SMITE 2 - Developer Deep Dive: New God, Hecate

Tartarus calls for you!
Join the team for a Deep Dive on the creation of the first Goddess designed specifically in SMITE 2: Hecate!
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[cream-gravy]

I see that there's two big reasons they decided to upgrade to UE5's physics engine.

[RD-ccnk]

I’ve been looking forward to this god for years and I’m so disappointed… “we didn’t want her to be a witch” she’s literally the goddess of the witches??? And all of her animations are just purple lasers? No reference to her three faces/phases of the moons smh. She could literally be any goddess

[LYRADdl]

Even though she looks beautiful. I will say its a little disappointing that she lacks alot of Hecate's iconography. Where's her three-fold/triple aspect? Her snakes or dogs? Moon? They only have her torch.

I wish Hi-Rez would add more mythological accuracy as opposed to generic fantasy character traits.

[NexusEntertainment-fyjb]

Hecate's ultimate looks uninspired and really badly animated. I get that this is pre-Alpha but even then something like Ymir 2 or.. really Anhur's entire kit looks more fluid than that. Her entire kit is rather unpolished animation wise, but her ultimate is definitely the worst and imo it's probably the worst animated ability I've seen since I've been playing (season 3). Alpha releases in a few weeks, presumably, so I'm hoping they redo some of this.

It seems like the common consensus is that her ult looks clunky and most people think this (not just YT) as I see people on Reddit, Twitter, and the Discord pointing this out. I hope they're aware that it needs more work because an UE5 specific character in 2024 releasing unpolished like that is unacceptable and people aren't forgiving anymore when it comes to things like this.

[danieltalebi]

Seriously this is disappointing, this is not a good expression of Hecate. And her abilities are not befitting either. Please take the time to work on her again. There needs to be a LOT more black, dark purple, and hints of gold or silver. "Ethereal" shouldn't overpower her "darkness." Needs to have more moon aspects, dogs, three faces, apparitions. None of which is well represented here. The sky change was done well, I give props for that but the abilities themselves need a lot of work and changes. The first god for Smite 2 should be done properly, I have played smite since 2016, this was one of the gods I really looked forward to. Hope this feedback is considered.

[CS-zbhx]

I'm still disappointed by her design, she looks like such a generic fantasy mage when she has such cool imagery in her myths. No dogs? No ghosts? But the cloth physics are gorgeous

[Wafflekatpwn]

tbh this isnt my fave depiction of Hecate

[viennasavage]

The team that design these abilities really needs a rehaul... Every god is feeling so generic by now.

[Jormyyy]

They really went with generic fantasy mmo girl for Hecate design?? She even has the default "battle mage" pose on her art 😭

[ahmarcamacho]

She shouldn't have a regular jump animation, looks odd. Just let her do levitating acrobatics

[kylexile]

Gotta be honest… she doesn’t look interesting at all. But I’ve felt like that with most of the recent Mages outside of Maman Brigitte.

[diogorainho]

Hi-rez? Thats not hekate... Wheres the dark energy? The 3 maidens? The dogs? It just looks... Off..

[demeterstidbits]

I really thought HECATE of all newer releases would be the one to have several abilities to really showcase being THE GODDESS OF WITCHCRAFT or at least have a super interactive kit with several combo routes. (Tiamat and Merlin vibes) The ult is the most disappointing part it’s just Morgan ult or as others have said Nike 1 lol. The 3 looks like just Kuku 2 also.

I get this is their first on Unreal 5 but like damn really got my hopes up for this one lol just feels like another standard mage.

Her visuals are stunning though like appearance wise she looks phenomenal

Another cool thing they could have done was when using her 3, her other abilities could have been amplified or turned into another kit for the duration. Or at least for the ult since she’s really lacking that triple goddess aspect .

[dancingqueen]

“Her presentation, soft, floaty”

Well, that explains the 2 mounds of back problems. You’re doing good hi-rez

[juanfloridoortega]

Please, give her ult a bit more sauce. Lean into the three part aspect of her kit and make each hit LOOK different. 1st shot, line, 2 shot triangle, 3 shot circle, make it look like a combo rather than the same skill done 3 times. (Changing the color and effect of each hit ala Raijin ult can also work)

[TheHornedKing]

Looks really good!
All though, she looks very... space themed? It's not out of place, she does have some association with the stars and the moon (especially the moon), but she seems to have stronger associations with spirits and the underworld. Some times Hecate even got these demonic servants called Empousa, who act a lot like vampires and succubi. The art for the old Ring of Hecate item was more the vibe I was expecting.

[sednanamaka]

Redo that ult baby that is literally just Nike's 1

[jimstoesz]

2007 called. They want their painfully basic Sexy Witch design back 🙄

[RideTheMaverickTV]

I was outraged that they didn't make Yemoja a mermaid so it puts me at ease that they did the bare minimum with Hecate as well.

[niromanti]

Y'all are crazy for those jiggle physics