Paladins is Smite maker Hi-Rez Studios’ take on Team Fortress 2 — with cards instead of hats

Now that Hi-Rez Studios is doing pretty well in the MOBA market, it’s time to take another shot at the team-based shooter scene.

Hi-Rez is already supporting the popular multiplayer battle arena (MOBA) Smite (which is doing well for itself even if it isn’t a League of Legends-sized success), but today, it revealed a new free-to-play game, a team-based shooter called Paladins.

“Paladins combines a rich fantasy setting with the fast action of a team-based first-person shooter,” Hi-Rez noted in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “In addition to the core shooter experience, Paladins also offers deep strategy and in-match character progression through decks of collectible cards, which amplify and augment a character’s core set of abilities.”

So, think Team Fortress 2 with cards instead of hats.

Hi-Rez doesn’t have any in-game footage of Paladins, but it did say that it’ll be playable at this week’s Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany. Hi-Rez previously released the free-to-play team-based shooter Tribes: Ascend in 2012, although it stopped updating that game in July 2013 (the game is still online, though).