Paladins Strike is a new mobile MOBA from Hi-Rez Studios

Move over Vainglory, there’s a new mobile MOBA in town. Hi-Rez Studios, the developer behind Smite and Tribes: Ascend, has just released a MOBA adaptation of their PC hero shooter Paladins titled Paladins Strike.

It features the same characters and lore, but entirely new gameplay. Paladins Strike features an isometric camera, with a virtual stick at the bottom left to move, and action buttons on the bottom right. Abilities are aimed by sliding your finger in the direction you want to shoot.

The main game mode is Siege, where two teams of five attempt to push the payload into the opposing teams base. If neither team is able to do so within the time limit, a sudden death king of the hill round decides the victor. Matches are short, lasting between six and ten minutes.

There are three other modes available as well. Summons is another objective-based mode, with a slightly longer duration at about 10 minutes. Deathmatch is the shortest game mode at just 5 minutes, and the final option is a practice mode to hone your skills with a specific champion.

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Matches in Paladins Strike are quick and hectic, and there is a ranking system to keep teams balanced. However, there are only a few servers available, and some areas (particularly South Asia) suffer from high latency and disconnects. Hopefully this issue is fixed in the coming weeks.

Paladins Strike joins the ranks of other free-to-play games on Android, so nearly everything needs to be unlocked by earning in-game currencies or spending real money. Fortunately, the game makes it a bit easier with standard F2P practices like daily login rewards, quests, and so on.

The game features three currencies: gold, which is used to buy chests with random rewards; tickets, which are used to reset the daily chest count and buy new champions; and crystals, which cost real money and unlock new champions and skins. Certain skins and champions can also be unlocked through in-game events, but some champions are only unlockable with crystals.

Currently there are more than 20 unique playable characters, but only five are unlocked at the start of the game. It will take weeks or even months of grinding to unlock all of the champions without spending real money.

Each champion can be further enhanced by equipping runes, which increase damage, max health, and another utility stat depending on the champion. The bonuses aren’t big, but combined with the fact that purchased skins also increase stat bonuses and gold generation, there is some element of pay-to-win.

Hi-Rez Studios seems to have high hopes for the game, and hints at a new esports league for their new mobile title on the Paladins Strike official website. With mobile esports becoming more and more of a thing, this could make it the first real competitor to Vainglory.

Paladins Strike will appeal to any MOBA lovers who are looking for a quick mobile gaming fix. It’s fun and plays well, and in-app purchases don’t have too big of an impact on gameplay.