Yearly Archives: 2013

DotA 2 Review – A Real Look After 1000+ Hours of Gameplay

By Mohammad Abubakr, OnRPG Journalist

Normally when a journalist publishes a review, only 10-15 hours are spent to get a feel of the game. However, Dota 2 has had me hooked since December of 2011. I have spent over 1000 hours playing the game and hundreds more spectating. Dota 2 is a game which really requires hundreds of hours to fully understand and grasp. Read on for a true review of Valve’s Dota 2.

After years in beta, Valve has finally announced that Dota 2’s beta has officially come to an end! Dota 2, successor to Warcraft III Dota, aims to provide a better user experience than that found in Warcraft III Dota due to engine limitations. With many new features added to improve user experience and gameplay, Dota 2 is on the same level as Valve’s other amazing releases such as Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike.

Dota 2 is a free to play game allowing all players to enjoy the full game without any restrictions on Windows, Mac and Linux. In Action RTS games such as Dota 2, it is very important to be on a level playing field to ensure balance and fair games between all players. Regardless of how much you have spent on the game, everything related to gameplay is available for free. You may spend money in the store for cosmetic items but spending money will not cause you to gain any advantage over other players. The shop sells items such as hats (expected from Valve), weapons, pants, announcers and custom HUDs. All the items besides keys, used to open chests, can be found simply by playing the game. A full article has been dedicated to the Dota 2 shop in the past due to the importance of allowing all players to play on a level playing field regardless of how much they spent. Read more about Dota 2’s shop here.

By now everyone should be familiar with the gameplay of Dota style games. Two teams of five fight to destroy enemy towers and finally their base. In three lanes, creeps continue to mindlessly battle it out to the death, awarding players with gold and experience for each kill. This gold can be used to purchase items while experience can be used to level up and train skills. All stats are reset for each match, giving everyone an equal start at the beginning of each match.

Couple this with over a hundred heroes and items and you get a very complicated and deep game. Even after playing for more than a thousand hours and more than a thousand matches, I have yet to play one match even remotely identical to ones played in the past. There are billions of possibilities for each match due to the massive number of options available for all players. Even professional players playing since Warcraft III Dota still continue to learn and innovate. You will never see the same match again during your Dota 2 career.

Bat Rider really is the most annoying hero in the game.

This does lead to the problem of Dota 2 having a very steep learning curve. When you begin the game, you will suck and your teammates will let you know that you suck. In a game where one player can change the tide of the entire game, players do tend to get very emotional. You cannot play Dota without getting flamed at least once. However, this does improve and you will get nicer players that work with the team the higher you climb through the rankings.

However, the problem is that there is no transparent ranking at the moment. You cannot clearly tell whether you are climbing up or falling down. You can estimate your standings by the very vague normal, high and very high brackets, but that does not help new players due to the vast majority of players being in the normal bracket.

I would love to see a more transparent ranking system similar to that found in Starcraft II. A ladder system featuring various leagues allows players to play competitively and work their way up the rankings. It also lets players know how well they are doing compared to those around them.

Dota 2 is meant to be a competitive game. While casual players can play it to have a good time, you will need to form your own five man team as most players are in it to win.

The eSports scene has been doing amazing ever since Valve’s International upon Dota 2’s announcement. A large tournament from the birth of the game has allowed Dota 2 to gather many talented players across the world and allow them to play in many tournaments going on every single day. It is rare or near impossible to find a day where a Dota 2 tournament game is not being played. If you are a keen eSports viewer, Dota 2 has a lot to offer.

 The International III’s prize pool continues to grow!

With the upcoming International III, Valve has introduced many additional features allowing players to interact with the tournament. The compendium is an item that can be purchased allowing players to contribute towards the tournament’s prize pool all while gaining bonuses such as additional battle points and the ability to take part in a fantasy league. What was originally a 1.6 million dollar tournament has grown and continues to grow to a massive 2.5 million dollar tournament. As various milestones are hit, Valve rewards players with in-game items and tournament content. The Compendium goes to show the cleverness of the minds at work at Valve.

The game continues to grow as it becomes available across the world in countries including China and Korea. Almost four million unique players have played Dota 2 this month. Although the beta tag has officially been lifted, not everyone is able to play Dota 2 at the moment. You may apply to join the game and will be sent an invite in waves. However, whoever wanted to play Dota 2 has already gotten an invite at this point. Let’s be honest, invites were not hard to get.

Valve is working to increase their server capacity with an additional 450,000 capacity added last week. It is good to see a company ensuring that the gameplay of others is not affected by allowing more players to join the game. Everyone hates queues and lag and Valve is doing the best it can to ensure these issues do not occur.

Although Valve is aiming to rid any lag in the game, players are still given the option to select the servers they would like to queue for. This is an amazing option allowing players from around the world to compete with each other. Although in most cases you will be playing in your region due to lag issues, it is good to see players not being locked out from their friends and competitive events across the world.

Dota 2’s Hero Pool

While Valve has added many additional features not present in Warcraft III Dota such as leaver penalties and Dota TV, all the gameplay is still directly from Warcraft III Dota. The heroes and balance changes are ported over from Warcraft III Dota due to IceFrog’s simultaneous involvement with both games. I am really looking forward to what kind of hero designs the minds at Valve can come up with. However, it is still unknown whether Dota 2 will continue to maintain parity with Warcraft III Dota after all the heroes have been ported over to Dota 2 or if Dota 2 will feature exclusive heroes.

The only reason I can see for players to stick with Warcraft III Dota is due to system limitations as Dota 2 does nothing but improve on its predecessor. In many countries, the availability of games in Internet Cafes are vital for success. Due to the low system requirements of Dota 2, we should begin to see more and more Internet Cafes offering Dota 2 in their catalog of games.

Conclusion: Great

In conclusion, Dota 2 is a game that must be played by all interested in the real time strategy genre. You can never beat Dota 2, you will always be working to improve your gameplay. Dota 2 is a game which one can easily spend thousands of hours playing and still find themselves learning. It is really difficult to cover such a complex and massive game in a short article; you need to play the game to fully understand it. When you begin the game, you will suck and hate the game. However, only those that give Dota 2 a fair try and spend many hours learning the game will truly be able to enjoy this amazing game.

 

Graphics – 5/5

Once again, Valve shows us that realism is not all that is important. The art style allows Dota 2 to be unique from all other games while still being pleasant to the eye.

Control – 5/5

There is not much to be improved upon when it comes to control. Action RTS games feature simple mouse and keyboard controls with default QWER buttons for skills. All hotkeys are fully customizable.

Features – 4/5

While there are many great features available, there is still room for improvement. Features such as better handling of player reports for the massive player base and a ladder system are still missing. I am still hoping for the ability to create custom maps for Dota 2.

Customization – 5/5

There are many ways to customize your play style and even cosmetic options of the game. Players are able to design and submit their own cosmetic items allowing for near infinite possibilities. Even still, strict guidelines are put into place to maintain lore and art style of Dota 2.

Community – 3/5

While the player base tends to be more mature than other games of the genre, there are still a lot of emotions that are thrown around during matches due to the ability of each player to decide the outcome of a match. Outside of the game, there is amazing commitment from the fans featuring player hosted tournaments and art work. You can really tell the community loves the game.

OnRPG Shotgun News 7/16: Guild Wars 2, Kartuga, Neverwinter

Guild Wars 2 Enters the Political Scene

Cutthroat Politics

Politics are coming to Guild Wars 2. The recent assassination of a member of the Captain’s Council of Lion’s Arch means a spot has been opened, a spot Ellen Kiel and Evon Gnashblade both want to fill. It will be up to the players to vote for who they think should sit on the council. Both have put out ads trashing their opponent and both have made a list of campaign promises. This is just the basis for the next part of the living story, Cutthroat Politics which starts July 23rd.

 

Kartuga Sails Into the Horizon

InnoGames has announced that the seafaring pirate MMOG Kartuga would be sailing into the sunset sometime in the new few weeks. In addition, developers at Ticking Bomb Games will be hunting for a job as the studio is getting shut down. InnoGames has opened several opportunities for them working across several other titles. The closure will mean InnoGames can focus on more cross platform games, including two upcoming titles which have not yet been announced. The exact date of closure has not yet been announced but when it is you can find it here.

 

Neverwinter Fury of the Feywild Module Launch Date Set

Feywild

Fans of Neverwinter need only wait a few more short weeks to get their hands on Module 1: Fury of the Feywild. Today Perfect World announced that the free expansion will be coming on August 22nd. And to celebrate the news they also released details of two new item packs which will give you all sorts of goodies, for a price. You can find the details of the two packs, which are available now below.

Knight of the Feywild Pack
The Knight of the Feywild Pack costs $59.99 USD (valued at $149.99) and supplies adventurers with virtual goods to aid them in their quest for glory:

Unique ‘Moon Elf’ Race
Unique ‘Dawn Unicorn’ Mount
Unique ‘Sylph Companion’
New Moonsilver Regalia Fashion Set
Loamweave Enchantment
Stone of Earth
Unique ‘Knight of the Feywild’ In-game Title
One Extra Character Slot
Adventurer’s Helper Pack, containing Six Different Types of In-game Items
600,000 Astral Diamonds, an In-game Currency

Feywild Starter Pack
The Feywild Starter Pack costs $19.99 USD (valued at $49.99) and supplies adventurers with virtual goods to aid them in their quest for glory:

Unique ‘Portal Hound’ Companion
Feywild Hunter’s Ring
Fine Elven Silk Bag
Adventurer’s Helper Pack, containing Six Different Types of In-game Items

Kings and Legends Enters a Dark Descent

Kings and Legends
 

Kings and Legends, the unique card-based, free2play browser title, announced today the launch of its exciting new update, “Dark Descent.”  This latest update will feature brand-new cards with entirely new abilities, increased level caps, a new continent and a host of exciting new features for the card battling MMORPG.

“Dark Descent” will take players on a wild ride as they are introduced to a variety of new Halfblood and Undead cards including four new booster packs!  The latest cards have entirely new abilities that will offer completely new tactical possibilities to players.  Additionally, players will discover a brand new continent to conquer; Draglasar.  This new continent for players who have already conquered Elyria offers even more varied and difficult PvE challenges and success there is that much sweeter with many new rewards on offer for completion of each stage!

 

Kings and Legends
 

“With the new update of “Dark Descent” we will again radically increase the content with the all new cards, abilities, boosters and maps which our ever-growing community has been asking for,” said Alexander Reitsma, Managing Director of Kings and Legends publisher GameSpree. “We are sure that we will see new tactics coming to the fore from both experienced players and the thousands of new players we see discovering the game each day.”

With the new update there also comes a level cap increase from 50 to 60, and a new Lucky Draw system.  Active players can now draw the all-new cards via the Lucky Draw system on a daily basis and get multiple picks from the draw for playing on successive days. Other features include a new boss dungeon offering never before seen equipment as well as new skill cards for each class of hero.

 

Kings and Legends

Due to the new content and the large volume of expected users Kings and Legends will also be opening multiple new servers in the next days to accommodate the rush of players they have seen after previous updates. The game also continues its international expansion with the start of the German Open Beta this week.

Stone Wardens

Stone Wardens is a fun blend of action role-playing and tower defense. You play as one of several types of Stone Wardens who use their magical abilities, familiars (magical pets), and summoned ancestral guardians to defend towns from waves of invaders. Gain experience, gold, and enchanted gear to improve your Warden as you play. Play solo or join our online community for multiplayer cooperative play.

Features:

Warden Classes: Choose Wardens with individualized skills to allow you to specialize in damage, tower augmentation, minion control, or a combination of various elements. Each will change the tactics needed to attain victory and offer amazing synergy when teamed with other players.

Combination Abilities: Utilize a mix of skills to unlock new bonuses such as melting a foe with fire that’s encased in ice.

Invader Abilities: Your foes aren’t mindless creatures stumbling towards a goal. Be prepared as they utilize unexpected powers to fight back including the gruesome act of eating their own to gain power.

Boost System: Think the game is too easy? Up the difficulty and be rewarded if you can hang. Each challenge offers three tiers of challenge.

Hi-Rez Announces SMITE PAX and Gamescom Tournaments

Hi-Rez Studios today announced the next two scheduled LAN event tournaments for SMITE.

SMITE Golden Zeus

The first will take place at the Gamescom ESL stage on Friday, August 23 with four invited European teams competing for a prize pool of €15,000. Gamescom is the world’s largest gaming event and is hosted in Cologne, Germany.

The next North American event tournament will take place at PAX Prime in Seattle between August 30 and September 2 with four invited North American teams competing for a prize pool of $20,000. PAX Prime is one of the largest gaming events in North America and is hosted by Seattle, Washington.

Both events will be played via LAN, viewed by a live audience of thousands, and broadcast to the world via TwitchTV.

Camelot Unchained TDD Lore and Art Update

Mark Jacobs has made a follow-up appearance on the constantly updating Kickstarter page for Camelot Unchained. This time he offers a hefty dose of lore and long awaited forest concept art for the race quickly being abbreviated to TDD.

Camelot Unchained Forest Concept

The concept art offers some interesting natural (likely mixed with magic) defense mechanics as well as a sort of surreal dream style for the actual forest landscape and random winding bridges more akin to the twisted jungles of the original Guild Wars 1 than anything else. Check it all out for yourself on their announcement page.

Camelot Unchained Forest Defenses