The colorful hero shooter Paladins is now being covered by our colleague Leya in the live stream. This has, in turn, inspired Jürgen, who spent the weekend with Paladins and can’t get enough now. Here is his play report.
Last week, colleague Leya started her live stream of Paladins for the first time and played for two hours the colorful hero shooter from Hi-Rez. She presented the game with humor and charm. I simply couldn’t help but install Paladins that same evening and dive into the fray.
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Paladins – The game that broke my heart
I actually thought I was done with Paladins. A few months ago, I had already invested a lot of time in the hero shooter. Back then, my enthusiasm was great. I racked up loads of kills and my opponents fell in droves before the righteous fury of my weapons.
Unlike similar games like Overwatch or even Battleborn, I was not in the lower middle or bottom tier in Paladins. I was rather a real killer! I felt ultra-powerful and basked in the glory of my fame:
“Yes, tremble and hide, you miserable noobs! The “Stöffelnator” is on the prowl, and soon it will be over for you!”
Paladins – Oops, why am I suddenly dying?
Apparently, deep down, I was indeed a real pro gamer, and the other players in Paladins were quite the idiots. They stubbornly ran into my fire again and again, and I could easily dodge their pathetic counterattacks.
Then I finally reached level 5, and the great awakening came. Suddenly, it was the other way around, and I was farmed like a field of potatoes at harvest time! What I didn’t know: In Paladins, you play the first 5 account levels against bots without realizing it!
Of course, I looked good against bots, even with my rather modest shooting skills! Against real people, however, I quickly ran out of tricks. I was immensely disappointed and didn’t play Paladins much after that. I had other games to play and eventually forgot the shooter.
Paladins – Reunion with success!
But then came Leya’s stream premiere, and I wanted to see how my colleague was performing live in front of the webcam – Paladins or not. She initially played the – to me – new hero Ash, and I found the gameplay really interesting. So I quickly installed Paladins myself and tried the game again.
And after just one round, I was back under the spell of the game. I played Ash and got along great with the heroine. Everything felt intuitive, and I played my role as an off-tank really well.
Whether I was protecting my team with the shield, blowing enemies away with shrapnel rounds, or pushing them around with shoulder charges, Ash was made for me. And since she is a tank, I didn’t always have to dodge and play carefully until I had low hit points; I could mostly flee or be healed. Now that’s fun!
In the end, I cautiously asked my team-mates considering the pretty good stats: “Were those bots or real players?” – And yes, they were indeed not bots, I actually had success! What joy!
Paladins – My new favorite game!
Gradually, I started trying out other heroes. I quickly realized what I was good at and what didn’t suit me at all. For example, the goblin Ruckus and the tactically tricky healer Ying were nothing for me. I got taken out way too quickly with Ruckus. Leya later said, “Yeah, of course, that’s also an off-tank that doesn’t solo run into the fire and expect to survive long.”
Okay, good to know. For that, I got along better with the dark healer Seris or the sneaky fox Pip. Especially with Seris, it’s a blast to pump the enemies full of charges with each hit. When the enemy then flees, a push of the button detonates the charges. Suddenly, the enemy is dead and wonders, “WTF?” It’s a lot of fun!
Paladins – Less of an Overwatch clone than you might think
The flanker Androxus, on the other hand, was a bit tricky at first. I expected some sort of Tracer in demon form from the skill description. However, I didn’t consider that Androxus doesn’t keep his unused teleport charges.
After the first trigger, a timer set in, and if I didn’t use the charges by then, they would all be gone, and the cooldown would start. Until I figured that out, I had to die many deaths and often cursed the strange controls!
Despite the many superficial similarities with Overwatch, Paladins often plays quite differently, particularly due to the tactical options with the cards and the power-ups that can be purchased in-game. Thanks to the cards, for example, I was able to build a particularly tanky Ash or a terribly fast Maeve. In Overwatch, on the other hand, I always play the same Tracer or Zarya.
Dubstep Maeve FTW!
However, my absolute favorite besides Ash is Maeve. Especially the new “Raeve” skin has captured my attention. Depending on the action, the dubstep beat in the background intensifies or slows down when I’m not in combat and taking down enemies in droves with Maeve’s killer combos.
I still don’t know if I got better in the meantime or if Paladins has changed, but I now really like Hi-Rez’s hero shooter and will certainly play it longer.
Maybe Leya will let me participate in a future live stream. The next Twitch stream from Leya on Paladins is on Thursday, September 21!
