inGame footage of various games. In the future I hope to add reviews. ^_^

Heroes of Newerth:


(That's an older youtube vid I found. I'm not allowed to publish new material from the beta.)


A beta-leak video review of HoN (German). Shows you much of the lobby interface and other features.

 

League of Legends:


Gametrailers preview of LoL.

 


An official trailer for LoL.


A video review of LoL (english). Not sure if leaked or sanctioned.

 

DotA (Defense of the Ancients)

 


Some DotA video. I honestly couldn't find ANY good gameplay video for Dota. Most vids are simply my-dick-is-BIG demonstrations accompanied by some shitty trash metal soundtrack or something bombastic (like, US-marine corp recruitment orchestrals or Carmina Burana). Sorry. If you can recommend a good DotA video I'll put it up.

 

 

Demigod:


Demigod showcase video featuring Lord Erebus.

Demigod showcase video featuring Queen of Thorns. Probably not office safe.

 

For those that don't know what HoN or LoL are: Both are DotA clones. If you don't know what DotA is then google it.

First HoN impressions:

  • Graphics
    Looks like Warcraft 3 (i.e. old, cheap, candy colored comic look). Seems much smoother, though. Less jerky scrolling. Any comparison to Demigod would be unfair. It's like comparing Superman to Batman - both are great in their environment but if you'd match them up against each other Superman would wipe the floor with Batmans ass from two cities away.
    Has a limited zoom (i.e. you can zoom in a bit and back, but not out) and a functional minimap.
  • Interface
    Just like DotA, i'd say. Bottom quarter of the screen is occupied by artwork, skills, hero stats and the minimap. I'd call it functional but totally ripped of from Warcraft (which isn't necessarily bad). Very small icons and text. Hard to read and the tooltips have much text. Demigod is downright minimalistic in comparison.
  • Heroes
    A large selection of heroes ... too many to grasp the gist of them in the short time I played it. Not all heroes were implemented yet but it looks like they planned for a 60 heroes cast. Each hero seems to have four different skills you can improve as you gain levels, plus the ability to simply improve your attributes. The skills are either passive or active and have a cooldown timer similar to DG. But since some heroes can have several passive skills out of a set of four, that can mean that you are left with a meager single one active skill, like the tosser I picked (Magebane or something). Kinda like Oooze UB without foul grasp.
    However the skills some heroes have do things that are not seen in Demigod. Some manipulate the map (by planting obstacles(walls) and some move the enemy against their will. Some passive skills trigger a damage effect everytime you use an active skill.
  • Maps
    Think Warcraft again. Mazes with trees and rocks marking the boundary. Or think Demigod maps with boring graphics. They ain't really that different from the DG mazes ... just more "realistic" and much larger.
  • Players
    Lot's of open games in the lobby. Some fairly large ones, too (I think 5v5 is max). If you've played DotA before then you'll have no problems finding friends. If you only played Demigod before, then you'll think the HoN community is a bag of arseholes because you'll likely be taking your first stumbling steps with dota veterant that are not exactly renowned for their forgiving attitude towards noobs. Luckily there's a fuck-filter in the chat.
  • Economy
    Killing stuff earns you XP and gold. You can buy equipment in shops. No base building, but your base starts with several buildings that don't offer any interaction, though. Creeps spawn in certain buildings and run on lanes to the enemy base, which should sound familiar.
  • Death & Dying
    You get automatically resurrected after some time. You can, however, shorten the wait time by paying a moderate amount of gold, which is actually an interesting feature. Similar to DG, there's a Healing Crystal equivalent, something that had to be pointed out to me in the Demigod forum (thanks, dude).
  • Gameplay
    Weeeeeeeeell .... I sucked in my first game and got promptly verbaly punished for being a noob. This doesn't help endear you to the game, so my perceptions may be flawed. But my first impression was: I can't zoom out (I swear, after playing Demigod I think it's impossible to enjoy RTS games without a God-Eye-Zoom)!
    In addition to the fixed camera height you have a considerably larger map and a faster movement speed than experienced in Demigod and you can't help feeling confused and disoriented. The creeps are stronger in comparison to DG creeps (but then those puny heroes are no half-gods). There is no health crystal. I think the only way to heal up is to buy potions. At least you can buy more than three per slot.
    The game is fast paced but not so fast that you'll experience instant death right from the start. You'll have plenty of time to decide that a battle is a lost cause and run for the towers.
    And your job? Easy, kill and destroy. No flags, no warscore (although there are other gamemodes that might have something similar). The only thing you can do is find creeps or heroes and kill them. And find enemy buildings and destroy them. That's it.
  • Game Modes
    There are only custom games. No skirmish or pantheon. No single player mode and (currently) no bots to solo against. Many possible options to setup a custom game. And the features the lobby offers are something to be seen. Feels like a database browser (i.e. comfortable and powerful).
  • Replays
    They work. Take that, Demigod!
  • Community
    It's a new game so you'd expect the community to be new also. But it's not. It's mostly DotA veterans that got a bit frustrated with the aged Warcraft 3 engine and wanted something, er, newish. Someone in the HoN forums summed it up pretty much: "I'm actually pretty surprised by this community. So far it's been very hard to find nice people. Most players - particularly those with Dota experience are incredibly rude to all players."
    The Demigod community certainly has it's share of unfriendlies, but as a whole it's quite amiable. Maybe this will change with the rise of competetive play.

Bottom line: Graphically it's definetly a step down when compared to Demigod. But noticably better than DotA. It's really really running smooooooothly. If you consider the small DG roster Demigod's biggest drawback, then HoN might seem attractive. The complexity and detail of each hero is lower than that of any one Demigod. It's also extremely beginner unfriendly. And even though Demigod didn't have any kind of tutorial either, you grasp the gist of DG way faster than that of HoN. HoN is clearly aimed at DotA players. It looks so similar to DotA that fanboys might as well stay there.

It's still in beta so many things will change. The strongest point of HoN is it's large hero rooster. Apart from that I don't think the Demigod has much to fear.

But since it's an early test phase, I'll certainly give it another try. I can endure the "F*CKING _NOOB" for a time, hehehehe.

 


Comments (Page 2)
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on Jul 20, 2009

StAcK3D_ActR

A community that epxects you, from day one, to memorize 60-90 heroes, what they do, recipes, what strategy works for each of those individual heros, and be 100% competent from the getgo while being downright hostile and unhelpful even to their own teammates is not a community I'd like to take part in.


this is why the overall skill level of demigods community is so low, you arent expected to know anything in this game.

the overall skill level for this game is so low it makes the game quite boring tbh.

i have only come across a very small amount of people who actually heal/shield other players for the benefit of the team in this game(maybe because there are no awards for it? who knows?).there is also a very small amount of people who actually play ALL demigods.

btw, stop choosing the same ones over and over again, you wont improve.

 

 

 
Well if more people helped the noobs instead of flamming them then the player skill base would probably get better...and you dont need to play every demi to be good...

on Jul 20, 2009

Well if more people helped the noobs instead of flamming them then the player skill base would probably get better

i do.

and you dont need to play every hero to be good

wrong sorry.

on Jul 20, 2009

StAcK3D_ActR

I don't know where r u you playing and with who ....

Most of the good players that i play with do the right thing when i playing with
them even if it's the first time playing with them.

"btw, stop choosing the same ones over and over again, you wont improve" -
People can play whatever they want it's not your concern.

on Jul 20, 2009

this is why the overall skill level of demigods community is so low, you arent expected to know anything in this game.

 

Surely you can see a difference between your statement and mine. The mindset of the DotA player is that if you do not know everything via 'research', wiki, etc before you even play your first game, then you do not deserve to play alongisde them. They expect you to know the game without playing the game. It's a vicious catch 22. the community had played DotA for so long that they know the game inside and outside backwards sideways up and down, but anyone new *doesn't* know these things and needs to tackle the learning curve... and the way to do this is by playing the game. But the community actively fights aaginst people playing the game to learn these things.

There certainly is less to 'learn' in Demigod, I asgree, and it is miles easier to pick up and play. But it also generally has the beneift of a better community, a community that (sometims, anyways, which honestly is FAR better than the HoN/DotA community) understands that the way to lear is to play, and helping your teammates instead of berating them and demanding they GTFO you fucking n00b (when this is a "N00bs only" game, btw.) is... well, it's, yeah.

on Jul 20, 2009

this game will suffer the same fate as Battle Realms.  Google the game if you don't know it.

DemiGod is a blatant rip off of Battle Realms and will die like it, 2 years after release.  Within 1 year of release date, numbers will decline due to publishers attention elsewhere (like UbiSoft killed BR).

on Jul 20, 2009

RainFall2112
HoN is pretty fail. it's zerg/gib game.  You can easily die in 2-3 hits without anything fancy.  That doesn't take skill. That was like PRE TBC WoW.

 

Translation: I'm terrible.

Anyway, I never played dota at all and I'm doing quite well in HoN now after about 40 games. The game is a little overwhelming at first but in no way is it as bad as people make it out to be as far as learning curve.

on Jul 20, 2009

HoN, more like holy shit this is fun.

 

Really enjoying this game, takes a lot more player skill than Demigod, and not to mention the community doesn't make threads bitching about teamwork!

 

Viva la DoTA 2.0

on Jul 20, 2009

I dont think I ever could play another game without tactical zoom again.

The reason ganking in dota/HoN is so popular is beacause its so simple. You as a player has to decide wheter to move your camera to see 10 meters ahead of you, or 10 meters behind you.

If you keep the camera centered on your hero its about 5m in all directions, not that idea when both HoN and DoTA got abilities that have longer range than that. Then you get ganked, Thats not skills, thats a damn engine limiting your ability to play!

A really stupid Idea imo to recreate DOTA into HoN but keep the damn camera that everything but forces your nose into the ground.

 

What can be said in favor of HoN is that their stats/lobby system is really nice, the amount of data you get after a game is awesome

 

Im not sure if that is enough for the DoTA players to pay for though..

Im still sticking to Demigod.

on Jul 20, 2009

the community had played DotA for so long that they know the game inside and outside backwards sideways up and down, but anyone new *doesn't* know these things and needs to tackle the learning curve... and the way to do this is by playing the game. But the community actively fights aaginst people playing the game to learn these things.

ive been through the dota learning curve, its not hard.

what you misunderstand is that the abuse is a wake up call, it tells you "hey we are competitive, learn the game"

the abuse also makes you learn alot faster. ive played with several people who havent improved after the first week of playing demigod, which is disappointing

People can play whatever they want it's not your concern.

of course they can. but if you want to be GOOD, you should know how to play all heros, not just one.

 

 

on Jul 20, 2009

StAcK3D_ActR

ive been through the dota learning curve, its not hard.

It's anoying as hell though.

StAcK3D_ActR

what you misunderstand is that the abuse is a wake up call, it tells you "hey we are competitive, learn the game"

 

Haha, totally awesome how you make verbal harrasment seem like "a part" of the game.


StAcK3D_ActR

the abuse also makes you learn alot faster.

You know beating your children is outlawed in most countries yeah?

StAcK3D_ActR

ive played with several people who havent improved after the first week of playing demigod, which is disappointing

You definetly should have shouted at them calling them idiots and retards, I bet that would have made them sooo much better at Demigod.

StAcK3D_ActR

People can play whatever they want it's not your concern.
of course they can. but if you want to be GOOD, you should know how to play all heros, not just one.
 

Which just makes it more anoying in HoN where you got 60 heroes to freaking learn every spell animation for. That got nothing to do with skill. it just means it takes 60 games before you understand wtf killed you rather then 8.

Also the fact that you only play to be good when you could be enjoying the game says alot about DoTA and HoN really.

People who wants to enjoy a game play Demigod

People who just want to wtfpwn noobs play DoTA/HoN

on Jul 20, 2009

what you misunderstand is that the abuse is a wake up call, it tells you "hey we are competitive, learn the game"

No community has the right to abuse new players or old player or *any* players in the name of "competition". It's so ingrained now thta you treat the abuse of players still learning the ropes as to be expected. Par for the course. And that is why DotA has the rep it does and why HoN will have a bad rep among many people (weasel words ahoy!) before its release date even comes.

on Jul 20, 2009

Does advertising other games belong to this forum? There is at least an off-topic-area. But this wouldn't be shameless enough, i guess. Right?

on Jul 20, 2009

StAcK3D_ActR


of course they can. but if you want to be GOOD, you should know how to play all heros, not just one.

 

When you'll be a good player tell me i will send you a medal and if you are
i can send it to you right now.

You take it to seriously it's only a game.

on Jul 20, 2009

ZedVasquez
Does advertising other games belong to this forum? There is at least an off-topic-area. But this wouldn't be shameless enough, i guess. Right?

+1

on Jul 20, 2009

I enjoyed HoN, it has a lot going for it, but I lost intrest due to not having a zoom function. The matchmaking system and game options, stat tracking etc is absolutely jaw dropping, it was clearly built for competetive play from the ground up.

The only other big drawback is that is an exact clone of DoTA, so if you like dota and always wanted to play an updated version, HoN for you.

Imo Demigod is the better game (to me). If Demigod had HoN's matchmaking and stat system it would be golden.

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