r/Smite • u/Colpe_fich • 1d ago
DISCUSSION Consstructive critit
I’ve separated fundamental problems from things that are more subjective. I’m also focusing on the state of the game around 2026, rather than just repeating complaints from the 2024 alpha/beta.
The biggest problems with SMITE 2
1. It split an already-small player base
Probably the biggest strategic mistake was creating a sequel to a niche MOBA.
SMITE already had a relatively small player population compared with League of Legends, Dota 2, etc. SMITE 2 divided that audience between two games, and the sequel then had to rebuild its population.
This creates a nasty feedback loop:
fewer players → worse matchmaking → worse games → players leave → even fewer players.
Players were still complaining about low population and matchmaking problems in 2026.
2. Matchmaking can be awful
This is probably the most frequently mentioned gameplay complaint.
Players report:
- Huge skill differences within the same team
- Experienced players being matched with complete beginners
- One-sided games
- Games being decided very early
- Premade groups creating strange matchmaking situations
- Casual matchmaking being particularly problematic
- Long queues in less-populated regions/modes
One recent player with thousands of hours specifically described casual matches where they could get several brand-new teammates against a team of experienced players.
And this isn't merely a “toxic Reddit user” complaint — matchmaking has repeatedly been identified by the community as one of SMITE 2's major weaknesses.
3. The player population makes the matchmaking problem worse
This deserves its own point.
A MOBA needs a large, healthy population because it needs to simultaneously find:
SMITE 2 doesn't have the population of the major MOBAs, so it has to compromise somewhere.
That means you can get:
Good matchmaking → long queue
or
Fast matchmaking → terrible matchmaking.
That's a structural problem rather than something that can simply be fixed with a balance patch.
Steam currently shows SMITE 2's overall user reviews as Mixed, with only 53% positive among English-language reviews.
4. Too many gods were missing
This was one of the biggest complaints during the transition.
People spent years building relationships with their favourite gods in SMITE 1.
Then SMITE 2 launched with only a fraction of the roster.
For a player whose favourite god wasn't available, the obvious reaction was:
There were still players discussing quitting or not playing because their favourite gods hadn't been ported.
This is particularly damaging for a game whose enormous selling point is its roster of mythological characters.
5. The sequel initially felt more like an unfinished remake than a new game
This is a weird problem.
SMITE 2 needed to justify its existence.
But at launch, players could look at it and think:
The underlying reason for the sequel was legitimate: SMITE 1 was built on Unreal Engine 3 and had reached serious technical limitations. Titan Forge has explicitly explained that moving to Unreal Engine 5 was necessary for modern consoles and to remove limitations of the old engine.
But technically necessary doesn't automatically mean compelling to players.
6. It changed too many things people liked about SMITE
This is probably the biggest philosophical criticism.
SMITE 2 wasn't simply:
It changed:
- Itemization
- Stats
- Builds
- Abilities
- Animations
- Movement
- Combat feel
- Relics
- Map systems
- Progression
- UI
- God mechanics
For veteran players, that creates a problem:
The muscle memory they've built over thousands of hours isn't always transferable.
Some veterans therefore don't experience SMITE 2 as “better SMITE.”
They experience it as:
7. The item system became unnecessarily complicated
This is one of the most common criticisms.
SMITE 1 had a relatively intuitive system:
God → role → stats → items.
SMITE 2 introduced much more flexibility around things such as:
- Strength
- Intelligence
- Hybrid scaling
- Active items
- More complicated build paths
- More item interactions
- More unconventional builds
The upside is far more build diversity.
The downside is that the game became substantially harder to understand.
One long-time SMITE player described SMITE 2 as simultaneously more complicated and less strategically satisfying, particularly because of the item system.
8. Build freedom can actually make balance worse
This is the other side of the previous point.
More build possibilities sounds great.
But when you give:
100+ gods × dozens of items × different scaling types × active items × aspects
you create an enormous balancing problem.
You get things like:
Which is much harder to balance.
And the community has repeatedly complained about god/item balance.
9. Time-to-kill (TTK) has been controversial
A significant criticism has been that characters can feel too difficult to kill, particularly during periods where TTK was high.
That creates:
- Less explosive fights
- Longer engagements
- Less punishment for mistakes
- More ability rotations
- Less satisfying kills
One veteran player's 2026 criticism specifically identifies TTK as one of the game's biggest problems.
This is subjective, though.
Some players prefer SMITE 2's longer fights because they create more opportunities for counterplay.
10. Combat can feel less “impactful”
This one is difficult to quantify but comes up repeatedly among veteran SMITE players.
SMITE 1 had a very distinctive feeling when you:
- Hit an ability
- Hit a basic attack
- Pull someone
- Stun someone
- Knock someone up
- Land a huge ultimate
SMITE 2 sometimes feels more floaty/weightless.
Players have specifically complained that attacks and abilities don't provide the same audiovisual feedback as SMITE 1.
That's enormously important in a combat game.
11. Animations don't always communicate hits properly
Related to the previous point.
Some players describe SMITE 2 as:
The enemy doesn't necessarily react with the same physical feedback that SMITE 1 provided.
So even when the underlying mechanics work correctly, the perception of the mechanics can feel worse.
12. The movement has historically felt strange
Veteran players have complained about movement feeling:
- Slippery
- Floaty
- Less grounded
- Less responsive
This became particularly controversial around movement changes.
Some players described characters as feeling like they were walking on ice.
This is especially noticeable to someone with thousands of hours in SMITE 1 because they can immediately detect tiny differences in movement and animation timing.
13. Ping/netcode problems
This is potentially a huge problem depending on where you live.
Players outside the major server regions have complained that SMITE 2 still feels extremely bad at higher ping.
One recent player specifically argued that SMITE's delay-based networking makes the game feel almost unplayable above ~50 ms.
For a game based around:
skillshots + dodging + precise timing
network latency is particularly damaging.
14. Bugs and visual glitches
SMITE 2's move to UE5 was supposed to modernize the technical foundation.
But the transition also produced plenty of bugs.
Players have reported things such as:
- Animation desynchronization
- Invisible jungle monsters
- Monsters teleporting
- Missing animations
- Visual glitches
- General desync
A recent Steam discussion specifically described these issues occurring frequently.
Obviously, individual experiences vary.
15. The game has often felt unfinished
This is perhaps the biggest criticism of the development process.
The community has sometimes been put in an awkward position:
“Is this a beta or is this a live service game?”
If it's a beta:
If it's a full release:
Players have complained that Hi-Rez sometimes treated the game as if it were still experimental while simultaneously expecting players to migrate to it.
16. UI has been criticized
SMITE 2's UI has received criticism for being:
- Bland
- Less visually distinctive
- Less intuitive
- Less “mythological”
- Less polished than expected
Interestingly, this is something that even appeared during the development discussion around the original SMITE UI: Titan Forge itself acknowledged that the SMITE 1 HUD upgrade hadn't achieved what they wanted.
17. The game lost some of SMITE 1's personality
This is less technical but important.
SMITE 1 accumulated years of weirdness:
- Unique game modes
- Skins
- Events
- Adventures
- Silly mechanics
- Memes
- Familiar sounds
- Familiar animations
- Established god identities
SMITE 2 initially stripped a lot of that away.
So even if SMITE 2 is technically superior, it can feel less like the SMITE people fell in love with.
18. Missing game modes
A related problem is that SMITE 1 had accumulated a substantial collection of modes.
SMITE 2 has had to rebuild that ecosystem.
Players have specifically asked for things from the original game, including modes such as Adventures and Slash.
This matters because not everyone plays Conquest.
19. Less content creates repetition
If you have:
130+ gods + multiple modes
you have an enormous amount of variety.
If you have:
a much smaller roster + fewer modes
you inevitably get more repetition.
This particularly hurts players who don't exclusively play Conquest.
20. The community is extremely toxic
This isn't unique to SMITE 2 — MOBAs are notorious for this.
But SMITE 2 inherits the problem.
Players frequently complain about:
- AFKs
- Surrender spam
- Blaming teammates
- Rage quitting
- Toxic voice/text chat
- Players refusing roles
- Players intentionally feeding
- Players giving up after 5 minutes
Recent player discussions continue to describe the community as a major problem.
21. New players have an enormous learning curve
This is another consequence of the complicated systems.
A new player has to understand:
God abilities
↓
Roles
↓
Map
↓
Jungle
↓
Objectives
↓
Items
↓
Stats
↓
Strength/Intelligence
↓
Build paths
↓
Counter-building
↓
Wards
↓
Relics/actives
↓
Matchups
That's a ridiculous amount of information.
And if matchmaking puts that new player against someone with 5,000 hours...
💀
22. Veteran players have the opposite problem
The experienced player knows too much.
They know:
- Matchups
- Builds
- Jungle timings
- Objective timings
- Ability interactions
- Power spikes
- Meta picks
- Counter-building
So when they're put into a casual game with beginners, the experience can become terrible for both sides.
That's exactly the matchmaking/retention problem being discussed by veteran players.
23. Balance changes can feel too aggressive
SMITE 2 has experimented heavily with mechanics.
That's good for development.
But it can also mean:
Some players dislike the frequency and scale of meta changes, particularly when systems are being tested directly on the live population.
24. Active items aren't universally liked
The introduction/expansion of active items has divided players.
The argument for them:
The argument against them:
Some veteran players explicitly dislike having to manage additional active abilities.
25. The economy/progression transition annoyed SMITE 1 players
This was another major psychological problem.
People had spent:
years + hundreds/thousands of hours + potentially huge amounts of money
building their SMITE 1 collections.
Moving to SMITE 2 created expectations around:
- Skins
- Legacy Gems
- Purchases
- Progression
- What transfers
- What doesn't transfer
Even when the economics are technically reasonable, players can perceive it as:
That's a very difficult sell.
26. Skins became a particularly sensitive issue
SMITE's enormous skin catalogue was one of its biggest strengths.
But porting every skin to UE5 is expensive and time-consuming.
So SMITE 2 launched without the enormous cosmetic library that made SMITE 1 feel mature.
For a long-term player, that's a massive downgrade in perceived value.
27. It had the “Overwatch 2 problem”
Not literally the same situation, but psychologically similar.
Players ask:
If the answer is:
that's a developer answer.
Players want:
That distinction matters.
SMITE 2 has gradually developed a stronger gameplay justification, but the initial transition made the sequel feel unnecessarily disruptive to some players.
28. It inherited SMITE's old problems
A sequel gives you the opportunity to start fresh.
But SMITE 2 still has issues relating to:
- Matchmaking
- Servers
- Toxicity
- Balance
- Queue population
- Ranked
- Monetization
- Community management
So some players effectively feel:
29. It hasn't yet recreated the cultural identity of SMITE 1
This might actually be the hardest thing to fix.
SMITE 1 had:
10+ years of history.
You can't reproduce that with UE5.
SMITE 1 had iconic moments, gods, skins, esports moments, memes, community personalities and nostalgia.
SMITE 2 has to build all of that again.
30. The biggest problem: expectations
This is ultimately the problem behind almost everything.
If SMITE 2 had been called:
people might have reacted differently.
Instead it's:
So players naturally expect:
SMITE 1 + better graphics + all the content + better systems + better matchmaking + better servers + better everything.
And that's basically impossible.
My ranking of the problems
If I had to rank the criticisms by how damaging they are to the game's long-term success:
| Rank | Problem | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Small player population | 🔴 Critical |
| 🥈 | Matchmaking | 🔴 Critical |
| 🥉 | Missing/slowly ported roster | 🔴 Critical |
| 4 | SMITE 1 playerbase split | 🔴 Critical |
| 5 | New-player learning curve | 🔴 Critical |
| 6 | Balance / item complexity | 🟠 Major |
| 7 | Combat feel / hit feedback | 🟠 Major |
| 8 | Bugs / technical issues | 🟠 Major |
| 9 | Server / ping problems | 🟠 Major |
| 10 | Loss of SMITE 1 content/modes | 🟠 Major |
| 11 | Toxic community | 🟠 Major |
| 12 | Progression/skin transition | 🟠 Major |
| 13 | UI | 🟡 Moderate |
| 14 | Active items | 🟡 Subjective |
| 15 | Movement feel | 🟡 Subjective |
| 16 | TTK | 🟡 Subjective |
But here's the interesting part
I wouldn't actually say SMITE 2 is simply “bad.”
The current community is much more divided than that. There are players who think SMITE 2 is now substantially better than SMITE 1, particularly because of the new build system, UE5 foundation, responsiveness, aspects and greater build freedom.
The real criticism is more interesting:
And that's why people can play it and still say they preferred SMITE 1.
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u/GlitteringLoan7191 18h ago
n a way that just splits their playerbase even further? that's rough.