Heros of Newerth

If you have every played Warcraft 3 then I am quite sure you have heard of the “fun game” DotA. Anyhow, S2 Games of Savage who is indie developer have sneakily announced their third project via the social networking platform Facebook called “Heroes of Newerth.” The game itself is a curious project which is only attempted due to their indie status, but it certainly is getting the job done as tens of thousands of fans have already sprung aboard as the game is still lingering in closed beta. Today I had the opportunity to be invited and acquire a closed beta key to give the game a shot and see what all the action and talk is about.

Heroes of Newerth is based on the real-time strategy spin-off and all round supermod “Defense of the Ancients.” For those of you who have absolutly no clue what I am talking about, then DotA is simply a custom made map for the once popular Warcraft 3 strategy game. DotA although I never played a single game even had a pop song devoted to it which suprisingly sold quite well in northern European countries.

S2 studios took the DotA phenomenon and went a step further to create and devote a whole stand alone game for all the avid gamers, recruiting the talents of the mod’s current developer “Icefrog” to assist in development. The aim of this colaboration is to rid DotA of the now-aging Warcraft engine and to bring it to a whole new market in the process.

I started out the game and was surprised by the great overview and well rounded menus and server browser before heading into my first match. I was able to quickly become familiar with the UI (User Interface), the visual style and the similiar aspects one would find this game to be run under in Warcraft. The characters have a wide range of abilities and even for beginners it is quite easy to navigate through and choose a hero of your choice to start off with. After some comparing and chit chatting with fellow players I recognized that both DotA and HoN have fairly the same characters, dare I say a 1 to 1 copy.

Aside from that fact, they’ve got a lot to thank their foremakers for, but it is noticable that S2 has worked hard on maintaining a good balance between characters. This is no easy task as their are a large number of characters available. They have even thrown in a few new characters into the mix such as the Puppet Master and Electrician.

I was also surprised by the polished backend, the intuitive interface for findinf, creating and joining matches, chatting and meeting up with people and friends or even making clans. The in game graphics are remarkable, similar to Warcraft 3 as the engine is noticable yet with S2’s own take on the character models and impressive spell effects. There is also a cool feature that allows one to disconnect and rejoin a game within an allotted timeframe.

S2 has a long road ahead of them, but if they continue to do this well then I am sure that they will be able to please the DotA fan community and lead the game to much success. Current indications seem good and they have shown a real appreciation for the material manufactured and this is something they will be able to capatalize on. If they can pack up this game with the same feel as in Warcraft 3 and make players feel at home then HoN is surely to be a winner. The final version of the game is to be released on PC’s this coming Fall.

What is your take on the game? Have you been able to test the beta version? Any thoughts, suggestions, comments or remarks?