Be Prepared to be Addicted by This Free Card Game
Be Prepared to be Addicted by This Free Card Game
Pros
- Borrows the fun designs and irreverent tone of the Smite series
- Builds off of the tower defense genre in interesting ways
Cons
- Plays a little too closely to Clash of Clans
- Development currently on hold
Smite Rivals takes place in the same universe as the mythologically inspired Smite MOBA, but it trades in a lot of the fundamental values to create a game that's more appropriately suited to mobile devices. The result is a game that feels more like Clash of Clans than League of Legends, but it still manages to maintain the boisterous personality that the Smite franchise is known for.
Smite takes place in a world where legendary gods, demigods, and heroes from a variety of different cultures wage a war of pitched battles against one another. The sheer possibility of public use characters available means that Smite is able to draw liberally from Egyptian gods, Hindu divinities, Greek legends, and everything in between. It makes for a surprisingly cohesive experience, but Smite Rivals has stripped down the sheer flood of mythologies and characters to suit the inherent limitations of their mobile real estate. A smaller amount of gods are available from the start, but given Smite's propensity for adding new characters at a prodigious pace, it's likely that the developers had the intention of steadily expanding the roster. That likelihood is uncertain now, however, as the development of Smite Rivals has been put indefinitely on hold. But the lead characters present are generally well varied, offering diversity both in their personalities and the range of powers available to them.
Personality has always been a big selling point of the Smite franchise, but while the core series focuses on learning the skills of your character and learning how best they can work in conjunction with the rest of the team, Rivals puts you in charge of your whole army. This allows them to pull from a deeper bench of mythological characters, and it's one of the major distinguishing points from this mobile spin-off. Armies bring a collectible card game element to the proceedings, and it adds a deeper level of strategy in how you compose your build. While Rivals uses a similar three lane structure to the MOBA format of Smite, these lanes are more stripped down and more closely resemble collectible card games like Hearthstone. Your goal is to press forward against your opponent's base while protecting your own, and that means balancing defensive and offensive considerations across all three lanes.
If that sounds similar to Clash of Clans, that's because the fundamentals are the same. But developer Hi-Rez has taken measures to distinguish themselves from the competition. The expanded lanes force more complicated tactics, and Rivals locks you in to using only characters from your chosen pantheon, creating more distinct specializations for each team. Fortunately, the amount of powers on deck, and the balance between lead gods, minions, and spells, creates a lot of flexibility to experiment and find out a style of play that suits your needs.
Pros
- Borrows the fun designs and irreverent tone of the Smite series
- Builds off of the tower defense genre in interesting ways
Cons
- Plays a little too closely to Clash of Clans
- Development currently on hold
