Dota 2 review

Dota 2 boasts of a million plus unique players in the last month, making it one of the most popular games in the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genre. The numbers continue to grow with quite a number of gamers switching from other popular MOBA's such as League of Legends, Heroes of Newearth and Infinite Crisis. Not bad for a game which originated as a fan-made modification in Warcraft 3. The Map modification was an instant underground hit and after the entry of Valve, the original community developers have bridged the gap to a more inclusive audience so that the rest of the world can experience the same core gameplay but at such polished level that only Valve can provide.

Dota 2 is a difficult game and beginners might have to put in a lot of effort before they can actually begin to enjoy it. On the surface, the game is a ditto reproduction of the genre-creating (and still updated) Defence of the Ancients modification for Warcraft III. The game's punishing design is sometimes enough to drive you up the wall, but it's worth sticking the hours in.

Gameplay

Basically, the game begins with two teams of five players spawning on opposite corners of a map. Each team needs to work together with the goal of ultimately destroying a central structure, i.e. the 'Ancient' in the opposing team's base. Most games last around 40 mins and occasionally edges past an hour, while some can end within thirty.

The two teams, named the Radiant and the Dire, are assisted by waves of AI assistants, called creeps. A batch of these creeps spawns at every 30 second intervals on each of the three lanes, and charge up the lane towards the enemy's base. In the clumps of remaining land lies a jungle, where numerous AI opponents spawn, offering benefits in terms of gold and experience to players who take them on successfully. There are three towers in each lane and two towers in front of the Ancients, and the goal of each team is to advance towards the enemies' base destroying all of these towers and finally the Ancient.

Each player mostly controls just a single unit in the game, though there are some exceptions as some heroes can summon or take control of other units. The players handling of the selected hero controls and affects the rhythm of the game.

The aim for most players is to accumulate as much gold and experience as possible, with income being delivered mostly by scoring the killing blow on enemy creeps and players. The gold is then to be cashed in for purchasing items from the shop to make your hero stronger, while gaining experience allows you to level up your hero's base stats and abilities. Hence the basic aim for each team is to make their heroes stronger in order to kill opposing players, destroy towers and finally get to the ancient. However, rarely does it feel that simple.

Features

There are currently 108 heroes in Dota 2, and more are likely to be released in the future. Each hero has a handful of abilities and generally works best in a specific role. There's only one map, unlike in many other MOBA titles, although Valve has not ruled out the addition of more over time, and has previously offered game-changing modes with seasonal events at Halloween and Christmas. But Dota 2's single sprawling map sets itself apart from the competition by being larger, more intricate, and packed with greater detail than the rest of the genre. Unlike in League of Legends, the jungle area is riddled with far more tangling pathways, the lanes feature additional shops selling exclusive items and savvy players are given more opportunities to use the environment to hide, flee, and ambush their opponents. More layers of information become increasingly relevant as you spend more time in the game, and can learn to use more aspects in the game, other than just your hero's skills and items to defeat opponents.

The biggest setback must be the initial difficulty encountered to get the hang of the game. It is a complicated and exhausting game and for the few first games you would probably be clueless as to what's going on. However, efforts are being made to remedy this. Right now there are a couple of tutorial levels, some well-designed AI bots, and a newbie playlist that restricts hero selection to just 20 of the most frequently picked characters. And with community-created hero guides now built directly into the game itself, Dota 2 is much easier to get started with than it has been in the past.

Dota 2 can be emotionally challenging as well. It is an undeniable fact that losing a game in Dota can be uniquely painful. Death in Dota 2 not only gives your opponent money, but robs you of some of your own and leaves you waiting up to a minute to respawn. Each death makes your opponent stronger and dying two or three times in quick succession can make a match of Dota 2 an extremely painful experience. Die two or three times in quick succession, which is easily done, and a match of Dota becomes a painful experience where you spend the next half hour getting bullied by an increasingly superior enemy. Other games in the genre have tried to mitigate this punishment, but Dota 2 positively revels in it’s complexities.

Valve has poured considerable effort into building Dota 2's powerful client, however, and this impressive platform can sometimes help take the sting out of defeat. The game is free to play and yet it is unquestionably fair as every hero is immediately available to all players, unlike in League of Legends, and purchases made with real money such as armour, weapons, masks, etc are purely cosmetic. Also, at the end of each game, players are subjected to a showering of random loot drops, and it's easily possible to notch up hundreds of items just by playing normally for six months.

Dota 2's extensive customisation offers new taunts, announcers and HUD skins, with many of these items created and voted into the game by the community. It also separates itself from other MOBA's with the ability to buy Passes to watch pro matches live from the in-game client, and also it’s suite of options to spectate matches with incorporated commentary. This is a free-to-play game that feels generous, with profits being dished out to item creators and the eSports teams, and Valve is already in the habit of running seasonal events that award you with heaps of new items.

So start playing Dota 2 if u have not started yet and get lost in an unexpectedly powerful blend of clashing genres and disparate elements. The experience of playing Dota changes on a regular basis. Some games will be invigorating, while others will kick your morale to the curb. This is a definitely a game worth investing your time into. However, be careful as to how much time you invest, as you might find yourself unable to stop once you start. Have a look at the trailer.