Paladins: Champions of the Realm Preview

Brought to you from the creators of the massively popular MOBA, SMITE, Paladins: Champions of the Realm is a fantasy-stylised class-based shooter, where Champions battle towards a common goal.

Those unfamiliar with the resurging genre can look towards Team Fortress 2 for similarities. It’s hard not to draw close connections to Valve’s incredibly popular and iconic brand of gameplay, but where Team Fortress 2 falls short in terms of being a fully-fledged competitive title, games like Paladins from Hi-Rez Studios look to extract the best whilst improving on the much-beloved showpiece.

Each Champion in Paladins has a unique set of three core abilities: an attack move, strategical or enhancement ability and manoeuvre trait - as well as all being able to mount a steed for faster traversal across the vast arena. Paladins’ unique gameplay mechanic is the introduction of a card system, where prior to the start of a game players assemble a deck of 15 cards to draw from as they progress through their battle. Once a card’s level is reached in-game, they make a choice as to which card they want to call upon - resulting in enhanced standard attacks, more powerful base stats, or extra bonuses when activating abilities.

New cards are unlocked through repeated use of individual characters as well as opening chests obtained from general levelling and micro-transactions. The community have been vocal about the game’s apparent ‘pay-to-win’ nature, but Paladins is generous with card unlocks from free chests and cards play second fiddle to decent skill and well-worked tactics. Duplicate cards can also be crafted to make previously locked non-duplicates, meaning general play can be just as rewarding as chest purchasing.In its closed beta state,

In its closed beta state, Paladins’ nine Champions are well-balanced in terms of abilities and functionality, but it’s easy to spot a good player from someone that’s not quite used to the Champion they are representing. Copious amounts of CPU practice is recommended for those wanting to perform at any real level before entering the PvP environment. The AI in the practice mode aren’t the brightest bunch but do offer enough of a challenge to familiarise players with abilities, new deck loadouts and general roles of individual Champions.

Whilst linear, Siege, Assault and Capture offer enough variety to keep you interested as Hi-Rez continue to roll-out further additions and alterations as the game evolves. The action is fast and fluid, with rounds lasting anywhere between 10 minutes to half an hour.

One thing that’s evident during play is the ignorance to objective based play, with many players deciding the best KD is what gets them brownie points, rather than assisting their team with the goal at hand. I’m not sure what result KOs and ‘Killing blows’ have on the EXP earned at the end of a round compared to assisting goals, but a win bonus is substantially more than gunning for KO numbers and you won’t win by farming kills alone.

When compared to the play of direct competitor Overwatch, some of Paladins’ Champions don’t have the same charismatic spark as heroes like Lúcio and D.Va but the card system and variety of abilities are just as entertaining and feel more suited to quick and intricate thinkers than run-and-gun maniacs.

There’s a lot going on for Paladins to be a major competitive title in the future and Hi-Rez have already established a smart foundation for such. Despite feeling very barebones at the moment, it’s bundles of fun to play in short installments if you can get hold of a beta key. You’ll no doubt hear much more about Paladins up until its expected release this year.