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Paladins: Champions of the Realm


HandsomeDead
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Or not-Overwatch.

 

I can't talk about this game without mentioning Overwatch as it is a massive game that a lot of people have played and Paladins is very similar, to the point of being accused of being a clone.  But while I don't believe that since games like this take years to plan and the were announced and released very close to one-another I think it's fair to say it isn't strictly a clone, especially since the devs history shows they've made a number of games that look like they could easily and naturally lead to this.  But there is also no doubt that they have certainly leaned into being a lot like Overwatch around and post release.

 

So its a hero shooter where you pick a character with specific skills that are tied to a certain class like Defence or Support, but this time you can't change mid-match which is an alteration I'm not against since it potentially requires some creative use out of a character if things aren't going well.  If you have played Overwatch then the characters will be very familiar.  Some are like character X from OW, and other are like a mix of Y and Z.  And there are the odd few that draw inspiration from elsewhere.

I kinda like this even as someone who played a lot of OW because Paladins feels like some weird remix where you have a character who is a mix of Tracer and Mei and trying to deal with that combo is kinda fun.

 

On a pure gameplay level it is some OW style fun but it doesn't have the character of OW.  A bunch of them are quite fun looking and charming but OW has some straight up modern iconography which is hard to stand next to.  And Paladins doesn't have the character or polished presentation of OW.  Character voices don't stand out as much and it makes following the gameplay a little harder since you don't have distinct verbal calls and attack effects.

You know, the character and the polish in OW helps communicate the gameplay a lot and that's not quite here in Paladins, or at least its not as clear.

 

I'm sounding more down on it than I actually am.  Like I said, I'm enjoying what feels like a remix of characters to me coming from OW.  And, tbh, since its been a while since I played OW playing a game that has a much lower current skill level is making it kinda chill (though not all the time).  Actually, skill level is wrong... I sometimes get frustrated at some players' I've come across and their decision making.

 

 

Currently I'm into it.  Dunno how long for but I'm on Switch if anyone wants to play some not-Overwatch with non psychos.

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I tried to think of a suitable reaction GIF when I saw that but I was so saddened by the pun that my mind was blank.

 

I'm a bit further in now and finding my groove.  I'm just playing it F2P and you only have five characters to use, but there is three others you can use which I think are on a rotation.  I haven't counted how many there is but it seems like a lot.  Maybe thirty to forty.

Much like OW people really don't like being the healer of the team so I've found myself in that role a lot but I didn't mind too much because the healer you get at the start isn't bad.  He's sorta Zenyatta-ish who is my go to healer on OW.

But I unlocked another with in-game currency who is similar but I like quite a bit more.  She's called Furia, a Valkyrie kinda character, and is also Zenyatta-ish but healing people powers up her rifle so she's also kinda Zarya-esque in play-style (who was my tank of choice).  But her other abilities make her quite offensive: an attack that stuns and a barrage of quite powerful projectiles that launch while she does a back-dash.

 

So now I can have shooty fun while also keeping the idiots alive.

 

It does mean I've not played with the more offensive characters yet.  People even seem to be quite averse to the defensive tanks but the one in temporary rotation now is quite good and I think I'll be unlocking her next.

 

I'm hoping when I've levelled up enough to play the ranked mode (which is ripped straight from OW) I'll hopefully come across more varied play-styles in the players.

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4 hours ago, retroed said:

Ying's my favourite character.

 

She seems tricky going by her skill description.  A sort of healing Symmetra.  I'd try her but since characters aren't cheap to unlock I'm being more conservative and unlocking characters that I feel suite my play-style. 

 

Though in OW Symmetra doesn't seem like a character I'd like on paper but did end up liking and being pretty good with.  So it's hard to tell. 

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I ended up buying a battle pass for this the other day.  It was just over a tenner, but it got to a point where unlocking characters was going to be a long process.  Buying them individually is quite expensive but the battle pass basically gives you more stuff when you level up so it actually looks to be the most economic way of doing it.  And since I'm planning to play this for
at least a month I went for it.  And having a more satisfying ranking up experience is helping me enjoy the game a bit more.  Before I was getting a pittance every two or three levels.

 

I managed to unlock two characters fine but the F2P plateau hit then the game wanted money so it got some.  You need to be level 15 and have 12 characters to play ranked and I knew I'd be stuck on 7 for a while.  But now I have 12 so time to play with the big kids on ranked.

 

Ranked matches are kinda weird.  When picking characters you take turns to pick like a school football game and I think the first person on each team can also pick two characters to ban from the match which I'm not sure how I feel about.  I don't main the characters that usually get band in the games I've taken part in but still.  When you have a limited roster because you're new that potentially could force someone totally out of their comfort zone and make them not nearly as good as a contributor than they should be.

 

For me, I still haven't found a Flanker I connect with but I don't usually mind because everyone else in standard matches goes them, anyway.  And I do have a Damager but I swing between being awesome with her to being nigh on useless, and I don't understand why yet.

So I stick to Healers and Tanks, its easily where I'm strongest in Paladins right now so potentially being forced from my mains because of a character ban seems a bit off.

 

It has the same system as Overwatch where you play ten games to find your rank.  I've done five so far and we only won one.  But in two of the ones we lost it went right down to the wire and I was doing some carrying so hopefully some individual performance stats goes into it.

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  • 1 month later...

I've been playing this a lot more and I think I've figured it out pretty fully now.  Or at least I know enough to start berating my team-mates to myself.

 

I think one frustration I have is probably the game's fault.  No-one goes tanks, or if they do they do so reluctantly.  And I think it is because they are all designed in a way where they aren't flashy.  You won't be getting Play of the Game with one or being the Hero getting all the kills.  I think Overwatch does a better job with them in that regard.  But they are still needed and you miss the presence of one if no-one goes one.  They are kinda the Goalkeeper of the game in a school football match during break, where no-one ever wants to be the goalie.

So like I was the goalie a lot I also find myself being the tank here, just getting dozens of assists and actually playing the objective.

 

To be honest the community is actually pretty good.  There's never rage-quitters, you very rarely might get someone AFK, but I just wish there were more people willing to play the support roles.  There seems to be a few healer specialists around but rarely good tanks.

 

Speaking of healers I have started to try out Ying who Ed mentioned.  She's really fun to use.  So, she makes these mirage copies of herself that do the healing, and you can also teleport to your mirage leaving behind a mirage from where you teleport from.  You can also get the mirage to home in on an enemy and explode.  While I was saying the tanks in Overwatch are better done I think Paladins has a stronger selection of healers so playing the game that way is actually a lot of fun.

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