Online game "Paladins"

MOBA-shooters are one of the most popular multiplayer genres. And this popularity is largely associated with Overwatch. Although the Blizzard game has quite worthy competitors. And the main among them is Paladins by Evil Mojo Games and Hi-Rez Studios. It's not surprising - the game immediately after its release got into the top 10 most popular games in Steam, sold 800 thousand copies in the first week. In total, 25 million people played it at least once. What makes the game stand out from its competitors and how relevant is it today?

Paladins was released in the fall of 2016, six months after the release of Overwatch, and some people immediately started calling it a clone of the Near-Zardian shooter. The management of Hi-Rez Studios logically stated that the developers were inspired primarily by Team Fortress 2, as well as the studio's past games - Global Agenda and Tribes: Ascend. Indeed, Hi-Rez Studios has a lot of experience, and after they also released an extremely popular MOBA game - Smite. So, if Paladins is a clone, it's a very high quality one from experienced developers, which can be seen at least by the pretty picture, which looks great even now, 8 years later, by the gorgeous cut-scenes, artwork and clips.

The history of the Paladins world is also well developed. The action unfolds in a fantasy kingdom, where representatives of different races coexist, and the order for a long time followed just Paladins from a powerful order of wizards - they were called to protect civilization and stop wars. Then after the advent of world peace the order was disbanded, but there was a new problem - the uncontrolled use of magic crystals, including for the creation of firearms and various mechanical devices.

Many former paladins joined the Magistrate, and in fact the government, which advocated control over the use of crystals. But the Resistance also appeared, pursuing exactly the opposite goals. And it also included many former paladins. The Magistrate and the Resistance are the main opposing factions in the game. And then there are such global catastrophic phenomena as the all-consuming Abyss and Darkness, which have their own immortal monster representatives. The history of the world in general is given a lot of attention - there are even separate videos and texts on it within the Paladins Chronicles project.

The confrontation between the Magistrate and the Resistance takes place in the usual format for such games. Players choose heroes with unique skills and tactics, divide into two teams of 5 and fight each other in different modes. Most often they compete in "Siege" mode: there you need to capture a control point, where a cart with cargo appears - and then the attackers try to escort this cargo to the enemy base. The defending team, accordingly, tries to prevent this. After the end of the round, the teams switch roles, and the defenders now capture, attack and escort the cart themselves.

Now in the game is also available mode "Cargo", where everything is about the same, but no control points need to be captured, and teams compete to see who can push the cart with the cargo faster and farther. And in "Siege" it moves by itself. Also popular is the "Onslaught" mode, where the team that will be the first to score 400 points in 10 minutes wins. And for this you need not only to kill enemies, but also try to capture and hold the point in the center of the map. There is also the classic Team Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch - here teams just fight and try to be the first to score 40 kills (here it is "elimination").

Ranked mode offers to compete in "Siege" and get different ranks for it, from bronze to grandmaster, to gradually move to the steeper divisions. Ranked competitions are divided into seasons. There are also custom matches and several training options with bots, which are not superfluous here at all - for them we get gold and experience to pump up specific heroes and raise the overall level of the account. Yes, the modes in Paladins are less than in Overwatch, but in principle the main classics of the genre are presented. And in addition, periodically with new updates or events appear temporary modes.

Naturally, as in all such games, the flesh and blood of Paladins are the heroes. Here they are divided into four classes. Damage - these are the ones who take the most damage. Tanks are the best defenders and take the most damage. Representatives of the "Flank" class are the most fragile and fastest heroes, with a lot of dangerous skills that need to be used correctly. And they all need a lot of help from Support class members, who cast useful auras and periodically heal their allies.

Everything is quite simple and traditional. The nuances and details that make each paladin unique lie in their skills and the weapons they use. Some shoot a shotgun, some a bow, some throw daggers or use a sniper rifle. But more interesting are their skills - each champion has four of them, and one of them is ultimatum, that is extremely powerful with a long reloading time.

They can greatly change the tactics or add variety to it. For example, the heavily armed and rather slow girl Ash, who fires at enemies from an anti-aircraft (!) gun all the way, thanks to her skills can suddenly rush into a crowd of enemies and ram them with her shoulder. Or you can soar into the air and leap at enemies, stunning them as you land. Inara, a stone guardian who uses a spear, can set up walls to block the passage of enemies. And some heroes have skills that only emphasize their basic tactics. For example, Mel Demba runs around with a snake in his hands that spits at enemies. And one of his abilities allows him to actually turn into a reptile himself - he quickly crawls, becoming incorporeal for a while, and thus invisible and invulnerable.

Also during the match fighters earn money, which can be used to buy improved passive abilities, which, for example, increase damage, health or defense, increase the effectiveness of healing and active skills, and so on. Outside of the match, as the character level increases, new talents are unlocked - there are only three of them, but all of them are extremely useful.

For example, the already mentioned Ash can get the talents "Ram" (when hitting with her shoulder, she takes 75% less damage), "Weapon Shell" (cannon shells fly farther, faster and do more damage, but don't explode) and "Assault Fortress" (Em's shield is much more effective, but her movement speed is reduced by 80%). And before each match we choose which of the talents to take into battle, and as you can see, they all differ significantly and seriously affect the tactics.

But these are not all the tools you can use to tactically customize your characters before battles. Paladins also features a system of cards with passive bonuses, which are mainly aimed at increasing the effectiveness of specific talents and skills or unlocking new abilities. The same Ash initially has three different decks available with cards aimed at supporting one of her three talents. But we are also free to create our own decks and fully edit and experiment with them - the main thing is to keep within the points limit, which is made up of the cost of cards. And before each battle you have to choose one deck.

Paladins even now, 8 years after its release, looks quite spectacular and dynamic. It has a bright picture. There are a lot of interesting various maps, where the very names say a lot - "Trade District", "Snow Crossroads", "Dragon Arena", "Abyss", "Port of Marauders". Yes, the game feels a little less fast and tactical than Overwatch, but Paladins has a lower threshold of entry. You come home in the evening after work or study, go to the game, shoot enemies without any special preface and relax, rest your soul.

And there is actually enough room for tactics too. Just think of the talent system and card decks, designed for one or another style of play or your own tactics. In addition, in battles, great importance is given to all sorts of positive and negative effects and statuses (dumbness, paralysis, poisoning, impaired healing and so on). Therefore, it is important to know how to use and counter them (including with the help of the same cards). The "diminishing returns" mechanic is interesting from this point of view - it reduces the effectiveness of statuses if they are stacked or used again on a recent target.

Paladins also has a huge number of heroes, more than Overwatch - and the list continues to grow regularly. Now there are 59 champions, and 16 of them are available for free. Yes, some people think that they are less developed and break the balance more often, but nevertheless they all have their own interesting story, their own cut-scenes and unique skills that allow you to summon the moon, soar into the sky as a fairy or even devour your opponents. And as for the balance, the game continues to be actively maintained, and the authors make necessary edits in some egregious cases.

Finally, the most important argument up Paladins' sleeve is that it's a free-to-play game. Yes, of course, there is a built-in store, where you can buy new heroes and all sorts of cosmetic items, emotions, avatars and so on for crystals (they are bought with living money). There are a lot of cosmetics here, you can earn them for free, but it's hard to earn them, and only occasionally something is given out when gaining levels or completing achievements and daily quests. You can also buy so-called event passes (similar to battle passes), which give chests with rewards and bonuses to the accumulation of gold (the usual currency in the game) and experience. But all this does not affect the gameplay directly.

Of course, Paladins has its pros and cons compared to its competitors, but it is certainly one of the best and most popular representatives of the genre with beautiful graphics, spectacular battles and well thought-out lore. And the small number of modes is compensated by a huge number of unique heroes and interesting ways to customize them tactically.

Zarium. July 2024