(Original review posted November 26th, 2013)
Verdict: Recommended after 29.9 hours of playtime. (Currently 586.2 hours.)
Dota 2 is an awesome modern addition to the MOBA genre. It’s balanced, fast-paced, and above all, fun. The community seems to be much more mature and helpful than the commmunities surrounding some of the other MOBAs on the market. Everyone I have met has been willing to help new players learn the game and I haven’t run into any instances of players “raging” about game performance from their teammates.
Gameplay-wise, Dota 2 plays similar to a top-down real-time strategy game. You control a single hero as you play a match similar to a reverse tower defense. Your team has a steady stream of low-level AI-controlled creeps that will assault the opposing team, but they will not make any progress without your help. You ultimately win the match by destroying your enemy’s base after fighting through the towers on one (or more) of the three paths toward the opposite end of the field.
There are many nuances about the game and it would take hours to describe strategies, but the tutorial in the game and the helpful community will make any new player feel welcome and ready for his or her first match.
All-in-all, definitely give the game a try if you like RTS games or MOBA games. If you don’t like the game, it’s free to play anyway so you won’t lose anything in the experiment.