards you want).

Griselma and Voden from Gigantic, a turret and archer based pair of Hero's.

As a final niggle and this is entirely personal, I think Paladins lacks artistic flavor. If I look at games such as Gigantic, the champions and art direction here is predictable and without character. If we were to compare Griselma in Gigantic, also a turret based Hero, to Barik, they’re leagues apart in terms of originality. Even Voden versus Cassie highlights just how safe Paladins is when it comes to Champion design. Unfortunately it’s too late in the day to revise Champion appearances or their art style, I just see it as a missed opportunity to create a striking brand that players will remember.

Although I’m fairly new to Paladins, I’m already playing it every day and am looking forward to seeing how Hi-Rez take it forward. There’s huge potential here and the market has more than enough room for both Paladins and Overwatch. Considering it’s also going to be free to play and Hi-Rez have a solid reputation for delivering fair pricing models, there’s scope for it to be incredibly popular. With some refinement, I think it could be something pretty special.