Dota 2

What is Dota 2? (Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy)

The simple DotA which most of us still know/play today, was a game mod created by Icefrog for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the Frozen Throne. Valve hired Icefrog in 2009 in order to create Defense of the Ancients 2 and also keep most of the content similar so that players which have played it before will be familiar with the new design brought forward by Valve’s Source Engine.

GUI:

The newly designed interface which has a better colour contrast, makes it easier for the user to browse  through the menu and also help him concentrate more on the game. No one likes staring at abstract colours for 40 minutes(average game time) . 

Due to the fact that the whole client is dedicated to a single map (but plenty of game modes), the main menu which is set at the top was better designed in a way which allows the user to switch between tabs instead of going back to the old menu, also the matchmaking system that they’ve implemented is easy to use and allows you to create a party of 5 people and join the game modes and server your heart desires.

Gameplay:

The gameplay consists of two teams battling each other to take over the ancient which the other has to defend at the same time. The two teams known as The Radiant and The Dire, both consist of 5 players, each controlling his unique hero in that particular game.

Heroes:

At the start of every game players select heroes from a pool of 87 (made up from 26 Streght, 27 Agility and 34 Intellect ) heroes, more to be added along the way. Depending on what spells the heroes have and gain with each level up to 16 (max 25) players will get assigned different roles to play: Tank (mainly a strenght hero), Carry (mainly agility), Support(Mainly Intelligence), Disabler(Any type as long as it has hex/stun) etc.

Extra features:

As it was expected with such a big client (aprox. 3GB), more features have been implemented to create a rather new experience for players, such as:

Items – used to customize your favourite hero and amaze others depending on the rarity of that particular item. (can either be won when you level up or if someone uses a Shopkeeper’s Surprise*)

In-game – all the heroes have unique voices and may be heard by other players if they score a point (killing one of the other players), they can also respond depending on what you type E.g. lol, rofl -> the hero will laugh ( 2 different ways) ty,tnx -> the hero will say “Thank you!” (own voice and character) etc.

Settings: players can set up their own keys to use hero spells as well as bag items.

and many more...

The game is in BETA since late 2011 and will be released in 2012 (no specific date) . If you want to try out the game you can buy it from the  official Dota 2 Store or win a BETA key from other websites.