By Michael Koczwara
There’s nothing quite as satisfying as
blasting the entire enemy team off the stage with Torvald’s hyper beam.
Reanimating after you die as Terminus and vaporizing any opponents too
slow to get away never gets old, and seeing Willo’s multiplying seedling
attack come your way inspires horror. But the greatest achievement is
that
Paladins: Champions of the Realm
allows you to dictate your playstyle. Whether it's adding to the
knockback of weapons or increasing the duration of your shield, Paladins
empowers experimentation and true customization. Amid the thrilling
battles is a diverse five-on-five hero shooter that puts the power of
choice front and center. Whether it’s the wonderfully imagined
characters, the in-depth card and item customization systems, or the
inoffensive free-to-play model, there are plenty of options that make
Paladins a worthy competitor for Overwatch.
It’s a shame that
Paladins doesn’t put a bigger focus on the lore of this world, as almost
all of its 36 champions are packed with interesting nuances. Seris is
an incredibly ominous character and her charm bleeds into her
soul-snatching attacks and dimension-jumping abilities. Her ultimate
literally has her casting her soul core onto the battlefield to drag
nearby enemies into a tear in reality and it screams of personality. The
explanation for her character may be limited to a page of text on her
champion screen (as not every developer can afford Blizzard’s
expensive-looking animated shorts), but her presence on the battlefield
speaks volumes. Not only are these small details present in each
character's appearance, but their gameplay styles artistically offer
enough variety to make switching to a new character a brand-new
experience.
It’s a similar story with rest of the cast. Bomb King is a
living bomb that can throw stackable explosives and his stun bomb that’s
modeled after his own character compliments his clever design. Even
though Inara and Terminus both hail from the same mysterious
living-stone race, their play styles couldn’t be any more different.
Inara is all about damage reduction and status changing effects with
abilities like her Warder’s Field that dramatically slows down any enemy
that draws near, while Terminus has a huge focus on melee combat. Not
every character hits the target; Vivian’s generic design doesn’t offer
any hints of an interesting backstory and her uninspired and boring
Light Machine Gun moveset is a small nitpick in a sea of wonderful
characters.
Paladins’ wide range of champions fits elegantly
within the four classes. Having a front-line champion like the
technology-obsessed Torvald is great for capturing the main objective,
and the celestial monk Jenos can use his support status to make sure the
tank never goes down. Damage champions like the dragon Drogoz can use
his rockets to apply pressure, and flanking champions like Skye can
stealthily cast out enemies with her poison bolts. What’s beautiful is
that champions like the electrifying shaman Grohk blur the lines between
support and damage while the front-line pyromaniac Fernando can still
do excellent work as a flank.
“
The true depth to Paladins lies underneath.
That’s all on the surface, but the true depth to Paladins lies
underneath. Unlike most hero games, here you’re not completely
pigeonholed into a specific role by your choice of character because you
can customize them so heavily. Every player picks five out of 16 cards
to create a preset loadout tailored to the champion you choose that
enhances stats and moves during a match.
Say you gave the
eccentric Moji and her two-headed companion a card that heals her
whenever she uses her Magic Barrier, but after a few matches you notice
that using Bon Appetit, her ultimate attack that transforms an enemy
into an easy to kill snack, is of more importance. Rather than scrapping
the whole build and starting over, you can assign 15 upgrade points any
way you like, letting you decide to improve either the healing power of
Magic Barrier or the charge rate for the ultimate. Experimental
loadouts like these are Paladins’ most important feature, and you’ll
likely find yourself constantly going back to tweak and improve your
card decks. Furthermore, being able to pick from multiple loadouts at
the start of a match allows you to adapt to different team compositions
and maps, providing a greater sense of control.
Beyond that, every match begins with yet another set of
options, allowing you to pick one out of four champion-specific Talents
that will dramatically change the way that character plays. Cassie, for
instance, is a damage champion who wields a crossbow and generally works
great from a farther distance, but this can all swiftly change with the
swap of a Talent. For a match where the central point looks to be
hectic, it might make sense to pick her Talent that increases damage
output based on distance. Does the other team have a few flanks that
need to be stopped? Focusing a card deck and Talent on her Dodge Roll
ability can switch her sniper archetype to one where mobility reigns
supreme. Alternatively, the humanoid tree Grover is a support healer by
default, but applying his Ferocity Talent greatly increases the damage
of his axe throws and aligns him closer to a damage champion.
“
Maybe their sniper Strix keeps using his stealth ability to turn invisible and escape.
Cards and Talents are picked and locked in at the start of each match,
but Paladins continues to let customization dominate the playing field
even when the action is in full swing. Credits earned throughout a
battle let you buy items to further boost stats and influence your
abilities. Perhaps you underestimated the healing power of the other
team’s Mal’Damba, or maybe their sniper Strix keeps using his stealth
ability to turn invisible and escape. Being able to counter that with
the healing-reducing Cauterize or the invisibility-revealing Illuminate
is an intelligent design choice to keep the team dynamics evolving as
the match progresses. Paladins is constantly asking you to pay attention
and adapt, even when you think you’ve mastered a champion.
Siege
is Paladins’ main mode, where teams work to capture the central point
and then lead a payload to the end of the map. This mode works well
because it constantly promotes teamwork, whether it’s using Ash’s shield
to help move players onto the point or having Inara deploy a rock wall
to keep enemies from stepping near the payload. Saving your ultimate
attacks and using them at the same time is a common strategy but it’s
only beneficial if team members communicate. The Onslaught mode, which
sees players capturing a single point the entire match, and the Team
Deathmatch mode are nice detours, but neither offer anything
substantial. Team Deathmatch, in particular, feels a bit thrown together
as the instant spawn times don’t allow you time to properly evaluate
and buy items like you would between deaths in Siege and Onslaught.
Read More:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/05/16/paladins-champions-of-the-realm-review
Related Article:
https://gotypicks.blogspot.com/2017/09/2017-game-of-year.html
