So it sounds like all the issues aren't actually issues. Limited god pool will obviously get fixed over time. Optimization is the last thing you think about in an alpha stage. All the systems designs being in a good state is the most important thing for them to be figuring out at this point.
While this is true the issue lies at the end of the video. Smite 1 is cratering before Smite 2 is ready. The timing is off from Hi-Rez, we needed Smite 2 started a full year before it was started. Smite just hit a 5 year low player base and Smite 2 simply isn't ready.
@@InconSSG The shuttering of SPL this year is for sure a slap in the face to pros, many of whom are also big content creators that drive a lot of interest in Smite. Hi-Rez took a gamble with releasing such an early alpha, but it should lead to the highest chance of a good game in the end; even if it does eat into current Smite 1 interest. At the end of the day I believe that if Smite 2 is great, being a FTP game means that people will come back when it releases. Probably.
@@InconSSGCall me cynical, but I feel like that's only a true "problem" from the perspective of streamers whose livelihood is tied to Smite as a property. It's really not so horrible for most people to take this opportunity to take a break from the game. I'm not saying you're in the wrong for wanting it to be handled better, because I'm in no way giving Hi-Rez a pass for anything. They absolutely should have been working on this longer and realized the direction Smite was taking sooner.
@@dixnyomouff6982 What would a Smite sequel have to do to earn the "2" in your eyes then? To me, the direction they're taking is on par with a proper sequel. Certainly compared to OW2 at the very least.
This is good because it allows for all sorts of ideas and combinations to be used. Obviously over time there will be clear winners and losers, but until then it will be great if everything is unbalanced across the board.
Hirez needs to put all hands on deck for Smite 2. If anything, Deadlock should scare them and need to fire on all pistons. Because lets be honest if Smite 2 fails, Hirez is done
you and incon seem to think that hi rez can simultaneously throw everything into smite 2 then have a game changing content filled smite 1 patch. you can’t have your cake and eat it too. incon is desperately trying to find a way out of smite so he can keep streaming full time without having to do any work to actually be entertaining
Long time TH-cam watcher and longtime smite player - very impressed with the analysis of the alpha and thank you for always making the best smite content 👌🏻
Regarding your point about 'only 30% of the players from the first alpha participating in the second alpha': speaking for myself and my friends, we are from Brazil. In the first alpha, the excitement was enough to overlook the lack of a Brazilian server. In the second alpha, though we understood and really liked the game, the server issue became more significant than the initial hype. Therefore, I will only play when we have our own server. I can't speak for everyone, but I believe that most players from Latin America experienced the same issue.
I'm so glad i have your notifications turned on because I miss smite and seeing this video is very informative and I know you're an extremely reliable resource on not just gameplay but knowledge on what is needed to know on what is going on with Hi-Rez and its golden goose Smite and potential franchise.
I can see why you say that smite 2 needs to release before deadlock, I don't fully agree with that 100%, but I do think that smite 2 (whenever it releases) NEEDS TO BE AS FAR AWAY FROM DEADLOCK AS POSSIBLE. Yesterday, Weaken literally said that he was putting together a team for Deadlock to play in a test soon. It is not looking good for Smite AT ALL. It took way too long to get these alpha tests going the community was waiting months for these tests, meanwhile smite 1 content just up and died For No Reason. I really like the ideas in Smite 2. I think the new item system is good. Likewise, I think that actives could be good, but it is one of the factors alienating controller players right now. I think the game's map is lacking an art style right now, it looks more like a generic UE5 map rather than a successor of Smite. It's only been 6 days of Alpha, and I feel like people are already sick of this map and its design. On another note, part of the reason Smite 2 player counts dropped by 2/3s is that in its current state it is a worse smite with less content. I started a Reddit thread about this last night (What does Smite 2 need to survive) and one of the comments summed up the situation beautifully, He stated that he isn't interested in the Alphas or in Smite 2 in general because "What's the actual hook or selling point of all this besides the graphical/technical and developing improvements." This right now with smite 2 this is all that is promised. The game is so early that we can't really feel the "2" in Smite 2.
What makes smite unique, was the massive amount of God pools, the massive amount of items, one of the few mobas that you could do multi rolls with, But right now, everyone's lost 90% of the characters, they've lost all their skins, Lost all the progression, in smite 2. There's no worshiper counter yet, lots of the things I'm mentioning here are going to be obviously put in the game at a later point, But what was the point of shutting down Smite one competitive and development so early? If Smite too isn't even remotely ready for community play, the only thing they did is damn their own game before it needed to be
I'm saying this as a person whose 2 favorite games might be Super Monday Night Combat and Battleborn; Deadlock looks like crap. I don't think anyone has anything to worry about, it's going to flop harder than Battleborn which was actually good just marketed very ignorantly
Agreed for the most part, I’d say for Deadlock the game doesn’t seem like a real replacement for smite but can definitely be a competitor. It honestly seems pretty boring but I could be wrong but it lacks the personality that smite has and it’d be hard for them to shift from the theme they already have. Smite 2 will be fine but they need to lock in with development and really step it up.
@@mattyryon I 100% agree. The people saying Deadlock is going to replace Smite 2 are delusional. The feedback from most people seeing the footage of Deadlock is also very negative. Incon is blowing the game completely out of proportion. It may have a small amount of hype behind the release simply bc it's backed by Valve, but there is no way it's outlasting or replacing Smite. Just go the the videos of the alpha footage of Deadlock and look at the comments. All of them are saying how the game looks boring asf, and it's bc it DOES look boring asf.
Honestly, at least from my personal perspective, it feels like the extremely loyal pros and general player base is a joke to Hi-Rez. Feel absolutely taken advantage of & taken for granted. They just pulled the rug out completely from under the pros AT WORLDS. It’s just so many fumbles and it feels like they don’t care what we want or think. It just hurts my heart because this has been a game close to my heart for over 10 years… I really wish they did things differently. At this point I hope another game like deadlock takes all the talented pros away from smite because in my opinion Hi-Rez doesn’t deserve them any longer.
Can we just talk about it, what the hell was that video about Hades hi rez dropped recently? "We don't want to remodel Hades cause we love Hades" meanwhile more than half of the players think otherwise. First lesson of being a game dev, Kill your darlings Hi Rez. Am I being unreasonable here or what?
I'll agree with you here. I don't think you're being unreasonable. While I personally don't think Hades' model looks that bad, if your players don't like it, it's not good for the game. If smite 2 just ends up being the circle jerk product of a small group of developers, I might just swap to a different game. It seems Deadlock is fun? Might even try competitive in that game.
It's also not necessarily about the model quality, but the design of the character in general. People are also asking about minor tweaks, but that was too much already? @@Anirudhji2001
Catering to the vocal minority has been the downfall of a few games. Hades seemed a lil smaller than one would expect otherwise he/his abilities looked fine. Much more important things to worry about. They shouldn’t even have addressed it imo.
I completely agree with you, them dropping that video was stupid AF if they really didn't want to change the design, do not drop a video about not wanting to change the design. You're bringing attention to the fact people wanted you to change the design.
So, they went Int and Strength just to also leave Physical and Magical damage? What a cluster man. Gonna be tough to get a grasp on this plus grasping all the items. Or, maybe not.
I played the first Alpha, but I hate conquest, and Smite is not a friendly game for people who are overhwhelmed by conquest, so when they add Arena back, I'll try it again. I prefer assault, but I'll try it. It's not about being bored, it's about hating the way Conquest overwhelms me and the players are completely awful to new conquest players. So, sure, focus on conquest, but there's more than just boredom involved with the drop off in players.
This is me. I have around 5,000 matchs of assault and arena with just 100 conquest matches. Just dont like that came mode. Had a thousand clash matches until they removed that one.
I think they should have put more work before releasing anything to the public. We keep hearing how it’s gonna get better with time when that’s what they should have done in the first place. Now we have everyone with a bad idea of the game when this is hopefully not gonna be how it’s gonna feel when it’s polished
Solution to people rage quitting. If you quit a match then your next two matches you are a filler and get dropped into games to fill spots of other quitters.
I don't know about it looking better smite one has a distinct look that smite 2 doesn't have, the animations are better but the art style is more generic.
There already was a hero shooter that had a lot of MOBA elements. It was Battleborn. Was a lot of fun, but launched right up against Overwatch and really never had a chance.
@@JehushMahadeo Yeah, wich also failed 2 times already. I hope this time they actually survive, some competition may encourage Smite devs to improve the game
I didn't play much Alpha 2 because with Anhur removed and two mages added, every match was was guaranteed to have Hades and Sol on both sides, so it felt wrong wanting to pick yet-another mage if I wanted to try Zeus or get more time on Kulkulkan this go around. The server connection being spotty and high ping was an issue that made it less fun to play, and I gotta be honest - I've never been a PTS guy. I don't love playing without any progression or sense that I'm moving forward on something larger. The first alpha was a big deal because it was hyped up and the actual first look at the new Smite for everyone. Alpha 2 was a refinement, but didn't add much of note to re-ignite the hype. It's a very empty-feeling game right now. No front-end shop, no post-match stats, no progression, no currency or cosmetics, no parties or clans or chat. It feels suffocating if you're used to what Smite 1 offers. As long as Smite 2 feels like it's this forbidden look into a distinctly unfinished game, I get almost more enjoyment out of watching Incon play it, rather than playing it myself. I do hope that explains a lot of the numbers dropping from alpha 1. It was exciting, but now that we've had our taste of the direction it's going, an incremental move like adding a couple of characters and tweaking item and map balance isn't enough. The curiosity is sated, and many people will be waiting for something more finished - or at least, holding out for progression.
i also think them bringing smite 2 this early into closed alpha was also a reaction to predecessor being a UE5 moba. The game announced F2P just before Smite 2 closed alpha had a date to try it. Probably wanted to not take a risk encase it was a threat to their audience and drop that closed alpha earlier
One of the things that concerns me is gods who scale off 1 stat versus those who are split. Gods that care about multiple stats have to make trade offs where as those who are single stat just dont have that problem. I think this is why anhur had such a high winrate. Because he gets it all by building one stat where as like neith has to give up basically 2 of her abilities if she wants to do anything with her basics.
Hi Incon, I haven't played Smite since about 2016-2017, and it's a real nice surprise to see you still going and passionate about the game. I really hope Smite 2 succeeds as the original Smite is what got me into the MOBA genre originally. The future seems a bit shaky as of right now and I would hate to see a game I really cared about and put 3k hours into, die because of issues that could've easily been prevented. Though to be honest, I don't feel like Deadlock would be the thing that kills Smite, rather Hi-Rez' own incompetence would. The games feel far too different. If anything, Deadlock is a lot more of a threat to Overwatch 2 which has definitely been struggling since its launch, and TF2 which has a major bot problem for years that Valve continues to ignore. I would expect TF2 especially to basically eat shit and die as soon as Deadlock releases, but I guess that's just how it goes in the industry. I partially think the decline of MOBAs in general is what would also kill Smite 2 as well, it's well known that the genre has been slowly dying for the last 5+ years now, or at least that's the case for all of the MOBAs except maybe Dota 2. League has certainly been seeing a tumble as of recently because of dodgy mismanagement and lack of community feedback being considered. In Smite's case it just seems like Hi-Rez are playing an extremely risky game that could make or break their leading title, which for a niche genre you definitely do not want to do. Basically, Smite 2 has to stand out of the crowd somehow, and there can be little room for mistakes going forward, otherwise it's pretty much over for Hi-Rez. And lord almighty, someone PLEASE tell Hi-Rez to actually get a marketing team going, I barely knew about Smite 2's existence and only did because the first game was still in my Steam Library.
I think the only issue I've had between both alphas was how hunters feel. There seems to be this weird disconnect between DPI and the feeling of abilities/autos. I think once that's fixed, hunters will feel great. Warriors / Guards feel strong. Mages feel broken lol. Overall, feeling positive for Smite 2.
It's wild how many people in comments don't understand test and dev phases. This early of an Alpha is not a representation of how the game will feel or play like at all. They are still just making sure the foundation is sound before they even consider feel and balance. Also a lot of "not same means bad". It needs to not be the same, the old way wasn't retaining or getting new players.
@@serghonest9That is a ridiculous oversimplification of the process of making a video game. They’re testing the TECH right now, not the actual game. They’re making sure it functions at a reliable level before adding to it. You’re basically having a slice of cake before it’s cooked or mixed and saying “yeah this sucks” before the actual cake has been cooked.
This alpha experience has given me full insight in just how stupid the average consumer is and makes me worried if I've ever said anything 10% as dumb as what i've seen smite 2 players say. HiRez is dealing with the dumbest people on earth I swear to god.
@@bentoomet8805 You've clearly never made a game before. You don't just "test tech" for fun. They have limited resources so every added mechanic needs to be as close to its final form as possible so they can improve it over time. Of course they will tweak and improve things, but the game is already what you see: Smite 1 on a new engine. And that won't attract new players.
i've recently got access to a key from deadlock, wasn't super interested in actually playing it as i loved SMITE/SMITE 2 competitive, but what you were saying at the end of the video makes alot of sense, and so after the content creator cup im gonna try deadlock, as i need to be honest with myself and keep as many doors open as i can :)
As far as progression is concerned, usually the whole point of Alpha's and Beta's is that there's not meant to be any progression, that's kind of the whole point. Any progression that would be made in an Alpha or Beta would usually be reset to nothing even in MMORPG's. Same thing happened in Baldur's Gate 3 early access which was basically a Beta. Making progression possible in a Beta would be unfair to anyone that doesn't have access to the Beta. The only middle ground I could suggest is that Hi-Rez implement a system that tracks playtime/wins/kills etc and perhaps has milestone's to hit in those things when the Beta comes out that would give you some kind of unique reward from playing the Beta and accomplishing those milestones like skins, fountains, borders, avatars etc. That way players have something cool to play for which would encourage more people to play the Beta whilst also not giving Beta players a head start on levelling up their favourite god.
Speaking for me and only for myself, I took some time off irl so I could participate in the first smite 2 alpha, but I couldn’t do that for the second. I had just taken off time For Momocon and I didn’t have the energy to play the alpha after work
honestly, I'm really interested just busy with life and don't currently have a system to be able to play smite too. I don't think and definitely will be one of those with a cheap "gaming "laptop or PC or a PS five but right now to be invested on, I don't even have to play on a purely accessibility standpoint, but still incredibly excited for smite 2
35:40 can confirm, played a match where one person not knowing where to go goes to short lane and DCs when someone was with em.....they went to duo n left because they had someone with them "taking farm" we tried to teach him but he just leaves before we could even type anything out, so i think i understand where adding Arena comes from because damn mf
thank you for pointing out the optimization since thats what i reported too in the survey and rly needs to be fixed . and i think hirez would actually listen to you xD
I played one game in the new alpha. Mainly because there was no changes. so it was one and done. Went and played normal smite for awhile then other games.
Umm. I dunno if the existence of Deadlock changes my interest in SMITE 2. Deadlock is more of a rival to Overwatch and Marvel Rivals. Also, the God Designs that SMITE has, is what brings me into the game. I haven't seen any of the designs for Deadlock, but if its another Hero Shooter; then I dunno if its a direct competitor to SMITE. That said, I say this as a casual player. Competitive gaming has never interested me. Which is why that even though I "bought" access to the Alpha, I have not jumped in to it. Because Conquest is the "main competitive mode" and I have no interest in that. So maybe Deadlock eats up the content creation scene & pro players of SMITE. But I can't relate. What I do seem to understand is that with SMITE 2, is that their timeline is an issue. But... I think SMITE as a game has always been a 50/50 competitive vs casual. And let's not ignore the power of the casual side. The casual side is usually where Hi-Rez gets their Skin Money. Casuals are where you get crossovers with V-Shojo or TMNT or Transformers. Casuals are the ones who buy Aphro and Achilles skins and Neith skins and Belonna skins... and I don't think that is going to stop right away. No healthy game can survive without both a competitive and casual scene, but I see the casual side get ignored a LOT. And if I had to bet; Hi-Rez can survive without a competitive scene LONGER than it can without a casual scene. Both roads lead to "End of Service", but one can keep a company afloat longer than the other.
I was also asking myself, why would I want to play Smite 2 if it doesn't run smoothly? Like okay, it looks better, but all of that gets lost due to the game not being fun due to lag for example. For me it runs okayish on my pc rn, but I would not play this in the long run if keeps lagging like this. I would just prefer smite 1 that runs smoothly on my pc with max settings. Also what u said, I also turned off lumen and that helped a lot. But when I turn down all the other graphical settings nothing changes, so those are not the problem for me. It probably has something to do with the intense lighting and rendering.
As long as the game runs fast on lower settings it's fine that the highest settings run slow. I would actually consider the highest end settings running slow a good thing, it measn they're pushing the graphics farther, and people can choose between higher FPS or better looking graphics. They absolutely do need it to run fast on the lowest settings though.
I have no problems with the current items. I do hate that consumables take an item slot when you have to build 2-4 items at a time to get a single item.
Personally, I'm enjoying Smite 2 quite a bit. Does it need work? Sure. More gods is a big one for me as well as progression. Get those two things in there and I'd be ready to play it more. As for the new game you were talking about. I'm sure it'll pull some people away, but for me personally. Shooter games are a dime a dozen. I've played so many shooters in my life that I just don't ever see one coming out that could grab my attention for long term. Even with moba aspects, I just don't care for shooter games. Hell, I've even tried Gigantic (both times haha). It's a hero shooter/moba hybrid and I just don't like the moba style gameplay mixed with a shooter. Again, I'm sure some will love it, but for me I could care less about a shooter (in any flavor). I think we all need to chill a bit, too many people going doom and gloom already. Look at Smite 1 right now and compare it to how it looked when it was in Alpha. HiRez absolutely has the potential to make Smite 2 a banger, that is my opinion anyway.
I completely see your point but the situation is different to what it once was. MOBAs are more popular now than they ever were, and there are a lot more of them coming out now than when Smite initially came out. Smite has taken over 10 years to be in the spot it is in now, where other MOBAs have done it significantly quicker. It's a race and Hi-Rez seems to be losing it.
@@Anirudhji2001 Eh... I don't know that I agree that MOBAs are more popular now than ever before. I also don't think that games are in a state where first to market is an auto win on this stuff. There have been far too many games in the past few years that have rushed to market just to bomb. IMO it's far more important to release in a good state than it is to rush to market. So I think we have to be careful in saying it's just a race. It's a race to greatness not just to get to market. If Deadlock releases soon before Smite 2, then it's more important than ever that HiRez get's it right so they can have impact when they release. They have to build this game for the future not to be a flash in the pan.
Something interesting that you mention is that the MOBA/Hybrid already exists with battleborn and gigantic, but it failed lots of times already. As a hybrid game between a hero shooter and a moba, it looks like it doesnt fully satisfy either mobas players or hero shooters players. Lets see if deadlock is any difference, because if not, its not going to be a problem at all. Personally I did not like the hybrid, it feels like you dont get the full experience from neither game genres, and i already love both of them separetly
@@jomaroal22 Yes I agree with you on it not satisfying either genre well. I've tried the hybrids, and they just feel lacking. Like, my brain is just not in moba mode if I'm playing a shooter and I can tell you that the shooter fans brought into that system are going to be so tunnel visioned that the moba aspect for moba players is going to be frustrating on a team level. That is my prediction anyway. As frustrated as I can get with players and objectives on Smite, it's been far worse when I've played these hero shooter moba hybrids. Again, this is all just my opinion and you know what I think everyone should just play what they enjoy. I just don't see Smite and Deadlock as being so comparable that there is only room for one of them in the market. I just don't think the situation is that dire right now. Could losing pro players to it be an issue, in the short term yes. But who thinks that the current pros in Smite are the only way an SPL could exist? Most of them have been around for a long time and fresh pros in the system isn't a bad thing. I'd of course like to see many of them stick around but I don't think it's completely make or break on the current pros alone.
My biggest problem is that ymir shouldn’t be able to one shot burst and not get one shot burst himself. Idk if it’s specifically with ymir but he’s definitely needs something to make it where he isn’t ridiculous damage and good tanking ability. Bc what would the point be to play a different god like Loki when you can just face rush the enemy team with ymir and then get a couple kills while you’re at it
I thought the game has amazing potential, the active items are an awesome change and can’t wait to see what else is to come! Being able to have such versatile builds is great although I have seen a lot of players expressing the fact they are confused what to build. Having hades being able to use his 1 or 3, 3x in a row was wild! Ymir double freeze crit was a monster as well, fcking love it! BTW I’m on console and had no issue with buying items, most the time I was faster then the pc players they made it so easy
Content and attention will naturally increase when the game releases, I am missing your point. I don't want it to build massive hype too early and Hirez can't deliver since it's in Alpha only. Make a great game = benefits everyone
If Weaken, Incon and the pros leave that’s a massive hit for them. HiRez has alway been terrible at marketing. The game has a small niche in popularity as is. Most people are loyal to the creators now. If it’s terrible release or ill marketed without its current creator. HIrez is dead in water.
The game felt better but 2 basic hit crit ymir was rampant in most my games and think there are some balancing needed with items themselves but as a Hades main i have wanted the ult adjustment he got for so long and it was amazing to have a jungle Hades
Look for Gigantic, they created that premise years ago. Sadly, the hybrid formula is not that appealing to Moba enjoyers or hero shooter enjoyers yet. Lets see what Valve is going to do to not fail like Gigantic did 2 times already.
Hey, I agree with most that has been said but wanted to give my take on a few things. First about the God count. To me personally, I don't care how many there will be on 24/7 servers. I would be more interested to have a small amount at the start, but high frequency of them being added. For example start with 16ish and then add 1 or 2 each week. This way it would be "like" the progression. Constant new stuff that changes how people play, discovering the new gods and how they function with items. Same with the items. More fun crazy items, current phys def ones are kind of booring. For open beta I think it would be even beneficial. Imo smite community is small at least rn. So there will be more players that never played or played a long time ago than "smite players". With the system changes, all the gods and abilities we have rn, it already will be a lot of information to learn. So to have a smaller start but faster pipeline might not be that bad. Combined with real progression like masteries or earning something cosmetic for existing gods would be more important than just more gods.
If they added verticality I would have dropped smite immediately. I don't want to play some bullshit shooter game. I want to play a moba whether it is 3rd person or top down. As soon as you have verticality, your game is no longer a moba, and its feeling will change completely. To be honest that's the problem with smite. It's a gateway game into mobas for shooter gamers, so I understand wanting to have verticality and stuff like that. But if you come from the moba genre, this change is garbage, and loses you a lot of the players that want to play an actual moba. Unfortunately, smite is the moba for people who don't like mobas.
@@Flowtactics And the game is dead. It does add another layer, but it's not something moba players care about, so naturally the game dies. Predecessor caters to an even more niche category of gamers. It's closer to a shooter than to a moba. It's a shooter with towers. Moba players don't care about it, and there's a billion shooter games, so shooter players don't care about it either. And it's not like I haven't tried it. I've played it for a couple hours, but it's too far from a moba for me to like. Same thing with all my friends. Same thing with pretty much everyone because the game is dead.
Why don’t they just get rid of magical and physical all together if they are going to use int and strength. A lot less confusing and makes much more sense. Also making it so you have to build both protections if the team comp is all “physical” or “magical”
yea what incon was saying made me do a double take, like he was explaining a common misconception abt them, it kinda comes across that phys dmg could actually be int too? but IIRC its not like that, and IS actually just as simple as they've exchanged a couple words around. they should absolutely drop the old wording if so
Also I have to say this: "Smite 2" should have never been a game outside of regular smite, they should have upgraded the game instead of creating a "brand new one"... which is basically the same game, they should be working on having only smite 2 live and transferring everything from the 1 to the 2
it actually annoys me how my friends all say that hirez has "no reason" to have continued making gods and doing smite1 like they were last year, or that it would be a "waste of resources" to do so because making wild wacky changes to the game isn't content. it isn't development. in fact they have been making changes that seem like they're preparing people for smite2. all my friends seem to have the same kind of mindsets that companies kill games with so I cant even talk about smite 2 with them. but at least my concerns are apparently shared with plenty of the community
I feel like some of the problem is what expectations are for an alpha. people expecting a bunch of gods for an alpha is a little crazy. Also expecting a progression is also weird since people would get upset with resets. I would not expect a lot of sustained viewership for an alpha because most people probably want to wait for the full game. I stopped playing Bauldur;s Gate early access/betas because I didn't want to ruin the final experience (I know it is different with a story game but a similar sentiment exists especially with an existing similar game).
I'll say this also, me personally I played since open beta, my playtime has fallen from 2k hours spent in season 3 to maybe 40 hours season 9, 4 hours season 11. Huge drop compared to daily play both for me and huge groups of my friends. Smite 2 has my interest and the interest of a lot of my friends who have been basically absent for half a decade. If they can reclaim players who left basically because the game got stale and weird not because they hated it, then that could be a huge boon. Past few years I've basically watched patch notes show for new gods but hadn't played much really since Cthulhu. I do see deadlock being a hurdle, I don't disagree with your thoughts on the matter. In my absence I have jumped between hero shooters and the general vibe of the genre is compelling and benefits from smites third person play. Smite has always struggled with content creation and it is looking risky.
So before I suggest this, Yes I played both alphas I think a combination of things will at least get more people playing the alpha. So many people tried out the alpha first time around because things were extremely fresh and many things weren't coming out, they need to be careful when they release these alpha weekends, I don't think the amount of people that played the first alpha is sustainable, UNLESS they focus on releasing more gods into smite 2, the limited god pool really kills the freshness of the game for most people as many people are attached to a handful of gods, if your god Isn't in the alpha you probably are only mildly interested, maybe enough to watch a youtube video on it or a little bit of a stream not to play. Along side that as I keep saying conquest despite being the main mode they balance around will never be as fun and simple as arena, I assume they're cooking on some big changes for arena in smite 2 but even if they copy pasted it from smite 1 more people would be willing to play because conquest is just not that big of a draw . Lastly people also mainly were curious about how gods played with diversified builds and the small reworks made to gods, hades is cool as shit, if he needs a nerf a cooldown nerf on his ult is a decently easy fix or maybe putting whatever ability he uses in his ult on cooldown even after he gets out of his ult, gods should feel impactful when their kit is up. Sol Changes are a very nice QOL change. Outside of that while I am glad they made certain changes, the second alpha just didn't have as much meat as the first one, Since many Ui elements were fixed, I think we should focus on 4 things for a bit now, God Reworks/more additions to the god pool, Bug fixes, Server stability, and hitting an enemy god needs to feel more impactful from autos, dot effects etc, I don't know it just doesn't feel as good as it does in smite 1, things feel very airy/weightless
the thing that draws me to smite over other MOBAs is the 3rd person combat. i really dont vibe with top down. im also a huge fan of mythology and the characters being based off that draws me to learn about new gods that are cool and me playing as gods im a fan of already. because of that i most likely would alwayy stay with smite. this other game sounds enticing and ill try it out for sure but i know ill come back.
I personally don’t think this is going to work out honestly. I feel like the biggest issue is that no matter how you look at it, we are getting a new game with less content. Most people aren’t going to be happy switching to a game with less gods, less modes. I know the god issue specifically is a big problem for me. I’ve got every god in Smite to diamond except the last couple of new gods. Going from 120+ gods I can choose from to even half that amount doesn’t excite me. And when I got on the Alpha and went into practice pretty much every god felt the exact same. I also spend a lot of time currently playing modes like Assault and not Conquest. I also spend time playing Predecessor. Smite 2 is going to have to be incredible for me to really get into it. I’ve spent 5k hours in Smite. It’s legitimately my most played game of all time and I’m 36 years old, but so far I don’t know if they can do what they need to do for Smite 2. They simply have to move faster.
They will eventually reach there, all of these things wil be answered sooner or later, and telling by the bases of the sequel, when they reach there this will be better than Smite1. The real problem is if they can reach there before is too late.
@@jomaroal22 I think the biggest issue is what Incon said in the video. They are sunsetting Smite 1 and putting it out to pasture it feels like when Smite 2s timeline is just not anywhere close to the point where people can easily switch over.
Legit this video made me look up deadlock lol. Also Smite really sounds like the overwatch to overwatch 2 deal. Like it's isn't doing enough to justify itself right away and is harming the original
So 3 separate times while watching this video I had to check my video quality... To me that says a lot because the game doesn't look good. I hope it's just me because the idea of smite 2 excites me. I didn't play the alpha 1 or 2 so I hope it looks better in game.
Was really struggling to get into it on console. Everything just felt bad. I know it’s an alpha and things will improve, but sooo much needs improving that I’m concerned. Specifically using relics and navigating the store was a fresh Hell each time (L2+LS to activate an item? Really?).
gods should feel powerful, but not unkillable, many things that seem overtuned can easily in my opinion be balanced by a longer cooldown, for example, hades ult. as I keep stating, conquest as a new mode needs to be simplified people will literally stay away from the alpha until arena and or assault is playable, which I understand is not their main focus but, once they increase the god pool a little bit more, I think arena should be playable in alpha
Deadlock is more of a shooter than a moba. I think they will take way more players from Overwatch than from Smite. But ofc, it depends how Hirez will continue to develop Smite 2. They need to hire more people in my opinion, 2 gods per month is not enough.
Hi Rez is weird sometimes because they will have their cash cow but take away resources to build it up other games that end up failing. Like they don’t want to be a one hit wonder 😅 I don’t think smite 1 will lose all their players because this reminds me of destiny and how the sequel pulled a lot of player from D1. Smite 2 already feels better than Overwatch 2 as well so that’s good
None of my friends got into the alpha, hell I know 0 people who got invited without the founders pack, ofc there's gonna be a huge dropoff if its pay to play.
Unpoplar opinion maybe, but Smite 2 felt like a fanmade remake of Smite 2. The items do not make me go "woah", the graphics look "realistically dull", the sound effects are very crunchy and old-fashioned. And the worst part... Optimization. And yes, my LAPTOP is kinda old. But being able to play Smite on constant 60-65 fps was great. I played Smite 2 on like, 30 fps. Also lowest settings look awful. You can't remove the weird shiny bloom which I would turn off EVEN IF I HAD A MONSTER GAMING PC. The Int+Str system feels weird. Many people might disagree, but I liked that Gods had Magic-Physical seperation.
Halfway through this video I was like "Damn yeah Smite 2 is actually sounding pretty good if Incon is praising it this much..." And then right at the end of the video I'm thinking "Well shit Incon bro if you want to get back in the competitive scene and play a different game with the boys then hell yeah you go fuck those overwatch noobs up brother"
Incon getting back into competitive would be hype af. I think especially so if it were smite 2, but still pretty hype even in another game (assuming it's good).
I assume Smite 2 will have arena. I only play arena. It will be all about queue times and player base in Smite 2. I like the graphic experience enough in Smite 1 that I don't really see a need for Smite 2 unless they start adding some real content features as a result of the engine upgrade. I do not like the traditional conquest / league of legends format game. But I do enjoy the pve content Smite has had in the past. Maybe more of that in Smite 2? Time will tell.
I was excited by smite 2 but then I was victim of a strategy hirez is using to force players move to smite 2, I think. I had 2 smite account that never got a message about report, nor suspension nor anything. Suddenly both were banned. I opened a ticket and hirez has a bot answering the ticket. I can only think they did so to push me to smite 2. I won’t be playing smite anymore
HiRez really thought they could take 90% of smite devs stick them on 2 and completely ignore smite for the most part and all the pros and content creators would just wait around for a year. They really needed to fully support smite 1 for longer but being cheap bit them in the ass.
The problem is, Smite. One is going to die, before Smite too. Even has 50% of what Smite one had, the god roster is tiny, what made Smite a unique MOBA was the massive amount of characters it had, and not facing the same character every single game, They should have waited a year
People need to remeber ITS AN ALPHA hey literally just started making thid game. People need to chill out and think about the future for once. The future of this game has the potential to be a million times bettwr than smite 1. We need to shport hirez on this
30:50 It's really hard for me to watch gameplay of smite 2 mainly because I don't understand what's happening since I don't play it and that most of the games I've seen where very heavily one sided and boring to watch.
I played 1 NA game and then only 1 OCE custom in AW2, it was a very fast fall off. I did enjoy AW1 for hours on end though, but AW2 was just so flat feeling, nothing new, nothing exciting to draw me back. I don't think I'll play NA again either. Not worth the badly optimised + shit ping combo.
People ragequit in literally every game I play Even had 2 games, I was playing with a friend and 2 of our games all 3 of our other teammates left the match
So it sounds like all the issues aren't actually issues. Limited god pool will obviously get fixed over time. Optimization is the last thing you think about in an alpha stage. All the systems designs being in a good state is the most important thing for them to be figuring out at this point.
While this is true the issue lies at the end of the video. Smite 1 is cratering before Smite 2 is ready. The timing is off from Hi-Rez, we needed Smite 2 started a full year before it was started. Smite just hit a 5 year low player base and Smite 2 simply isn't ready.
@@InconSSG The shuttering of SPL this year is for sure a slap in the face to pros, many of whom are also big content creators that drive a lot of interest in Smite. Hi-Rez took a gamble with releasing such an early alpha, but it should lead to the highest chance of a good game in the end; even if it does eat into current Smite 1 interest. At the end of the day I believe that if Smite 2 is great, being a FTP game means that people will come back when it releases. Probably.
@@InconSSGCall me cynical, but I feel like that's only a true "problem" from the perspective of streamers whose livelihood is tied to Smite as a property. It's really not so horrible for most people to take this opportunity to take a break from the game. I'm not saying you're in the wrong for wanting it to be handled better, because I'm in no way giving Hi-Rez a pass for anything. They absolutely should have been working on this longer and realized the direction Smite was taking sooner.
@@NickyCrunchI see this game as smite 1.5 not 2 in every way.
@@dixnyomouff6982 What would a Smite sequel have to do to earn the "2" in your eyes then? To me, the direction they're taking is on par with a proper sequel. Certainly compared to OW2 at the very least.
“If everything is broken and OP, then the game is actually balanced.”
The OG Modern Warfare 2 method. Hell yeah
If it ain't broke (but is actually broke) don't fix it :)
This is good because it allows for all sorts of ideas and combinations to be used. Obviously over time there will be clear winners and losers, but until then it will be great if everything is unbalanced across the board.
Hirez needs to put all hands on deck for Smite 2. If anything, Deadlock should scare them and need to fire on all pistons. Because lets be honest if Smite 2 fails, Hirez is done
Deadlock looks ass
you and incon seem to think that hi rez can simultaneously throw everything into smite 2 then have a game changing content filled smite 1 patch. you can’t have your cake and eat it too. incon is desperately trying to find a way out of smite so he can keep streaming full time without having to do any work to actually be entertaining
Long time TH-cam watcher and longtime smite player - very impressed with the analysis of the alpha and thank you for always making the best smite content 👌🏻
Regarding your point about 'only 30% of the players from the first alpha participating in the second alpha': speaking for myself and my friends, we are from Brazil. In the first alpha, the excitement was enough to overlook the lack of a Brazilian server. In the second alpha, though we understood and really liked the game, the server issue became more significant than the initial hype. Therefore, I will only play when we have our own server. I can't speak for everyone, but I believe that most players from Latin America experienced the same issue.
Agreed!
Also exam season for many parts of the world. So that will also lessen the amount of people.
Yeah, it's very limiting to play AA when you have a high ping in the server.
I'm so glad i have your notifications turned on because I miss smite and seeing this video is very informative and I know you're an extremely reliable resource on not just gameplay but knowledge on what is needed to know on what is going on with Hi-Rez and its golden goose Smite and potential franchise.
3:05 got confused looking at you like wth , where that arm come from hah
just started the vid and came to see if anyone was confused as I am lmao
I can see why you say that smite 2 needs to release before deadlock, I don't fully agree with that 100%, but I do think that smite 2 (whenever it releases) NEEDS TO BE AS FAR AWAY FROM DEADLOCK AS POSSIBLE. Yesterday, Weaken literally said that he was putting together a team for Deadlock to play in a test soon. It is not looking good for Smite AT ALL. It took way too long to get these alpha tests going the community was waiting months for these tests, meanwhile smite 1 content just up and died For No Reason. I really like the ideas in Smite 2. I think the new item system is good. Likewise, I think that actives could be good, but it is one of the factors alienating controller players right now. I think the game's map is lacking an art style right now, it looks more like a generic UE5 map rather than a successor of Smite. It's only been 6 days of Alpha, and I feel like people are already sick of this map and its design.
On another note, part of the reason Smite 2 player counts dropped by 2/3s is that in its current state it is a worse smite with less content. I started a Reddit thread about this last night (What does Smite 2 need to survive) and one of the comments summed up the situation beautifully, He stated that he isn't interested in the Alphas or in Smite 2 in general because "What's the actual hook or selling point of all this besides the graphical/technical and developing improvements." This right now with smite 2 this is all that is promised. The game is so early that we can't really feel the "2" in Smite 2.
What makes smite unique, was the massive amount of God pools, the massive amount of items, one of the few mobas that you could do multi rolls with, But right now, everyone's lost 90% of the characters, they've lost all their skins, Lost all the progression, in smite 2. There's no worshiper counter yet, lots of the things I'm mentioning here are going to be obviously put in the game at a later point, But what was the point of shutting down Smite one competitive and development so early? If Smite too isn't even remotely ready for community play, the only thing they did is damn their own game before it needed to be
I'm saying this as a person whose 2 favorite games might be Super Monday Night Combat and Battleborn; Deadlock looks like crap. I don't think anyone has anything to worry about, it's going to flop harder than Battleborn which was actually good just marketed very ignorantly
Agreed for the most part, I’d say for Deadlock the game doesn’t seem like a real replacement for smite but can definitely be a competitor. It honestly seems pretty boring but I could be wrong but it lacks the personality that smite has and it’d be hard for them to shift from the theme they already have. Smite 2 will be fine but they need to lock in with development and really step it up.
@@mattyryon I 100% agree. The people saying Deadlock is going to replace Smite 2 are delusional. The feedback from most people seeing the footage of Deadlock is also very negative. Incon is blowing the game completely out of proportion. It may have a small amount of hype behind the release simply bc it's backed by Valve, but there is no way it's outlasting or replacing Smite. Just go the the videos of the alpha footage of Deadlock and look at the comments. All of them are saying how the game looks boring asf, and it's bc it DOES look boring asf.
@@THEDILLYWIGGLE Oof, underestimating Valve sounds like a GREAT idea hahaha I was in that reddit thread, it was a great discussion!
The whole system sounds so much more streamlined. I can't wait for final product
Honestly, at least from my personal perspective, it feels like the extremely loyal pros and general player base is a joke to Hi-Rez. Feel absolutely taken advantage of & taken for granted. They just pulled the rug out completely from under the pros AT WORLDS. It’s just so many fumbles and it feels like they don’t care what we want or think. It just hurts my heart because this has been a game close to my heart for over 10 years… I really wish they did things differently. At this point I hope another game like deadlock takes all the talented pros away from smite because in my opinion Hi-Rez doesn’t deserve them any longer.
Can we just talk about it, what the hell was that video about Hades hi rez dropped recently? "We don't want to remodel Hades cause we love Hades" meanwhile more than half of the players think otherwise. First lesson of being a game dev, Kill your darlings Hi Rez. Am I being unreasonable here or what?
I'll agree with you here. I don't think you're being unreasonable. While I personally don't think Hades' model looks that bad, if your players don't like it, it's not good for the game. If smite 2 just ends up being the circle jerk product of a small group of developers, I might just swap to a different game. It seems Deadlock is fun? Might even try competitive in that game.
It's also not necessarily about the model quality, but the design of the character in general. People are also asking about minor tweaks, but that was too much already? @@Anirudhji2001
Catering to the vocal minority has been the downfall of a few games. Hades seemed a lil smaller than one would expect otherwise he/his abilities looked fine. Much more important things to worry about. They shouldn’t even have addressed it imo.
I completely agree with you, them dropping that video was stupid AF if they really didn't want to change the design, do not drop a video about not wanting to change the design. You're bringing attention to the fact people wanted you to change the design.
So, they went Int and Strength just to also leave Physical and Magical damage? What a cluster man. Gonna be tough to get a grasp on this plus grasping all the items. Or, maybe not.
I played the first Alpha, but I hate conquest, and Smite is not a friendly game for people who are overhwhelmed by conquest, so when they add Arena back, I'll try it again. I prefer assault, but I'll try it. It's not about being bored, it's about hating the way Conquest overwhelms me and the players are completely awful to new conquest players. So, sure, focus on conquest, but there's more than just boredom involved with the drop off in players.
This is me. I have around 5,000 matchs of assault and arena with just 100 conquest matches. Just dont like that came mode. Had a thousand clash matches until they removed that one.
@@Mike_W78 I like Slash way more than Clash, for some reason. They aren't HUGELY different. But I'm glad I'm not alone.
Same for me, I've accepted I'm a "casual" and the fact is after a long day of work, i would rather play some assault than conquest 😅
Appreciate the honesty here, i will try both and probably watch your stuff regardless
The feel of the combat is still fundamentally worse than Smite 1 and as long as that is the case, EVERYTHING else is secondary imo.
Completely agree. As well as the UI
Played one game, felt bad. Went back to smite 1
I slap in smite 2 but doesn’t feel as good as slapping in smite 1 I played smite 1 during the alpha weekend
1000% agree
I feel like the things contributing to that feel of combat are the things that will take the longest for them to dial in. I have faith
you guys always look down on arena, but arena is the most played mode in smite
You did a whole video about the question I asked the other day, in stream 😊
I think they should have put more work before releasing anything to the public. We keep hearing how it’s gonna get better with time when that’s what they should have done in the first place. Now we have everyone with a bad idea of the game when this is hopefully not gonna be how it’s gonna feel when it’s polished
Steam deck player here, at lowest settings, game runs ok (in a bad way) and pretty much makes SMITE 1 the better looking game.
Solution to people rage quitting. If you quit a match then your next two matches you are a filler and get dropped into games to fill spots of other quitters.
It has the bones, but does it have the guts?
I thought the athena dash was straight up a buff not a bug they gave to her lol
Yo I even read the ability and it said "Athena dashes and deals damage. After charging slows" so I was sure it was intentional, and I loved it
I don't know about it looking better smite one has a distinct look that smite 2 doesn't have, the animations are better but the art style is more generic.
I just wish I had a chance to test it. 2 of my friends got in and didn't even play it.
Deadlock for sure will kill smite 2's growth if it releases before smite 2, i will 100% switch to deadlock as long as it is fun
There already was a hero shooter that had a lot of MOBA elements. It was Battleborn. Was a lot of fun, but launched right up against Overwatch and really never had a chance.
Also Gigantic. Both failed already. As they are hybrid games, they do not fully satisfy MOBA enjoyers or Hero shooter enjoyers yet tbh
Predecessor exists too
Battleborn was such a disappointment going from the hype leading up to it and actually getting hands on it. Game felt very unfinished.
@@JehushMahadeo Yeah, wich also failed 2 times already. I hope this time they actually survive, some competition may encourage Smite devs to improve the game
"it's a brand new type of game. It's a hero shooter on a moba map"
Cries in Super Monday Night Combat 😢
I didn't play much Alpha 2 because with Anhur removed and two mages added, every match was was guaranteed to have Hades and Sol on both sides, so it felt wrong wanting to pick yet-another mage if I wanted to try Zeus or get more time on Kulkulkan this go around. The server connection being spotty and high ping was an issue that made it less fun to play, and I gotta be honest - I've never been a PTS guy. I don't love playing without any progression or sense that I'm moving forward on something larger.
The first alpha was a big deal because it was hyped up and the actual first look at the new Smite for everyone. Alpha 2 was a refinement, but didn't add much of note to re-ignite the hype. It's a very empty-feeling game right now. No front-end shop, no post-match stats, no progression, no currency or cosmetics, no parties or clans or chat. It feels suffocating if you're used to what Smite 1 offers. As long as Smite 2 feels like it's this forbidden look into a distinctly unfinished game, I get almost more enjoyment out of watching Incon play it, rather than playing it myself.
I do hope that explains a lot of the numbers dropping from alpha 1. It was exciting, but now that we've had our taste of the direction it's going, an incremental move like adding a couple of characters and tweaking item and map balance isn't enough. The curiosity is sated, and many people will be waiting for something more finished - or at least, holding out for progression.
Optimizations needs to happen as well, which I mean they did say they would work on it at some point but not right now.
i also think them bringing smite 2 this early into closed alpha was also a reaction to predecessor being a UE5 moba. The game announced F2P just before Smite 2 closed alpha had a date to try it. Probably wanted to not take a risk encase it was a threat to their audience and drop that closed alpha earlier
Incon drinking water behind Incon freaked me out, ngl 😂😂
One of the things that concerns me is gods who scale off 1 stat versus those who are split. Gods that care about multiple stats have to make trade offs where as those who are single stat just dont have that problem. I think this is why anhur had such a high winrate. Because he gets it all by building one stat where as like neith has to give up basically 2 of her abilities if she wants to do anything with her basics.
Hi Incon, I haven't played Smite since about 2016-2017, and it's a real nice surprise to see you still going and passionate about the game. I really hope Smite 2 succeeds as the original Smite is what got me into the MOBA genre originally. The future seems a bit shaky as of right now and I would hate to see a game I really cared about and put 3k hours into, die because of issues that could've easily been prevented.
Though to be honest, I don't feel like Deadlock would be the thing that kills Smite, rather Hi-Rez' own incompetence would. The games feel far too different. If anything, Deadlock is a lot more of a threat to Overwatch 2 which has definitely been struggling since its launch, and TF2 which has a major bot problem for years that Valve continues to ignore. I would expect TF2 especially to basically eat shit and die as soon as Deadlock releases, but I guess that's just how it goes in the industry.
I partially think the decline of MOBAs in general is what would also kill Smite 2 as well, it's well known that the genre has been slowly dying for the last 5+ years now, or at least that's the case for all of the MOBAs except maybe Dota 2. League has certainly been seeing a tumble as of recently because of dodgy mismanagement and lack of community feedback being considered. In Smite's case it just seems like Hi-Rez are playing an extremely risky game that could make or break their leading title, which for a niche genre you definitely do not want to do.
Basically, Smite 2 has to stand out of the crowd somehow, and there can be little room for mistakes going forward, otherwise it's pretty much over for Hi-Rez. And lord almighty, someone PLEASE tell Hi-Rez to actually get a marketing team going, I barely knew about Smite 2's existence and only did because the first game was still in my Steam Library.
I think the only issue I've had between both alphas was how hunters feel. There seems to be this weird disconnect between DPI and the feeling of abilities/autos. I think once that's fixed, hunters will feel great. Warriors / Guards feel strong. Mages feel broken lol. Overall, feeling positive for Smite 2.
It's wild how many people in comments don't understand test and dev phases. This early of an Alpha is not a representation of how the game will feel or play like at all. They are still just making sure the foundation is sound before they even consider feel and balance. Also a lot of "not same means bad". It needs to not be the same, the old way wasn't retaining or getting new players.
But the alpha is the base game they are going to be working on. And if the base is bad nothing new, the game will fail to attract new players.
Mate the game will be the same as original smite is nothing different or all stop with this bullshit as new items or whatever, same Devs same shit
@@serghonest9That is a ridiculous oversimplification of the process of making a video game. They’re testing the TECH right now, not the actual game. They’re making sure it functions at a reliable level before adding to it. You’re basically having a slice of cake before it’s cooked or mixed and saying “yeah this sucks” before the actual cake has been cooked.
This alpha experience has given me full insight in just how stupid the average consumer is and makes me worried if I've ever said anything 10% as dumb as what i've seen smite 2 players say. HiRez is dealing with the dumbest people on earth I swear to god.
@@bentoomet8805 You've clearly never made a game before. You don't just "test tech" for fun. They have limited resources so every added mechanic needs to be as close to its final form as possible so they can improve it over time. Of course they will tweak and improve things, but the game is already what you see: Smite 1 on a new engine. And that won't attract new players.
i think Alpha 2 should have been the first Alpha testing phase imo
Wowzers, thanks for the informative video, Incon. Hi Rez is likely quaking in their boots at the moment...
there´s no SPL anymore? I usually just watched the SWC and not the season matches so, Ï´m not up to date on that
i've recently got access to a key from deadlock, wasn't super interested in actually playing it as i loved SMITE/SMITE 2 competitive, but what you were saying at the end of the video makes alot of sense, and so after the content creator cup im gonna try deadlock, as i need to be honest with myself and keep as many doors open as i can :)
As far as progression is concerned, usually the whole point of Alpha's and Beta's is that there's not meant to be any progression, that's kind of the whole point. Any progression that would be made in an Alpha or Beta would usually be reset to nothing even in MMORPG's. Same thing happened in Baldur's Gate 3 early access which was basically a Beta. Making progression possible in a Beta would be unfair to anyone that doesn't have access to the Beta.
The only middle ground I could suggest is that Hi-Rez implement a system that tracks playtime/wins/kills etc and perhaps has milestone's to hit in those things when the Beta comes out that would give you some kind of unique reward from playing the Beta and accomplishing those milestones like skins, fountains, borders, avatars etc. That way players have something cool to play for which would encourage more people to play the Beta whilst also not giving Beta players a head start on levelling up their favourite god.
Speaking for me and only for myself, I took some time off irl so I could participate in the first smite 2 alpha, but I couldn’t do that for the second. I had just taken off time For Momocon and I didn’t have the energy to play the alpha after work
honestly, I'm really interested just busy with life and don't currently have a system to be able to play smite too. I don't think and definitely will be one of those with a cheap "gaming "laptop or PC or a PS five but right now to be invested on, I don't even have to play on a purely accessibility standpoint, but still incredibly excited for smite 2
35:40 can confirm, played a match where one person not knowing where to go goes to short lane and DCs when someone was with em.....they went to duo n left because they had someone with them "taking farm" we tried to teach him but he just leaves before we could even type anything out, so i think i understand where adding Arena comes from because damn mf
So the game Dead lock is Battleborn for thoes of you remember that game its the game that was killed by overwatch
thank you for pointing out the optimization since thats what i reported too in the survey and rly needs to be fixed . and i think hirez would actually listen to you xD
I played one game in the new alpha. Mainly because there was no changes. so it was one and done. Went and played normal smite for awhile then other games.
Doing a duo lane sol/neith was wild this weekend
I had 3 games of 6 played that had solo Chaac 's disappear at like 8 minutes
Umm. I dunno if the existence of Deadlock changes my interest in SMITE 2. Deadlock is more of a rival to Overwatch and Marvel Rivals. Also, the God Designs that SMITE has, is what brings me into the game. I haven't seen any of the designs for Deadlock, but if its another Hero Shooter; then I dunno if its a direct competitor to SMITE.
That said, I say this as a casual player. Competitive gaming has never interested me. Which is why that even though I "bought" access to the Alpha, I have not jumped in to it. Because Conquest is the "main competitive mode" and I have no interest in that. So maybe Deadlock eats up the content creation scene & pro players of SMITE. But I can't relate.
What I do seem to understand is that with SMITE 2, is that their timeline is an issue. But... I think SMITE as a game has always been a 50/50 competitive vs casual. And let's not ignore the power of the casual side. The casual side is usually where Hi-Rez gets their Skin Money. Casuals are where you get crossovers with V-Shojo or TMNT or Transformers. Casuals are the ones who buy Aphro and Achilles skins and Neith skins and Belonna skins... and I don't think that is going to stop right away. No healthy game can survive without both a competitive and casual scene, but I see the casual side get ignored a LOT. And if I had to bet; Hi-Rez can survive without a competitive scene LONGER than it can without a casual scene. Both roads lead to "End of Service", but one can keep a company afloat longer than the other.
I was also asking myself, why would I want to play Smite 2 if it doesn't run smoothly? Like okay, it looks better, but all of that gets lost due to the game not being fun due to lag for example. For me it runs okayish on my pc rn, but I would not play this in the long run if keeps lagging like this. I would just prefer smite 1 that runs smoothly on my pc with max settings. Also what u said, I also turned off lumen and that helped a lot. But when I turn down all the other graphical settings nothing changes, so those are not the problem for me. It probably has something to do with the intense lighting and rendering.
As long as the game runs fast on lower settings it's fine that the highest settings run slow. I would actually consider the highest end settings running slow a good thing, it measn they're pushing the graphics farther, and people can choose between higher FPS or better looking graphics. They absolutely do need it to run fast on the lowest settings though.
80% of my games was either 4v4 from the start or leaver under 5 minutes.
I have no problems with the current items. I do hate that consumables take an item slot when you have to build 2-4 items at a time to get a single item.
Just FWIW i think aggro said the alpha 1 build had been around for quite a while, so its more like 2-3 months of development time between
Personally, I'm enjoying Smite 2 quite a bit. Does it need work? Sure. More gods is a big one for me as well as progression. Get those two things in there and I'd be ready to play it more. As for the new game you were talking about. I'm sure it'll pull some people away, but for me personally. Shooter games are a dime a dozen. I've played so many shooters in my life that I just don't ever see one coming out that could grab my attention for long term. Even with moba aspects, I just don't care for shooter games. Hell, I've even tried Gigantic (both times haha). It's a hero shooter/moba hybrid and I just don't like the moba style gameplay mixed with a shooter. Again, I'm sure some will love it, but for me I could care less about a shooter (in any flavor). I think we all need to chill a bit, too many people going doom and gloom already. Look at Smite 1 right now and compare it to how it looked when it was in Alpha. HiRez absolutely has the potential to make Smite 2 a banger, that is my opinion anyway.
I completely see your point but the situation is different to what it once was. MOBAs are more popular now than they ever were, and there are a lot more of them coming out now than when Smite initially came out. Smite has taken over 10 years to be in the spot it is in now, where other MOBAs have done it significantly quicker. It's a race and Hi-Rez seems to be losing it.
@@Anirudhji2001 Eh... I don't know that I agree that MOBAs are more popular now than ever before. I also don't think that games are in a state where first to market is an auto win on this stuff. There have been far too many games in the past few years that have rushed to market just to bomb. IMO it's far more important to release in a good state than it is to rush to market. So I think we have to be careful in saying it's just a race. It's a race to greatness not just to get to market. If Deadlock releases soon before Smite 2, then it's more important than ever that HiRez get's it right so they can have impact when they release. They have to build this game for the future not to be a flash in the pan.
Something interesting that you mention is that the MOBA/Hybrid already exists with battleborn and gigantic, but it failed lots of times already. As a hybrid game between a hero shooter and a moba, it looks like it doesnt fully satisfy either mobas players or hero shooters players. Lets see if deadlock is any difference, because if not, its not going to be a problem at all. Personally I did not like the hybrid, it feels like you dont get the full experience from neither game genres, and i already love both of them separetly
@@jomaroal22 Yes I agree with you on it not satisfying either genre well. I've tried the hybrids, and they just feel lacking. Like, my brain is just not in moba mode if I'm playing a shooter and I can tell you that the shooter fans brought into that system are going to be so tunnel visioned that the moba aspect for moba players is going to be frustrating on a team level. That is my prediction anyway. As frustrated as I can get with players and objectives on Smite, it's been far worse when I've played these hero shooter moba hybrids.
Again, this is all just my opinion and you know what I think everyone should just play what they enjoy. I just don't see Smite and Deadlock as being so comparable that there is only room for one of them in the market. I just don't think the situation is that dire right now. Could losing pro players to it be an issue, in the short term yes. But who thinks that the current pros in Smite are the only way an SPL could exist? Most of them have been around for a long time and fresh pros in the system isn't a bad thing. I'd of course like to see many of them stick around but I don't think it's completely make or break on the current pros alone.
My biggest problem is that ymir shouldn’t be able to one shot burst and not get one shot burst himself. Idk if it’s specifically with ymir but he’s definitely needs something to make it where he isn’t ridiculous damage and good tanking ability. Bc what would the point be to play a different god like Loki when you can just face rush the enemy team with ymir and then get a couple kills while you’re at it
I thought the game has amazing potential, the active items are an awesome change and can’t wait to see what else is to come! Being able to have such versatile builds is great although I have seen a lot of players expressing the fact they are confused what to build.
Having hades being able to use his 1 or 3, 3x in a row was wild!
Ymir double freeze crit was a monster as well, fcking love it!
BTW I’m on console and had no issue with buying items, most the time I was faster then the pc players they made it so easy
So uhhh, do you got an in with deadlock...?
He's probably been contacted by them, yes. No indication on if he's said yes, but I'd argue he's inclined to saying yes.
Long story short, they looked at Dota 2 and said huhh nice game lets try to take some ideas from there.
Content and attention will naturally increase when the game releases, I am missing your point. I don't want it to build massive hype too early and Hirez can't deliver since it's in Alpha only. Make a great game = benefits everyone
If Weaken, Incon and the pros leave that’s a massive hit for them. HiRez has alway been terrible at marketing. The game has a small niche in popularity as is. Most people are loyal to the creators now. If it’s terrible release or ill marketed without its current creator. HIrez is dead in water.
The game felt better but 2 basic hit crit ymir was rampant in most my games and think there are some balancing needed with items themselves but as a Hades main i have wanted the ult adjustment he got for so long and it was amazing to have a jungle Hades
Looking at the current god list, are they dropping the Hindi pantheon?
I'm sad i couldn't play Alpha 2, i was actualy not aviable at that time...
Anyway, thanks for the vid and your toughts !
Smite is such a good and unlucky game
That deadlock game sounds fire
Look for Gigantic, they created that premise years ago. Sadly, the hybrid formula is not that appealing to Moba enjoyers or hero shooter enjoyers yet. Lets see what Valve is going to do to not fail like Gigantic did 2 times already.
Hey, I agree with most that has been said but wanted to give my take on a few things.
First about the God count. To me personally, I don't care how many there will be on 24/7 servers. I would be more interested to have a small amount at the start, but high frequency of them being added. For example start with 16ish and then add 1 or 2 each week. This way it would be "like" the progression. Constant new stuff that changes how people play, discovering the new gods and how they function with items. Same with the items. More fun crazy items, current phys def ones are kind of booring.
For open beta I think it would be even beneficial. Imo smite community is small at least rn. So there will be more players that never played or played a long time ago than "smite players". With the system changes, all the gods and abilities we have rn, it already will be a lot of information to learn. So to have a smaller start but faster pipeline might not be that bad. Combined with real progression like masteries or earning something cosmetic for existing gods would be more important than just more gods.
Could this be the end for SMITE?
I'm just disappointed that they didn't add any verticality to it.
It truly adds nothing of value
If they added verticality I would have dropped smite immediately. I don't want to play some bullshit shooter game. I want to play a moba whether it is 3rd person or top down. As soon as you have verticality, your game is no longer a moba, and its feeling will change completely.
To be honest that's the problem with smite. It's a gateway game into mobas for shooter gamers, so I understand wanting to have verticality and stuff like that. But if you come from the moba genre, this change is garbage, and loses you a lot of the players that want to play an actual moba. Unfortunately, smite is the moba for people who don't like mobas.
@@3lietechhack646I mean Paragon/Pred is a true moba with Vert. It adds another layer.
@@Flowtactics And the game is dead. It does add another layer, but it's not something moba players care about, so naturally the game dies. Predecessor caters to an even more niche category of gamers. It's closer to a shooter than to a moba. It's a shooter with towers. Moba players don't care about it, and there's a billion shooter games, so shooter players don't care about it either.
And it's not like I haven't tried it. I've played it for a couple hours, but it's too far from a moba for me to like. Same thing with all my friends. Same thing with pretty much everyone because the game is dead.
Rampage is kinda like that too
Why don’t they just get rid of magical and physical all together if they are going to use int and strength. A lot less confusing and makes much more sense. Also making it so you have to build both protections if the team comp is all “physical” or “magical”
Yeah I agree with that. It may be interesting if there was only "dmg" that scalates different with str or int
yea what incon was saying made me do a double take, like he was explaining a common misconception abt them, it kinda comes across that phys dmg could actually be int too? but IIRC its not like that, and IS actually just as simple as they've exchanged a couple words around. they should absolutely drop the old wording if so
Also I have to say this: "Smite 2" should have never been a game outside of regular smite, they should have upgraded the game instead of creating a "brand new one"... which is basically the same game, they should be working on having only smite 2 live and transferring everything from the 1 to the 2
I think optimization should be the most important thing they focus on first. If the game doesn't feel good, why would i want to play it over Smite 1?
it actually annoys me how my friends all say that hirez has "no reason" to have continued making gods and doing smite1 like they were last year, or that it would be a "waste of resources" to do so because making wild wacky changes to the game isn't content. it isn't development. in fact they have been making changes that seem like they're preparing people for smite2. all my friends seem to have the same kind of mindsets that companies kill games with so I cant even talk about smite 2 with them. but at least my concerns are apparently shared with plenty of the community
I feel like some of the problem is what expectations are for an alpha. people expecting a bunch of gods for an alpha is a little crazy. Also expecting a progression is also weird since people would get upset with resets. I would not expect a lot of sustained viewership for an alpha because most people probably want to wait for the full game. I stopped playing Bauldur;s Gate early access/betas because I didn't want to ruin the final experience (I know it is different with a story game but a similar sentiment exists especially with an existing similar game).
I'll say this also, me personally I played since open beta, my playtime has fallen from 2k hours spent in season 3 to maybe 40 hours season 9, 4 hours season 11. Huge drop compared to daily play both for me and huge groups of my friends. Smite 2 has my interest and the interest of a lot of my friends who have been basically absent for half a decade. If they can reclaim players who left basically because the game got stale and weird not because they hated it, then that could be a huge boon. Past few years I've basically watched patch notes show for new gods but hadn't played much really since Cthulhu. I do see deadlock being a hurdle, I don't disagree with your thoughts on the matter. In my absence I have jumped between hero shooters and the general vibe of the genre is compelling and benefits from smites third person play. Smite has always struggled with content creation and it is looking risky.
So before I suggest this, Yes I played both alphas I think a combination of things will at least get more people playing the alpha. So many people tried out the alpha first time around because things were extremely fresh and many things weren't coming out, they need to be careful when they release these alpha weekends, I don't think the amount of people that played the first alpha is sustainable, UNLESS they focus on releasing more gods into smite 2, the limited god pool really kills the freshness of the game for most people as many people are attached to a handful of gods, if your god Isn't in the alpha you probably are only mildly interested, maybe enough to watch a youtube video on it or a little bit of a stream not to play.
Along side that as I keep saying conquest despite being the main mode they balance around will never be as fun and simple as arena, I assume they're cooking on some big changes for arena in smite 2 but even if they copy pasted it from smite 1 more people would be willing to play because conquest is just not that big of a draw .
Lastly people also mainly were curious about how gods played with diversified builds and the small reworks made to gods, hades is cool as shit, if he needs a nerf a cooldown nerf on his ult is a decently easy fix or maybe putting whatever ability he uses in his ult on cooldown even after he gets out of his ult, gods should feel impactful when their kit is up. Sol Changes are a very nice QOL change.
Outside of that while I am glad they made certain changes, the second alpha just didn't have as much meat as the first one, Since many Ui elements were fixed, I think we should focus on 4 things for a bit now, God Reworks/more additions to the god pool, Bug fixes, Server stability, and hitting an enemy god needs to feel more impactful from autos, dot effects etc, I don't know it just doesn't feel as good as it does in smite 1, things feel very airy/weightless
the thing that draws me to smite over other MOBAs is the 3rd person combat. i really dont vibe with top down. im also a huge fan of mythology and the characters being based off that draws me to learn about new gods that are cool and me playing as gods im a fan of already. because of that i most likely would alwayy stay with smite.
this other game sounds enticing and ill try it out for sure but i know ill come back.
I personally don’t think this is going to work out honestly. I feel like the biggest issue is that no matter how you look at it, we are getting a new game with less content. Most people aren’t going to be happy switching to a game with less gods, less modes.
I know the god issue specifically is a big problem for me. I’ve got every god in Smite to diamond except the last couple of new gods. Going from 120+ gods I can choose from to even half that amount doesn’t excite me. And when I got on the Alpha and went into practice pretty much every god felt the exact same. I also spend a lot of time currently playing modes like Assault and not Conquest. I also spend time playing Predecessor. Smite 2 is going to have to be incredible for me to really get into it.
I’ve spent 5k hours in Smite. It’s legitimately my most played game of all time and I’m 36 years old, but so far I don’t know if they can do what they need to do for Smite 2. They simply have to move faster.
They will eventually reach there, all of these things wil be answered sooner or later, and telling by the bases of the sequel, when they reach there this will be better than Smite1. The real problem is if they can reach there before is too late.
@@jomaroal22 I think the biggest issue is what Incon said in the video. They are sunsetting Smite 1 and putting it out to pasture it feels like when Smite 2s timeline is just not anywhere close to the point where people can easily switch over.
Deadlock going to be on console ?
Legit this video made me look up deadlock lol.
Also Smite really sounds like the overwatch to overwatch 2 deal. Like it's isn't doing enough to justify itself right away and is harming the original
So 3 separate times while watching this video I had to check my video quality... To me that says a lot because the game doesn't look good. I hope it's just me because the idea of smite 2 excites me. I didn't play the alpha 1 or 2 so I hope it looks better in game.
Was really struggling to get into it on console. Everything just felt bad. I know it’s an alpha and things will improve, but sooo much needs improving that I’m concerned. Specifically using relics and navigating the store was a fresh Hell each time (L2+LS to activate an item? Really?).
gods should feel powerful, but not unkillable, many things that seem overtuned can easily in my opinion be balanced by a longer cooldown, for example, hades ult.
as I keep stating, conquest as a new mode needs to be simplified people will literally stay away from the alpha until arena and or assault is playable, which I understand is not their main focus but, once they increase the god pool a little bit more, I think arena should be playable in alpha
Deadlock is more of a shooter than a moba. I think they will take way more players from Overwatch than from Smite. But ofc, it depends how Hirez will continue to develop Smite 2. They need to hire more people in my opinion, 2 gods per month is not enough.
Hi Rez is weird sometimes because they will have their cash cow but take away resources to build it up other games that end up failing. Like they don’t want to be a one hit wonder 😅 I don’t think smite 1 will lose all their players because this reminds me of destiny and how the sequel pulled a lot of player from D1. Smite 2 already feels better than Overwatch 2 as well so that’s good
None of my friends got into the alpha, hell I know 0 people who got invited without the founders pack, ofc there's gonna be a huge dropoff if its pay to play.
Unpoplar opinion maybe, but Smite 2 felt like a fanmade remake of Smite 2. The items do not make me go "woah", the graphics look "realistically dull", the sound effects are very crunchy and old-fashioned. And the worst part... Optimization. And yes, my LAPTOP is kinda old. But being able to play Smite on constant 60-65 fps was great. I played Smite 2 on like, 30 fps. Also lowest settings look awful. You can't remove the weird shiny bloom which I would turn off EVEN IF I HAD A MONSTER GAMING PC.
The Int+Str system feels weird. Many people might disagree, but I liked that Gods had Magic-Physical seperation.
06:33 'cause you're getting physically flopped on' made me laugh xD
Halfway through this video I was like "Damn yeah Smite 2 is actually sounding pretty good if Incon is praising it this much..." And then right at the end of the video I'm thinking "Well shit Incon bro if you want to get back in the competitive scene and play a different game with the boys then hell yeah you go fuck those overwatch noobs up brother"
Incon getting back into competitive would be hype af. I think especially so if it were smite 2, but still pretty hype even in another game (assuming it's good).
I assume Smite 2 will have arena. I only play arena. It will be all about queue times and player base in Smite 2. I like the graphic experience enough in Smite 1 that I don't really see a need for Smite 2 unless they start adding some real content features as a result of the engine upgrade. I do not like the traditional conquest / league of legends format game. But I do enjoy the pve content Smite has had in the past. Maybe more of that in Smite 2? Time will tell.
I never liked conquest. I play Arena and a little Slash. Im waiting for game modes i like. Might be a few people in my camp.
I was excited by smite 2 but then I was victim of a strategy hirez is using to force players move to smite 2, I think. I had 2 smite account that never got a message about report, nor suspension nor anything. Suddenly both were banned. I opened a ticket and hirez has a bot answering the ticket. I can only think they did so to push me to smite 2. I won’t be playing smite anymore
I played maybe 1 hour of the second alpha cause 1. Was bored and 2. I was lagging sooooo hard
HiRez really thought they could take 90% of smite devs stick them on 2 and completely ignore smite for the most part and all the pros and content creators would just wait around for a year. They really needed to fully support smite 1 for longer but being cheap bit them in the ass.
The problem is, Smite. One is going to die, before Smite too. Even has 50% of what Smite one had, the god roster is tiny, what made Smite a unique MOBA was the massive amount of characters it had, and not facing the same character every single game, They should have waited a year
People need to remeber ITS AN ALPHA hey literally just started making thid game. People need to chill out and think about the future for once. The future of this game has the potential to be a million times bettwr than smite 1. We need to shport hirez on this
I didn't get to play. No power due to the storms. Oh well.
The game just doesn’t feel like a true sequel, every single change besides the graphics could’ve been done to smite 1.
How..but..they cant build these changes on an old system. It had to be next gen update.
30:50 It's really hard for me to watch gameplay of smite 2 mainly because I don't understand what's happening since I don't play it and that most of the games I've seen where very heavily one sided and boring to watch.
I played 1 NA game and then only 1 OCE custom in AW2, it was a very fast fall off.
I did enjoy AW1 for hours on end though, but AW2 was just so flat feeling, nothing new, nothing exciting to draw me back.
I don't think I'll play NA again either.
Not worth the badly optimised + shit ping combo.
People ragequit in literally every game I play
Even had 2 games, I was playing with a friend and 2 of our games all 3 of our other teammates left the match