Paladins: Champions of the Realm share a lot of similarities with Overwatch. But will this be a worthy rival to Blizzard's currently popular team-based First Person Shooter (FPS) game?

Paladins: Champions of the Realm

Paladins: Champions of the Realm was developed by Hi-Rez Studios. The official website described Paladins as a "combination FPS whose game characters can be customized with the use of collectible cards." Gameplay is similar to Overwatch where the match is fought by two opposing teams. The Paladins video game demo however, showed how different it is to Overwatch.

Paladins: Champions of the Realm Open Beta Play

Paladins: Champions of the Realm can be downloaded from Steam. Players could play it in either Steam or Windows PC platform. The FPS game is currently on Open Beta right now. According to Hi-Rez Studios COO and co-founder Todd Harris, Paladins is now free-to-play and will continue to be so.

Paladins Compared to Overwatch

Currently, Blizzard's Overwatch is one of the most popular multiplayer FPS game right now. But Paladins do have some competitive advantages against Overwatch. First, it's free and that is an incentive enough for many people who have not yet played similar games like Overwatch.

 Hi-Rez however, will have to do some convincing first if hopes to convert Overwatch players to cross over. Blizzard is not offering Overwatch for free. But it does have a big player base and the game's quality is one of the best in the industry.

The Paladins developer is also hoping to get Team Fortress 2 players to try its game by offering TF2 skins. The first eligible Paladins champion is Barik who can get a TF2 Mechanic Skin once he wins five Steam matches. Paladins: Champions of the Realm started as a closed beta game in late 2015.