Dota 2: Review
If you ask a professional chess player how he can play thousands of games on the same map, with the same pieces and non-updated features and still not get bored, he will probably chuckle, ask you to grow up and familiarize yourself with the content and value of this game a little deeper.
Of course, Dota 2 has nothing in common with chess in terms of content. Nevertheless, they have a lot in common: both sports disciplines offer healthy food for thought, require from the player experience, serious tactical analysis and the ability to predict the development of events for many moves ahead. Unfortunately, in the public opinion, Dota is not only devoid of these virtues, but is also seen as the embodiment of vice, evil and Satan himself.
When a chess player plays hundreds of games for days on end and studies tons of literature, this is called professional diligence. When a dater does the same thing, it’s called “nerdiness”. The 2003 map modification for WarCraft 3 Defense of the Ancients split the gamer community into two irreconcilable camps. For some, Dota has become the pinnacle of gaming evolution and a way of life. Others look at it as the abode of vulgarity and tastelessness, the “House-2” of the gaming world. But no matter what anyone says, Dota has become one of the most important cyber sports disciplines, being an appendage of WarCraft 3. The issue of its reclassification into an independent game was resolved only recently.
Only the birds sing for free. And they play Dota
The official release of Dota 2 was not seen by many – the game has been in open beta testing for over a year. Everyone could start defending the ancients a long time ago. Nevertheless, the game has not reached the shelves of stores – Valve distributes “Dota” on a free-to-play model, that is, you can try yourself in the game for free.
The commercial interest of the developers is primarily due to the functioning of the game market for the purchase and sale of various accessories for characters. Once in a while cosmetic plushies fall out at the end of matches for free. Much more often players receive chests with hidden treasures, the key to which can be purchased in the store Dota 2. Decorating characters is a purely personal matter. Buying things does not affect the balance, so in general, all the charms of “Dota” are available to everyone. Capital investments do not open new gameplay opportunities, as it is realized, for example, in League of Legends.
In the end, the outcome of the match always decides the professional level of the player. If someone is not familiar with the concept of Dota, let’s briefly outline it. The teams of Light and Dark are tasked with destroying an enemy base. Each side consists of five heroes, one of which is controlled by the player. In addition to them, the battle involves “creeps” – weak “units”, obeying a simple algorithm to follow a given route and kill oncoming enemies. For destroying heroes and creeps, players receive money and experience, which they spend on their character development.
This is where the full potential of “Dota” lies. There are over a hundred heroes in the game. For a successful outcome of a match, it is not enough to choose a character you like visually. A hero who has proven himself in one battle can be completely useless in another. Everything from the choice of your ward to the set of items you buy should be based on a well-thought-out plan for the match. Every action requires serious analysis of the situation that develops in the course of the game. Every decision is situational, and success depends entirely on your ability to correctly calculate the opponent’s potential, see the main trump cards of his team “peak” and predict the course of battles. The longer you play, the more opportunities are revealed. Over time, you realize that “Dota” contains a simple but ingenious concept.
Changing the wallpaper
The concept, map, heroes – all of this was transferred to Dota 2 almost without any changes. And what changes can we talk about in relation to “Dota”? The structure of gameplay is strictly defined, and any attempt to introduce conceptual innovations is fraught with loss of balance. Remembering that a cart does not need a fifth wheel, Valve carefully limited itself to some cosmetic innovations.
First of all, Dota 2, as an independent project, got a stylish menu, which offers quick access to the game itself, the store, news, as well as the creation of guides and broadcasts of professional matches. All the features provided by the developers are organized very conveniently, which significantly reduces the threshold of entry for newcomers. For them, by the way, there is a special training campaign, where they can, without spoiling the nerves of the old-timers, learn the basic principles of playing for different heroes.
After that – welcome to the vastness of team battles. At the moment there are seven game modes, the differences in which relate only to the starting part of the match – the choice of heroes. For those who just want to have fun and hone their skills in controlling a certain character, the popular All Pick will do. For “doters” with professional ambitions, Captain’s Mode is preferable, which reveals the tactical depth of the game to a greater extent. One way or another, the interest in the game increases in proportion to the number of familiar people in the team, because only with them you can have quality “teamplay”.
As for the gameplay itself, we are facing the good old “Dota”, changed only visually. From the medieval graphics WarCraft 3 is not left and pixel – the heroes look much more colorful than in the first part, pleasant textures pleasing to the eye, each character has its own set of animations, all the effects are drawn in detail and spectacular. Often, during especially massive fights, the picture is mottled with an abundance of colors, for which you lose the essence of what is happening. But in general, the graphics looks fresh and does not cause complaints.
The same applies to the voice acting. All characters when performing actions with a unique voice give out one of the prepared phrases. Corresponds to the spirit of the game memorable soundtrack, which Valve recorded with the help of a whole orchestra. The developers also included an interesting trick in the game: the match, which takes place in silence, is “heated up” by disturbing music in the climactic battle moments.
If we talk about very small things, the characteristics of some skills and artifacts have changed, and a couple of heroes have been renamed. The number of the latter, by the way, is constantly increasing – Valve regularly replenishes the list with missing characters from the first part and even threatens to create new heroes.
Crawfish need to be cooked. Alive
Another great feature of the new “dota” is the system of saving statistics. All your defeats and victories are subject to accounting, and matches are recorded, which allows you to analyze your own or someone else’s game by studying the “replay”. Here you will find a very interesting camera mode, which allows you to look at the match as it took place on the monitor of the player. Fog of War, mouse movements – a very useful feature for those who want to master such heroes as, for example, Mipo or Pudge.
Valve has also attempted to create an advanced ranking system. Levels are given for matches played, which are nominally an assessment of a player’s skill. The opponents you deal with will match your stats, which ideally should create balance. In reality, some people specifically create new accounts in Steam to start writing their stats from scratch or to wait out the low priority received as a result of complaints (yes, the selection of the ideal community is carried out in the form of “reports”, which players throw at each other). As a result, newcomers who have entered Dota for the first time meet experienced “grandfathers”, ready to explain without any hints who is who here. So the problem of auto-balance has not been solved yet.
Somewhat hinders enjoyment and inadequate behavior of individual gamers, which, incidentally, played a major role in the formation of a special status of “Dota”. Although theoretically, those who like to flood the chat with banal vulgarities and crude profanity should be in low-priority games, where they will deal with their own kind, nevertheless, the level of aggression here is off the charts. However, this is by no means a drawback of the game itself. The reasons for this lie, as they say, somewhere in times and mores.
If we abstract away from community problems and popular pseudo-intellectual gamer mythology, which gives Dota a place in the consumer diet of schoolboys, we must admit that Dota 2 is an amazingly balanced development. In Valve’s creation, it has finally acquired all the necessary attributes of an independent game: a decent appearance, great music and a training campaign. This is Dota, which has emerged from the parental nest of WarCraft 3 with its own plumage and spread its wings. But not everyone wants to appreciate its flight for some reason.
Pros: all gameplay features are available for free; pleasant graphics; user-friendly interface; excellent music and sound.
Cons: non-ideal rating system; the time of searching for the game is sometimes greatly delayed; repulsive community.
