Paladins Xbox One Impressions

I originally played Paladins on PC awhile back when it was first entering alpha and I was very excited to hear that it was headed to consoles. Not only is the game fun and seems well suited for the console space, the creators Hi-Rez have already done a great job in porting their previous game Smite with great success. Despite being in an alpha stage this is well polished with a few maps and a wide selection of champions to play as. It feels as though the game is basically ready to go on Xbox One looking smooth with no noticeable performance issues and having well balanced gameplay. In Paladins the general goal in what's available thus far is to battle for a central point. Both teams attempt to gain full control of it in order to spawn a cart that needs to be pushed forward towards the enemy base. This instantly creates an attack and defend scenario until the time is up or the attacking team gets the cart into position. The round then ends and things are reset giving everyone a fresh start in the next round, this helps keep things even while also interesting as it's a new struggle for the position.

Players are also constantly gaining points that can be used within the skill tree to unlock upgrades. These come in multiple tiers as you can upgrade the same ability multiple times, but all other options within the specific row get blanked out. As mentioned combat is balanced though very quick as a few shots will kill someone. It's also really team focused as quick eliminations can vastly turn the tide of the current battle and if there's not focused fire the other team can dominate. This is certainly a shooter based game though not as one might expect since weapons are somewhat medieval in design with arrows or crossbows being used for distance. Being a future free to play title there are microtransactions available with their loot crate type option that are given out occasional or purchased. The cards you gain are used to build a deck of abilities for your champions that give specific bonuses which is definitely a unique aspect of the game. There are also a wide range of outfits available for certain champions though not a lot at this point so I expect that will be expanded upon in the future. I've definitely once again enjoyed playing Paladins once again on console and I'll also mention that achievements are already available which will certainly help keep me attention despite it being in production.

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Impressions Made on Paladins during the Alpha on Xbox One