''Paladins: Champions of the Realm'' is a 2018

free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...

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hero shooter video game by

Hi-Rez Studios Hi-Rez Studios is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was established in 2005 by Erez Goren and Todd Harris. Hi-Rez Studios' games include the squad-based shooter ''Global Agenda'', the critically acclaimed '' Tribes: Asc ...

. The game was developed by Evil Mojo, an internal studio of Hi-Rez and was released on May 8, 2018, for

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PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

, and

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, followed by a

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

version released on June 12, 2018. ''Paladins'' was initially announced in 2012 as ''Global Agenda 2'' and was scheduled to be released in mid-2013, intended as the sequel or spiritual sequel to the PvP mode of ''

Global Agenda ''Global Agenda'' is a class-based shooter online team-based game by Hi-Rez Studios developed using Unreal Engine 3. ''Global Agenda'' was started in 2005 as the studio's first project. The game went live on February 1, 2010. The game had pre-alpha and alpha versions during 2015 but were not shown until August 3, 2015, when outlets like ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' were given permission to show the game content. But in September 2014, much of the game's content was leaked, despite the developers' attempts to avoid revealing information about the game. The ''Paladins'' closed beta started on November 17, 2015. In the Open Beta, the game appeared on September 16, 2016, in the

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Early Access program. Evil Mojo ended support for the Nintendo Switch version on June 21, 2023. Following layoffs at Evil Mojo, active development of ''Paladins'' as a whole was halted on February 6, 2025.

Setting

''Paladins'' takes place in a fantasy world called the Realm, a largely medieval world filled with elves, dwarves, dragons, and other fantasy races. In this world, there is a conflict between two factions: the Magistrate and the Resistance. The Magistrate serves as the ruling power of the Realm and wishes to keep it safe and peaceful by restricting the use of magic, largely in the form of magic crystals, which had been used by corrupt individuals to cause chaos and destruction. The Resistance meanwhile, despite the damage caused, believes crystals are too useful to be banned from the general public, leading to them coming together to fight the Magistrate. Many playable characters in the game belong to one of these two factions. However, there are many others that are not part of either group, instead doing things by themselves, or being part of some of the numerous other factions with their goals, some notable ones being the "Abyss", a group of monsters from another dimension, the "Pyre", a group of beings with angelic designs that hate the Abyss, the "Thousand Hands Guild", a criminal empire, the "Darkness/Maw", a group of alien monsters that consume worlds, and several others.

Gameplay

''Paladins'' is a team-based first-person shooter that focuses on two groups of five players each, who compete for combat-based goals. The game is set in colorful sci-fi fantasy maps, where each player chooses a champion that cannot be repeated in the same team and cannot be changed in the match. Each champion has their own weapons, skills and fighting style; in addition, they can be enhanced and personalized from a card and skin system. The interface of each player is customizable, with avatars and customizable borders to symbolize the player's profile; titles when reaching mastery level 30 with a champion, among others.

Game modes

There are different gameplay modes for ''Paladins'': *Siege: The 'main' ''Paladins'' game mode, two teams of 5 race against each other to capture the map's central capture point and, if successful, push a payload that spawns from it to the enemy base. Each successful push or capture grants one point. Preventing the enemy team from pushing the payload also grants one point. Additionally, the team that captures the point will get a bonus of 300 credits. The first team to score four points wins the game. A team cannot score their fourth point on defense, however, meaning that the team must capture a point or push the payload to win. *Onslaught: Teams battle over a large combat area in an attempt to take point control and earn points. Along with holding an uncontested presence on the control point, slaying enemy players also scores points for the team, akin to a team deathmatch. *Choose any/Team Deathmatch: A classic game mode in most first-person shooter games, where two teams fight against each other to score kills. The first team to score 40 kills wins the game. Unlike other game modes, a player may select any champion that they have unlocked, regardless of if another member of their team had selected that champion. *Ranked: The same game mode as Siege, however when players are choosing a champion, each team can pick three champions to ban, which makes them unavailable for either team. Also, each team can see the opponent's champions that are picked and selected, and once a champion is picked by any player on a team, the other team cannot use that same champion. A player must reach 100 TP (Triumph Points) to advance to the following rank (e.g Bronze 1 to Bronze 2). Players may skip ranks if their performance in the current rank is extraordinary. Players below or in Platinum can queue with up to 4 players below or in Platinum. Platinum players can also queue with 1 Diamond player. Diamond and above can only duo as a 2 party. **Ranks are split like many other first person shooters: ***Bronze 1–5 ***Silver 1–5 ***Gold 1–5 ***Platinum 1–5 ***Diamond 1–5 ***Master ***Grandmaster (top 200 Master) *Limited Game Modes: This mode acts as a party mode with various different modifiers and custom maps, unlike the 3 main modes. Gamemodes alternate weekly.

Loadouts

It is possible to customize the gameplay of the characters by unlocking talents (by leveling up) and by creating a deck with classic cards. Each champion has 3 talents. Each talent gives the champion a great advantage, but only one can be selected per game, they cannot stack. Each champion also has 16 classic cards (up to 5 cards can be used at the same time) that the player can use to build decks. Only one deck can be selected per game. Each card can be leveled up, from 1 to 5, which can be chosen by the player. Each deck must make 15 points in total.

Abilities

Each champion has a basic attack and varying skills. It usually has 3 skills in addition to basic attack (two mouse clicks and 3 keyboard keys). These skills can also have related passive bonuses. In addition to these “classic” skills, each champion has an “Ultimate” skill that allows situations to be turned around. Each ultimate attack is unique and often very powerful. To be used, they must be charged (percentage) by dealing damage to opponents.

Currency

The game has different currencies:

Battle Pass In the video game industry, a battle pass or rewards track is a type of monetization approach that provides additional content for a game usually through a tiered system, rewarding the player with in-game items for playing the game and complet ...

XP for daily quests or in-game achievements, Crystals for purchase with real money, and Gold for leveling up, daily visits, quests or playing individual matches. Currencies can be used to purchase special items in the game.

Characters

The game's characters are divided into the roles of frontline, damage, support, and flanker.

Development

''Paladins'' arose from the idea of making a sequel to ''Global Agenda'', which focused on improving PvP game modes, it was initially announced in 2012 and scheduled for release in mid-2013. Later, the developers preferred to change the aesthetics of the game. setting it in a fantasy world and turning it into a first-person game. At the time, the game was known as ''Aurum'', although it went by the codename "Chaos". However, despite the initial goal of a fantasy setting, everything about the game was constantly changing, with what was essentially a new game being created every single day; with the sci-fi theme of Hi-Rez's previous title, ''Global Agenda'', additionally being experimented with, potentially almost even outright becoming a sequel to the game. There were multiple leaks of the game during its development period, where several of the game's characteristics could be known, such as game modes, designs and abilities of some characters, and weapons that would be recycled from ''Global Agenda''. During this time some dubbed the game with the name of ''Global Assault''. Eventually, the developers found an iteration they were satisfied with. However, according to the developers, before they could show off the game, Blizzard's highly anticipated new game, ''

Overwatch ''Overwatch'' (abbreviated as OW) is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. ''Overwatch (video game), Overwatch'' was released in 2016 with a success ...

'', was shown off. The developers claim they were worried about being compared to ''Overwatch'' and initially planned to implement some changes to make ''Paladins'' different to avoid this, but according to the developers, internal testing indicated players enjoyed the current version of the game, causing them to stick with their original plan.

Release

The game was officially announced for the first time as ''Paladins'' in early August 2015. Before that the game was in a pre-alpha for a few months but could not show game content, on August 3, 2015, permission was given for players and outlets like ''IGN'' to show the game. The ''Paladins'' closed beta started on November 17, 2015. In the Open Beta, the game appeared on September 16, 2016, in the

Early Access program. Within a week of the Open Beta launch on

, the game had reached 800,000 downloads and was one of the top ten most played games on Steam. On PlayStation 4 it was released on the

PlayStation Store PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital distribution service for users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via PlayStation Network. The store offers a range of downloadable content both ...

on May 2, 2017. In June 2018, one month after its official release (Open Beta), the game reached an average of 18,000 active players per day. In November 2016, the game had surpassed four million registered users, and in mid-May 2017, the developer announced that the game already had over eleven million registered users. During 2018, this number surpassed between 30 and 35 million players. In March 2020, Hi-Rez reported that ''Paladins'' exceeded 40 million players. In December 2020, ''Paladins'' had seen roughly 45 million players.

''Paladins Strike''

''Paladins Strike'' is the mobile version of the game, launched in May 2018. In ''Paladins Strike'', most of the characters from the original game are present, with all their abilities adapted to suit the canons of the

MOBA Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete on a structured battlefield, each controlling a single character with distinctive abilities that grow stronger as the match progr ...

genre. Here too, the game is based on 5 vs. 5 battles. The fights are carried out in real time with an isometric top view. ''Paladins Strike'' is free-to-play: the game relies on micro-transactions and in-app purchases. ''Paladins Strike'' was officially shut down by Hi-Rez during mid-2020 to mid-2021.

''Realm Royale''

'' Realm Royale'' is the

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...

battle royale version of the game, launched in June 2018 via

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...

program. In January 2018, Hi-Rez decided to give ''Paladins'' a corresponding mode named ''Paladins: Battlegrounds''. Later, the mode became its own game, called '' Realm Royale''. The game is free-to-play, integrating micro-transactions and in-app purchases.

Esports

''Paladins'' is a title that was played as an

esport Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

. The Paladins Premier League (PPL) was founded in cooperation between the developer studio and the WESA. This promises the participating e-athletes a fixed salary and support from the clubs. On August 1, 2017, the Paladins Global Series started, which is a community tournament with prizes worth 350,000 US dollars. It was announced at

DreamHack DreamHack is a Swedish ESL Gaming brand specializing in esports tournaments and other gaming conventions; at its root, a massive LAN party and computer festival, recognized by ''Guiness World Records'' and Twin Galaxies as being the world's l ...

in Valencia. The event was the largest community esports tournament in the world. Regional PC tournaments are held every month and players from

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

can take part. Open bracket tournaments are held in the first 3 weeks of each month, where the amateurs can prove themselves and qualify for the monthly tournament. The actual Global Series starts on August 1 and runs for 10 months with monthly payouts. The events are then also broadcast on live stream services such as Twitch or

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. ''Paladins'' now has an active esports scene with several major tournaments per year, such as

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

and

competitions (as of December 2019).

Event

Since 2020, ''Paladins'' hosts an annual event called the "Crystal Awards", a user-voted

awards ceremony An awards ceremony is a type of ceremony where awards are given out. The ceremony may be arranged by a government organization, a society, a school, a trade association or even a company that specializes in running awards ceremonies. Typically a m ...

designed to highlight the ''Paladins'' community. Four finalists are selected by Evil Mojo within several categories, while the community votes for one finalist for each award. Following this, Hi-Rez Studios announces the winners during the Paladins World Championship.

Reception

The Microsoft Windows version of ''Paladins'' received "Generally favorable reviews" while the

version received "Mixed or average reviews" according to review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. ''

'' rated ''Paladins'' 8.4/10, stating "Working on top of the strong and fairly balanced foundation of a free-to-play hero shooter, ''Paladins'' capacity for experimentation is its greatest strength" and "Whether it's the main mode that encapsulates the teamwork aspect or the character designs that immediately flow with creativity, ''Paladins: Champions of the Realm'' clearly stands out in the midst of competition." '' Gamereactor'' rated the game 7/10, praising the various characters, customization and maps, stating "''Paladins'' might just win you over if you give it a try, and we'd definitely recommend you to do so". Dan Lipscombe of ''Nintendo Insider'' rated the game 8/10, calling it an "overwhelming experience" and that "it's fast-paced with solid shooting mechanics and although some of the champions are a little generic, it’s trying, which is more than others can say in the shooting genre". ''

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

'' gave the game 4/5 stars, describing it as a "Colorful multiplayer arena" that "offers frenetic team fun". Ric Cowley of ''

Pocket Gamer ''Pocket Gamer'' is a video game website and former print magazine that focuses on mobile, portable and handheld games. It was launched in 2005 by Steel Media Limited. The publication covers portable and mobile gaming formats, including iPhone, ...

'' gave ''Paladins'' 3.5/5 stars, explaining "''Paladins'' is actually a pretty fun shooter. There's plenty of depth to it, and the wide pool of characters and abilities means everyone's tastes are catered for. But it all just feels a little bit off. It's trying so hard to be something that it's not, and it never doubles down on its own ideas or identity." '' Canard PC'' rated the game 7/10, depicting it as a "competitive FPS" and complimenting the game despite the similarities between the game and ''

.'' ''

GamesRadar+ ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', '' Edge'' and '' Compute ...

'' complimented and defended ''Paladins'' about the similarities with ''Overwatch'', declaring "Fast forward two years later, though, and ''Paladins'' is looking healthier than ever. Finally free from having to defend itself from those incessant comparisons, the game has come into its own as

' fast paced development and eSports focused agenda has endowed it with an identity that stands apart from anything else on the market." ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

'' praised the

version, saying "''Paladins'' has a great chance to shine here, and shine it does" and that "Overall, there's a lot to respect in how ''Paladins'' is represented on Switch. Hi-Rez has accomplished one of the closest matches to the other versions available, crafting a 60fps title where online competition with

players feels balanced and fair." Pat Kerley of ''The Republic of Players'' gave a positive review, depicting the gameplay as "fluid and responsive", calling the game "very consumer friendly" about the micro-transactions and stating "''Paladins Champions of the Realm'' is a must buy game". ''

PC Zone ''PC Zone'', founded in 1993, was the first magazine dedicated to games for IBM-compatible personal computers to be published in the United Kingdom. Earlier PC magazines such as '' PC Leisure'', '' PC Format'' and '' PC Plus'' had covered games b ...

'' listed ''Paladins'' 2nd in their top "5 Best Free-to-Play Games on Steam in 2020", calling it "appealing". ''

PlayStation LifeStyle Mandatory (formerly CraveOnline Media) is a lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company Evolve Media, LLC. Mandatory focuses its contents into the male ...

'' listed the game in their top "7 Best PS4 Free-to-Play Games You Won’t Be Able to Stop Playing", indicating "This game gets a lot of flak for being called an ''Overwatch'' rip-off, but ''Paladins'' is better than that." ''CulturedVultures'' ranked ''Paladins'' 3rd in their list of the "20 Best Free Games on Steam", declaring "''Paladins: Champions of the Realm'' offers what ''Overwatch'' does without any fees: glorious and fun team battles with gun-toting and magic-wielding characters, each with a background story, in well-designed maps". ''TheGamer'' ranked the game 9th in their list of "10 Free-to-Play Switch Games Actually Worth the Grind".

Controversies

In response to accusations that the game is an ''

'' clone, Hi-Rez COO Todd Harris said that “While ''

'' is a fine game, it was not the inspiration for ''Paladins''. Game development is an interactive process with ideas coming from many past projects. For the hero shooter genre, the game that deserves the most credit is ''

Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' (''TF2'') is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation in 2007. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video g ...

''. We released a ''TF2'' inspired class-based shooter called ''

Global Agenda ''Global Agenda'' is a class-based shooter online team-based game by Hi-Rez Studios developed using Unreal Engine 3. ''Global Agenda'' was started in 2005 as the studio's first project. The game went live on February 1, 2010.Stew Chisam pointed out the similarities between the ''Paladins'' champion Ash and ''Overwatch'' hero Brigitte, stating "If I happened to notice and point out any similarities between these two characters, would that make me the Pot calling the Kettle black, or the Kettle calling the Pot black? This will keep me up tonight unless I get a clear answer." In an advertisement released in 2018, ''Paladins Strike'' used an artwork from ''Overwatch''. Hi-Rez Studios's art director responded by stating "This art was created by a overseas partner studio for paladins strike and had not much in the way of oversight in its content creation by anyone internally at Hi-Rez. We will be looking into this immediately." The loot boxes introduced in the game by an update were criticized by players, believing it could make the game too "pay-to-win". The game also received these allegations when it introduced a new in-game currency in a beta patch.

Awards

Notes

References

External links

* {{Rambo 2018 video games Early access video games First-person shooter multiplayer online games Free-to-play video games Hero shooters Hi-Rez Studios games MacOS games Multiplayer video games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games Unreal Engine 3 games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Xbox One games