Paladins

The direction they took with the gameplay mechanics,skins and lore is exeptional however its clear that hirez doesnt want to allocate resources to the game,too bad because with enough polish it could really solidify that spot it as its very unique

So if you're somehow one of the strange new people who was recommended to play this game or thought of picking it up in 2024, about 8 years after Paladins came out, let me start off by just giving my overall rating:
9/10, this game almost never stopped being fun for me, and the only reason I haven't played in a while is because none of my friends play it anymore. That, and I managed to hit Platinum and thought to myself, "alright I think I've peaked, time to see what the flavor of the month games are now."
Is this game better than Overwatch? Well, all I have to say is... eat my shorts, Blizzard! Paladins has been staying with a consistent playerbase, and the Overwatch devs somehow screwed up so badly they're considering remaking the game a third time. Paladins is just built different, and the reasons that Paladins aren't as popular come down to worse graphics, more bugs, and the fact Hi-Rez is a toxic company that the devs somehow manage to endure and still keep this game better than Overwatch. Yes, you're going to see a lot of similarity between the two games. Yes, there's some similar gamemodes.
Character Roster: 10/10. The Paladins dev team make a hero shooter with a lot of MOBA elements. This means they play with mechanics a lot more than other hero shooters that came out. There's a character based around using health to cast abilities, an assassin focused around using stealth without {i] any dashes (a breath of fresh air for a League player), a character based almost entirely around shield manipulation (Torvald was my main for a long time), and numerous characters based around various combos. Even when my main(s) were bad because of the meta, I always felt like there was a champion I could really take joy in playing. The champion roster is utterly massive, and you can try any of them free in the practice tool.
Balance: 8/10. I'll start this point off by admitting Paladins isn't immune to power creep. Like a lot of MOBAs/Hero Shooters, the new characters have started outperforming the older ones with simpler kits. However, that doesn't mean the simpler champions are terrible, and there are still new releases that don't hit the mark. Tyra's firebomb still hits like a freight train with the right build, Pip still has awesome burst healing, Skye still melts tanks like butter, and Androxus is still the main character that many players wish they could be good at. I'm very happy that the Paladins balance team are consistently tweaking the game to adjust for outliers, and they've been incredibly respectful of player feedback/backlash (Cards Unbound was certainly a thing for a couple patches). I rarely felt like the characters I enjoyed playing were utter trash, though I admit there have been a few occasions I despised a couple of champions in the meta and wished they had bans in casual queue.
Builds: 10/10. This is what made me get into Paladins, hands down. Every character gets a budget for their build before the game kind of like Runes in League of Legends, but instead of being all new stats to account for and balance for every champion in the game, the cards system is tailored to your champion specifically. Also, all cards are unlocked when you get the champion. My all-time favorite was and still is a card you can put on Torvald that gives an ally a whopping 50% move speed buff for 2 seconds when you cast the bubble shield on them, so I always loved slapping it on our assassin and watching them go to town. There's a few hundred combinations of builds you can make per champion, and you can store up 6 builds each for whatever you feel is right. Just know that when you get into a game, you're picking the build you'll be using for that entire match.
Monetization: 4/10. Hi-Rez has gotten more greedy as time passes. The skin prices are extremely high, but I do like the fact you can get most of the simple skins with a currency you earn to purchase new champions. I'm sad they don't offer the champion pass I was offered, which allowed you to pay $30USD and just own every champion forever, and automatically get new champions as they were released. I've got no clue if the Deluxe Edition is worth anything, but it's not difficult to earn a new champion you want to play on your own. The battle passes have sadly gotten much worse over the years; I used to not have much of a problem with them because I could still get plenty of cool stuff on the free track, and the pass was relatively cheap and had something like 100 different rewards I could grind up for every season so it was 20 bucks for 3 skins and a bunch of other nice cosmetics. Most of the cosmetic chests are a scam.
Audio: 9/10. One extremely great decision for cosmetics that Hi-Rez has made for their games has been announcer packs. I personally keep the Raynday announcer pack on to listen to one of the old esports casters say I'm on a rampage. Most of the skins are actually great, many of them have custom voicepacks, and the lines of the ally quick chat are even changed. Some are great like Ameri-Khan's patriotic lines, and some make me question this game's rating like Infernal Seris being totally-not-a-succubus and talking about very kinky things. The sound design is utterly gorgeous, everything feels weighty just as an action-packed game like this should. A bell rings every time you get a takedown, and it's cocaine to my eardrums.
Visuals: 7/10. The artstyle works well, and this game can run on a toaster. I legitimately started playing Paladins on a Mac, which cannot run most big titles. The graphics are usually super stable, and most visual effects aren't invasive. The skins usually look and feel awesome, though the audio is often the appeal of the pricier ones. Over time, they've streamlined the cosmetics and skins are overall slightly easier to get. Also, if you really despise furries for some reason, don't play this game; there's a lot of cursed stuff here.
Difficulty: 5/10. It can be wishy-washy here. There's only a few thousand players right now, meaning most of the players you'll meet are good at the game. When I got to Plat, a few of the games I was getting carried by some Brazilian who was Grandmaster in the previous season, so yeah. There can be some skill disparity in matches. Sometimes the TTK feels pretty low, but then I remember this game isn't Overwatch and I'm happy that there are very few damage outliers. It's an FPS so the time to kill has to be relatively lower, but they do manage to properly pad it out with Frontlines and Supports. However, if I just feel like relaxing, not thinking too much and practicing a champion, I think Co-op VS AI is a great way to go.
So yeah, that's about as much as I can fit on this. Good game, recommend.

Very good game imo, better than Overwatch. I do dislike having to buy every character though.
This game could be way better if it had more funding / a better engine. So sad that paladins is so underrated

The game is fantastic. Infinitely better than Overwatch but somehow has a worse player base. I haven't figured out if it's bots or just extremely unintelligent people in some games. No teamwork, no synergy, no filling roles appropriately, and countless "support" players that don't press their heal ability unless by accident. The game is great, the player base is trash.

I genuinely believe that this is the best hero shooter on the market currently. In terms of gameplay and mechanics, it's very rich despite not appearing so. There are many, many problems with the game, don't misunderstand me but if you can handle the wonk matchmaking, the lack of polish, the few bugs that are truly problematic, and the insane learning curve the game has (a better tutorial in game would be a great start) you'll really enjoy yourself.

Free2play isn't too bad, the starter characters are fun, and you can progress in bot matches to earn gold as you wish. Get yourself a friend and just have fun. Seriously, the game is free (Though do look up a beginner's guide to avoid the overwhelming Talent/Loadout/Item system)

love paladins, i like it more than overwatch but its not as well balanced which can be fun or rather daunting. not as well optimized. needs more funding BADLY

I love ram is the best monster for divorce. It deserves to be in a lot of skins. & beautiful fantasy game. 10 / 9