Smite
Titan Forge Games · RPG, Strategy, MOBA, Action
Overview
Smite is the online battleground of the gods. Players choose from a diverse cast of deities and use their unique powers to triumph over the opposition in 5v5 team matches. Smite is a new take on the MOBA genre; rather than observing from above the action, the game’s third person perspective puts players into the thick of combat. Instead of clicking the mouse to move, players use the familiar WASD keys to move and fight their way through Smite’s dynamic battlegrounds.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,997 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
The praise goes to the game itself: a MOBA played from behind your character with aimed abilities, a large roster of gods from world mythology, quick casual modes like Arena and Assault, and years of evenings with friends. Some positive reviews read as farewells from long-time players, and plenty of short ones simply call it fun.
Over a quarter of the longer reviews (28%) bring up SMITE 2 or describe the original as abandoned: no more updates or new gods, a smaller and split player base, longer queues, bots filling matches, and cheaters who stay in the game. Players who stayed say their skins and god pack don't carry over to the sequel. Toxic, AFK and feeding teammates come up in about a fifth of the longer reviews, along with a report system that players say bans people who talk back while trolls go unpunished. Balance, bugs and lopsided matchmaking are raised less often.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Playing as gods from world mythologyMedium
About 7% of the longer reviews praise the roster: Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese and other pantheons, with abilities that fit each god's myths. Several say the game taught them mythology. "I've learned more about mythology in SMITE than I have from reading books or watching movies," one player wrote. Others enjoy simply picking a favorite god and maining it for years. The pushback comes from players who feel crossover skins (cartoon, anime and licensed collaborations) diluted the theme, and some say flashy skins make it hard to tell who is attacking you: "Gameplay is ruined by millions of skins that change how skills look."
Third-person combat with aimed abilitiesMedium
About 7% of the longer reviews single out the over-the-shoulder camera, WASD movement and skill shots that have to be aimed, and this praise turns up a bit more often in reviews from newcomers than from veterans. Some reviewers say they never got along with point-and-click MOBAs and this one finally clicked. "If you want to play a moba but can't do the top down camera angle, this is the best one you can play," one wrote. A few find the narrower view a drawback: "the third person perspective makes it hard to get a sense of everything going on."
Short casual modes like Arena, Assault and JoustMedium
Players praise the variety of modes, and some say they stick to Arena or Assault, quick matches you can drop into, and rarely touch Conquest, the main 5v5 lane mode. "All the different modes are fun to play (Arena is the best)." Complaints in this theme are about neglect: some say Joust queues dried up or a favorite mode like Siege was removed, and others say balance was tuned for one mode at the expense of the rest: "They only balance around ranked conquest which makes the other game modes horrible to play."
Best with friendsMedium
About 6% of the longer reviews talk about playing with friends, partners or family, and several say that is the way to play. "Best game ever with friends. Awful experience if you're alone." Players describe cross-platform parties with console friends and nightly sessions with the same group. Several also warn that solo queue is where the toxicity and one-sided games happen.
A decade of memoriesLow
About 5% of the longer reviews are nostalgic: players who started in the beta, played through school, met lifelong friends or partners. "I met my wife on this game." Some of these writers still recommend the game after they have stopped playing, and some flip between recommend and don't recommend over years of edits.
Free to play, with a pack that unlocks every godLow
A smaller group praises the business model: the game is free, the cosmetics don't affect play, and the Ultimate God Pack unlocked the whole roster, including future gods, for one price. "Ultimate God Pack is a good value and you'll get at least 30 hours of fun for your $30." Some owners of that pack are angry that it does not carry over to SMITE 2.
Where players are split
Is it still worth playing?Medium
Reviewers agree that the original game no longer gets updates; they disagree on what that means for a player. One side says it still works and still finds matches at normal hours, and that a frozen game has its upside: "Not being updated any more so you don't have to keep up with the Joneses." Some returning players say it plays as they remember it. The other side calls it dead: long queues outside peak hours, bots in lobbies, and the same few players every match. When reviewers say outright which of the two games they prefer, the original wins by a wide margin (about 50 reviews against 11), though a handful of negative reviews tell readers to move to SMITE 2 because this version is winding down.
Fair free-to-play or overpriced skinsMedium
About 10% of the longer reviews criticize the money side: skin prices, chests with random rewards, limited-time skins that never return, and a store pushed in the menus. "A cheap cosmetic in smite is like 3 times as expensive as an expensive cosmetic in a game like fortnite." Other players defend it as one of the gentler free-to-play MOBAs, since every purchase is cosmetic and gods can be earned. One called it "probably the least predatory moba out there." Around SMITE 2, the money complaints shifted to what would and would not transfer.
How hard it is to learnMedium
About 9% of the longer reviews talk about learning the game, and this theme leans toward newer players. Some find it approachable thanks to the camera, bot matches and auto-buy items ("Very fun and surprisingly beginner friendly."). Others describe a steep curve with over a hundred gods, a cluttered item shop and teammates who flame beginners instead of helping: "It is very hard to bring new people in because the learning curve is crazy and other players aren't very helpful."
What frustrates players
Left behind for SMITE 2High
28% of the longer reviews mention SMITE 2 or describe the original as abandoned, dying or on life support, and among longer reviews written from February 2025 on, that share is 47%. Players report that new gods, battle passes and updates stopped, that the community split between two games, and that queues got longer and lobbies emptier. Some tie the lack of support to other problems on this list: more cheaters, less moderation, unfixed bugs. "Game has been abandoned both in terms of active development and in terms of moderation," one player wrote. A few long-time players refuse to switch because the sequel launched with fewer gods and modes, and say they will keep playing the original until the servers close.
Toxic teammates, AFKs and leaversHigh
About 21% of the longer reviews describe toxic players: flaming, slurs, teammates who quit or go AFK after one death, players who feed on purpose, and early surrender votes. "Every game there is someone disconnecting or intentionally feeding because they are mad." Reviewers with more hours raise it more than first-timers. Several believe the problem got worse once the sequel arrived, saying "it's like every player other than the most toxic a*holes has moved to 2." A minority says the community is no worse than League of Legends or Dota 2, and recommends muting chat.
Unbalanced gods and itemsMedium
About 14% of the longer reviews complain about balance: new gods released overtuned, tanks and guardians that deal damage and survive everything, one-shot burst builds, and patches that swing a god from overpowered to useless. "They have buffs and nerfs with every update that makes at least 1 character absolutely busted every single time." A smaller group says the balance is fine for a MOBA, and one called it "the most balanced moba ive played." Some point out that with development stopped, whatever is overpowered stays that way.
Bugs, crashes and disconnectsMedium
About 12% of the longer reviews describe technical problems: crashes during matches, disconnects with no way back in, servers going down, freezes that need a PC restart, and Easy Anti-Cheat failing to launch the game. "Can't play the game because EAC doesn't like the 24H2 update and keeps crashing on launch," one player wrote. Several add that a crash brings a penalty on top: "The game crashes allot randomly and you will get a deserter penalty for it crashing on you." Players in Southeast Asia, Oceania and the Middle East add high ping and missing regional servers.
Lopsided matchmaking, long queues and botsMedium
About 10% of the longer reviews criticize matchmaking or queues. Newer players say they get matched against veterans and smurfs; veterans say they get teammates who don't know the game. Some describe stomps in both directions: "either your team dominates or you get dominated pretty much no in between." Queue complaints run from ten minutes to twenty or more for Conquest, and some players say matches are padded with bots: "It will take you 10 minutes to find a lobby just for it to be filled with bots and maybe 2 players if you're lucky".
A report and ban system that punishes the wrong peopleMedium
About 9% of the longer reviews talk about bans, suspensions or penalties. The pattern they describe: trolls and AFK players keep playing, while the player who loses their temper and types back gets reported by the other side and suspended under a strikes system that ends in a permanent ban. "If you get pissed at a troll, you will get banned, if you call them out, you will get banned." Several say mass reports from a party trigger bans automatically, and that support offers no real appeal. Reviewers with more hours raise this more often.
Purchases that don't carry over to SMITE 2Medium
About 8% of the longer reviews object that skins, unlocked gods and the god pack don't transfer to the sequel. Players describe Legacy Gems as partial compensation that buys little: "There's like 10 skins you can buy with the legacy gems and this is almost a year since the release." Several say they kept buying skins because they expected them to move over. "You can't sell people years worth of skins and collab content, then make a sequel where most of it doesn't carry over and expect everyone to be happy about it."
Cheaters and speed hackersLow
About 3% of the longer reviews describe speed hacks, teleporting players, aim scripts and wall hacks, and several connect them to the end of active support. "Cheating is now everywhere and not policed." Players say reported cheaters keep showing up in later matches.
Account linking, logins and lost progressLow
About 2% of the longer reviews report account problems, and they come up more often from players with only a few hours on Steam than from veterans. They describe failed links between Steam, Hi-Rez, Xbox and PlayStation accounts, two-factor codes that never arrive, no cross-progression from PlayStation, and support that can't recover old accounts. "can't link playstation account and hi-rez account". One new player gave up at sign-up: "After trying to create an account and being told 25 times account name unavailable i uninstalled the game."
3. The player conversation
The tone is personal and often sad. A large share of the reviews come from people who played for years across PC and consoles, and some read like goodbyes, with edits stacked over time as the writer's mood swung. Some call it a love-hate relationship, describing the game as addictive, rage-inducing and their favorite in the same paragraph. Reviews that judge the game itself tend to recommend it; those that judge its upkeep, its community or its sequel tend not to, and some leave a positive review while telling readers not to start.
Who raises what follows experience. Reviewers with only a few hours on Steam talk about first impressions: the camera, the learning curve, bots in their first matches, and account or login trouble. Reviewers with hundreds or thousands of hours write about SMITE 2, lost purchases, balance, bans and server problems. Toxic teammates come up at every level, though less often from first-timers.
The subject shifted over time. Longer reviews written from February 2025 on, after players report development ended, are dominated by SMITE 2 and the game's decline (47% of them, against 28% of all longer reviews), while toxicity takes up a smaller share of them. Across all reviews written from February 2025 on, 62.6% are positive, close to the slice as a whole, so the recent conversation changed topic more than tone.
4. What the developers could do
- Restore moderation and act on reports of AFK, feeding and cheating players: toxic teammates and unpunished cheaters run through about a fifth of the longer reviews, and some players link both to the game no longer being watched.
- Give original-game purchases more weight in SMITE 2: players who bought skins and the Ultimate God Pack say Legacy Gems cover too little, and some kept buying skins because they expected them to transfer.
- Stop deserter penalties when the client or server fails: players describe crashes and disconnects followed by a penalty for leaving a match they were thrown out of.
- Fix the launch crash with Easy Anti-Cheat on current Windows and the worst disconnect bugs: several players can't start the game at all, and crashes and disconnects come up in 12% of the longer reviews.
- Add context and appeals to the ban system: reviewers say automated reports ban players who talk back while trolls stay, and that support gives no explanation or recourse.
- Separate new players from veterans and be open about bots in matches: newcomers describe stomps against experienced players and smurfs, and returning players report lobbies filled with bots.
- Ship a final balance pass for modes beyond Conquest: with development stopped, players say overtuned gods and tank-heavy metas in Arena, Joust and Assault will never be fixed.
- Repair account linking and cross-progression between Steam, Hi-Rez and consoles: new arrivals hit login, two-factor and linking errors before they ever play, and console players can't bring their progress to PC.
