SMITE's New Adventure Is the Best MMORPG Raid You're Not Playing

SMITE's latest adventure, Shadows Over Hercopolis, gave me a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings. Are you new to SMITE? I was, too. This new dungeon-crawling RPG-style adventure was my first true multiplayer SMITE experience, and it sunk its hooks in deep. As someone who spent an irresponsible amount of time playing World of Warcraft, the latest SMITE adventure was pretty much everything I loved about dungeon raids, without any of the fluff.

If you're new to SMITE, but familiar with RPGs, let me just set this up for you. Imagine calling up two of your raiding buddies to form a party. Like any MMO raid, you're going to want to pick a tank class (someone with high HP and defense), a healer, and a mage (or assassin) with high damage output. Most of SMITE's enormous roster is available for you, though certain key characters are roped off due to their involvement in the story or their mobility quirks. Once you're ready to go, it's time to hit the dungeon.

There is very little that stands between you and your prey. Exposition is minimal. Hercules has gone missing, Loki is almost certainly to blame, and it's up you to hunt him down and free him. After picking up some quests from a town square hub, you'll drop straight into the action.

Without spoiling everything, I'll tell you that your adventure here will play out in three very distinct locations and environments. All of the dungeons have been hand-crafted solely for this adventure, and it shows. There are deviously-placed traps, hazards, environmental hazards, and pockets of enemies, sub-bosses, and bosses that you'll have to deal with.

If you've poured hundreds (or thousands) of hours into SMITE already, you might be tempted to charge boldly through the dungeon, confident that you square off against any and all NPCs. You cannot. You and your comrades will need to selectively engage and "kite" groups of enemies as you make your way through the adventure so as to not be overwhelmed.

The boss encounters are truly epic, and are puzzles in and of themselves. You and your mates are going to have to work together, and very likely wipe a time or two, before you figure out how to properly engage each area boss and avoid their devastating attacks.

If you're successful, you're going to find plenty of gold, and some epic loot. The loot actually provides great incentive to return to the adventure multiple times, because it sticks with you for every consecutive run. The second or third time you run through the adventure, you're going to have stat-enhancing weapons and trinkets equipped that you didn't have the first time. There are also highly sought-after collectibles that you'll want to keep an eye out for as well that will enhance your town hub in a significant way.

All said, the new SMITE adventure is the perfect gateway drug. For those of you who don't want to jump straight into a competitive MOBA game mode and struggle to fight your way to competence, Shadows Over Hercopolis offers a cooperative role-playing pleasure-tour that will allow you to get your hands on a variety of gods and master their skills. If you've been waiting for a chance to dip your toe into SMITE's waters, I'd advise to to jump in head-first with the new adventure; and bring a friend.