Heroes of NewerthFollow

Heroes of Newerth (Yes that is right, there main website is facebook) is one of many DotA-like games coming out. Two other notable entries are League of Legends and Demigod. Strangely enough, I think the game who's official webpage is facebook may be the best.

For those of you who do not know, DotA (Defense of the Ancients) is a custom map built in the Warcraft 3 editor. Since it is a modification of an RTS game the basic controls and camera work like your conventional RTS game. However, the objective is very different. Instead of producing and controlling hordes of units, the game is entirely focused on controlling a single unit. You level up this unit like in an RPG, choosing abilities to take. The goal is to level your unit and push into the enemies' base, destroying it. You play against an opposing human team with the same objective, to destroy your base. It's fairly different from most conventional genres, and if there were more games in the category (which there are beginning to be) could be said to be its own separate genre.

The three games I mentioned--Hereoes of Newerth, League of Legends, and Demigod--all borrow the basic concept of controlling one unit which you level and use to destroy the enemy base, but offer different takes on it.

Demigod was the first game I heard of and the first game I saw played by a friend of mine in beta.It is also probably the most unique of the three. Rather than offering the players a large number of choices in the unit they may command (there are more than 90 in DotA, and around 10 in Demigod) the game instead focuses give the player more options with each hero.

League of Legends is more similar to dota, offering a larger number of units to initially choose from with less development per each unit. What seems to set them apart the most is their business model. LoL is offered free to play, with the ability to pay for cosmetic upgrades or buy timesavers (the game has a metagame leveling system).

Heroes of Newerth is the game most similar to dota. In fact, it is a rather shameless dota clone. There are several units in HoN ripped straight from dota. Originality is clearly lacking, but that isn't really a problem. Dota is a very well designed and balanced game. The only flaw with Dota is that it is limited by capabilities of Warcraft 3. HoN fixes the only real problem dota ever had by just building dota outside Warcraft 3. Because they do this they bring years of resources, ideas, and concepts poured into dota to their game. The units in HoN are very interesting to play and well balanced.

HoN also fixes other various problems that existed in dota. Because unlike WC3, the platform is built around this game, it can display and track relevant statistics. There is full transparency with your unit stats, and the game is capable of tracking and displaying player stats. It also fixes the leaver problem in dota. Dota games usually last 30 minutes to an hour, and when one team starts losing there will be those who just decide it isn't worth their time and quit in the middle of the game. It's like a basketball team being down in points at the half and the point guard walking off the court. In HoN, the percentage games you leave is tracked, and players can create games that prevent those with too high of a leaver percentage from joining. You can also add a threshold for the minimum number of games players have played to be able to join. This prevents players from simply creating a new account when their leaver percentage is too high.

I'm in the HoN beta, and they have given permission and encourage beta participants to talk about the game. I really think it is the best of the three. Even though it's exactly like dota, and I already own dota, it is worth buying just for fixing the leaver problem and freeing dota from WC3.

HoN videos:
Showing off some of the graphics and map.
Actual game play.

Edited, Jul 28th 2009 10:04am by Allegory

I'm afraid the first time I tried to play DotA I fell on some really horrible people and I hated the game ever since.
Footmen Frenzy is where I had most of my online Warcraft 3 fix. I even spent countless hours reading battle reports, watching replays, and so forth in order to improve my gaming.

Am I missing out? Somehow the 2 styles FF and DotA are too different for me, one is building upgrade based, and the other is hero upgrade based? (I seem to remember you spent the whole game just buying better and better equipment for your hero, combining stuff and that's it).