Paladins: Champions of the Realm is a 2018 free-to-play online hero shooter video game by Hi-Rez. The game was developed by Evil Mojo, an internal studio of Hi-Rez and was released on May 8, 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, followed by a Nintendo Switch 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. which would be the sequel or the spiritual sequel to the pvp mode of Global Agenda according to some developers. The game changed its name several times, in the end the developers renamed the game as Paladins in early August 2015. The game had pre alpha and alpha versions during 2015 but were not shown until August 3, 2015 when news channels like IGN were given permission to show the game content. The Paladins closed beta started on November 17, 2015. In the Open Beta, the game appeared on September 16, 2016 in the Steam Early Access program.
Evil Mojo ended support and sunset the Nintendo Switch version on June 21, 2023.
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 very profitable and 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: