Heroes of Newerth (HoN) is a really fun game inspired by the Warcraft III multiplayer map Defence of the Ancients (DotA). It is a really fun concept to play. Both personal and teamwork skills are put to the test and its easy to get absorbed in the game. As with all epic games, the aim is simple. Destroy the enemy base and you win.
There are two sides, good and evil. This is clearly reflected by the map and structures on both sides. On the evil side burned trees and lots of ash make up most of the scenery. The colors grey and red play prominent roles in giving it an evil look. The good side actually looks very warm and happy, with lushes trees and wooden structures. This clear difference between good and evil is a great addition to the atmosphere and character of the game. You never have to wonder which side you are on.
Then there are the heroes, lots of them. For beginning players this is really tricky. The vast amount of heroes from which a player can pick from present an important decision which is difficult to make. A team with only ranged units will find them selfs in dire trouble the moment a rogue stabs them in the back. The heroes them self look really awesome and I constantly ended up picking heroes just for the way the look.
Another fun element in the game are the items. Creeps (units) constantly spawn from the two bases and will clash somewhere on the map. When you kill these creeps, or an enemy hero, you gain gold. With this you can purchase various items. Some items combined form an greater item. This really opens the door to experimenting with different items and some are very fun to own.
From my personal experience from game I really enjoyed the atmosphere, but I was thrown in the deep when it came to picking a hero. Quite often I picked the wrong hero and ended up with a hero meant for advanced players on a balanced team. This aspect could be build upon.
Since there currently is an open-beta and the download is very small I highly recommend giving it a try. Worst case you will have lost an hour or two.
GD Star Rating
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4 Comments
Demon
Posted on: April 26th, 2010 at 13:52
Nice review, loved this game for 1 minute, hated it for 2 days, gave up on day 3.
Although its a badass game it takes to much time to get to a certain level when you wont get owned all the time. besides that… i do love the fact that people made a real game out of a warcraft III map!
MaxPower
Posted on: May 8th, 2010 at 04:00
I just don’t really appreciate the fact that you have to pay $40 AUD for the game.
@OP: Nice review. Another improvement is having an integrated tutorial for newcomers. This will accommodate neophytes that might be disinterested in their first hour or two because of the advanced architectural design that was built upon the initial WC3 custom map DotA. It took me quite some time to become familiar with the system, and in HoN, all the graphics and diverse map environments makes it more difficult to adapt to gameplay.
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@Demon: Yes, I also mentioned my displeasure at the point ranking system. There are a lot of dodgy hosts as well, but you can tell a lot of work has been put into the game. Even though it’s a custom-maded WC3 map made by IceFrog, I’m more amazed at how it developed and managed to capture an international audience.
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@MaxPower: It’s true that many people would be discouraged because they have to pay, but I can appreciate it since it’s a one-time payment. Also, the majority of players will be located in the U.S where the main servers are hosted, so the US$30 seems like a fair price for the maintenance of running the servers.
I assume the main reason behind the fairly high price is due to the tournaments they run. HoN needs sponsors and other sources of income to keep their revenue from falling due to high maintenance costs. Once their marginal costs begin to rise and aggregate demand starts to fall, we can expect more changes to occur. I believe this will happen five to six years from now (comparing similar Blizzard releases with game clients like HoN).
Genesis
Posted on: June 17th, 2010 at 15:38
Nice review, loved this game for 1 minute, hated it for 2 days, gave up on day 3.
Although its a badass game it takes to much time to get to a certain level when you wont get owned all the time. besides that… i do love the fact that people made a real game out of a warcraft III map!
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