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From Overwatch and Team Fortress 2 to Apex Legends and Counter-Strike 2, there are plenty of great, free multiplayer games on Steam to choose from. One that’s quietly stood the test of time, racking up a ‘very positive’ 85% rating on the Valve platform with more than 344,000 reviews since it launched in 2016, is Paladins. Now, the hero shooter from developer Evil Mojo and publisher Hi-Rez Studios is launching an all-new PvE horde mode, created as a passion project, as part of its latest free update.
With a roster of more than 50 champions to choose from, Paladins is a great alternative if you fancy a break from the hustle and bustle of your go-to team shooter. Blending FPS action with a range of powerful abilities, it’s a free Steam game that continues to pull in thousands of players every day, eight years after it first released. Perhaps one of the toughest parts about starting, however, is getting used to its diverse roster, but now there’s a great new way to jump in and try it out with your friends.
The landmark feature of the Paladins Tidal Surge update is the new Wave Defense mode. “PvE experiences are nothing new to Paladins,” Evil Mojo says. “However, we’ve slowly worked on a passion project to create a new experience that allows players to play a more-developed vision of what those modes could be like.” The result is Wave Defense, which does exactly what it says on the tin.
Joining forces with your team, you’ll have to hold out for ten minutes against a constantly increasing flood of ever more numerous and dangerous enemy forces. While you can respawn if you fall, each death costs you a precious ticket, and they’ll also be drained if the objective is held under the opponents’ control. Lose them all, and it’s game over. To help you out, you’ll also get CoD Zombies-style power ups that appear randomly from defeated foes.
At launch, Wave Defense offers three different locations: the Corrupted Burrow, the Forgotten Altar, and Dark Tides. Each will pit you against different forces and all three tie into various aspects of the Paladins universe. You can either play Wave Defense solo or in a team with up to four friends, or queue for public matchmaking to play with a full team of like-minded individuals online.
The Paladins Tidal Surge update is out now on the public test server. You can play Paladins for free on Steam. If you want to learn more or get started for yourself, you can check out the full patch notes courtesy of Evil Mojo, which also include a new Buried Treasure event and a wealth of balance changes for the primary 5v5 game mode.
Looking for more ways to team up with your crew? Here are the best co-op games to play in 2024. Or, if competition is more to your liking, dive into the best multiplayer games on PC instead.
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