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 7)
15 PagesFirst 5 6 7 8 9  Last
on Jul 26, 2009

Tridus

Except that it's GPG who actually creates new content for Demigod, not Stardock. There's some people (myself included) wondering what GPG is actually doing given the absolute silence from them since the networking stuff was fixed.

You bothered to look at the dev diaries?

Since the network stuff was fixed, we got patch 1.0 hot fix, 1.1, 1.1 hotfix, and now 1.1 hot fix 2 is coming next week and 1.2 is coming in August.  Then we will get 2 new demigods in august/early september.

StarDock is improving impulse friends in August, too.

Also, 1.2 will allow StarDock and modders to add content.

Then 1.3 is due later in the year which will add clan wars.

Seems to me things are looking much better.

on Jul 26, 2009

Note: HoN testers can discuss HoN, but they cannot release media (videos/images/etc) from the game.

LoL vs Newerth vs Demigod:

  • If you liked DoTA and play casually then you will probably stay there, or you will move to LoL.
  • If you liked DoTA and you played competitively then you will likely wind up at HoN... HoN is the same thing as DoTA, and personally it seems like a bit of as cop-out that they didn't really do anything new with the idea. (despite the fact that they had permission to copy).
  • If you like Demigod then you will probably stay here and you may enjoy LoL... but you probably won't be into HoN as it has many different mechanics and is not designed to be user friendly... LoL is rather user friendly by comparison to HoN.

One thing that I find important to note: HoN and LoL utilize server based connections and so the latency is only on your end... This is important for competitive gaming IMO. Both games have pretty good matchmaking, but I did like LoL's system a lot more.

 

TLDR: I'll play Demigod a bit, but I think LoL might be a better choice when I'm in a competitive mood. Demigod has greater gameplay, but it lacks in matchmaking and Demigod also suffers from latency issues due to the peer-to-peer system. Demigod would be simply amazing if it had a server based connection system and better matchmaking.

on Jul 26, 2009

any beta-keys for LoL available?

I got some HoN beta invites that I won't force upon my friends.

on Jul 27, 2009

if anyone still has some HoN keys kicking around that they could hook me up with I would love you long time.

on Jul 27, 2009

still got two invites left.

just pm me your email.

on Jul 27, 2009

Spent all my invites. See you guys at HoN .... maybe.

I'm kinda starting to lose interest.

on Jul 27, 2009

I have one invite. PM me if you want it.

on Jul 27, 2009

One invite left for whoever interested. PM me. I will play demigod again once EVERYTHING runs smoothly and more demigods added.

on Jul 28, 2009

Played HoN a lot this weekend - quite a change to have such a smooth gamplay experience after all the Demigod frustrations.  And to think it's only in a beta.

I did also check Savage 2 - another game by S2, makers of HoN.  Must tell you those devs sure have some skill.  While the art in Demigod is a notch higher, both Savage 2 and HoN are much better overall experience.  The multiplayer features are so much richer, you can't even begin to compare.

on Jul 28, 2009

Found some video reviews on youtube.

A video review of HoN (German).

A video review of LoL.

on Jul 28, 2009

Been playing HoN for the last 2 weeks, I was a big fan of DoTA in WC3 so HoN naturally appeals to me.

DemiGod is simpler than HoN in terms of items and number of heroes which is both a blessing but also a curse.  New players will find DemiGod much easier to pick up and start playing and get good.  The simplicity becomes a problem when you want to play DemiGod more often and maybe play competitively. 

Take a look at the item system in DemiGod, generally after playing a few games you learn that there is really only 1 or 2 mana items that you should ever get and then for the rest of your items you should stack hit points.  In HoN, the item system is more complex, simply stacking hp items on each character is generally not the best tactical choice like in DemiGod.

DemiGod does offer some new gameplay elements such as citadel upgrades, but once again after a few games you learn that it is really only necessary to get the first gold upgrade and structure health upgrade.  Then later in the game buy all the reinforcement upgrades at the same time (at least to catapults).  So after a few games, both teams do exactly the same thing here.

DemiGod has capturable flags which increase its strategic depth somewhat as what flags you own can often determine the outcome of battles.

Connections: HoN hosts all games on their own servers.  This architecture allows 5v5 games to be set up and played without any need to adjust your home network.  You also are able to reconnect to games if you get disconnected for some reason.

DemiGod has better camera control.

Conclusion: If you don't play games that often and you really only want to play a few games casually here and there, stick with DemiGod - you'll be able to get good fast even with a limited playtime.  If you play more or want competitive gameplay, you'll probably value the increased depth that HoN offers.

on Jul 28, 2009

---

on Jul 28, 2009

Demigod will become way better, come back in a few months.

on Jul 28, 2009

Well the OP is completely ignorant.  Stating facts that are completely wrong and innacurate.  Especially when he stated you have to heal with potions.......   Anyways I'm sure someone has stated this.  HoN is like DotA.  Has real bitch moments where all you can do is watch.  That's what I love about Demigod.  You don't get stunned for 10 seconds.  The max is 3 and that is late game where you can atleast tank damage within those 3 seconds (usually)   Typically I find Demigod less frustrating is what I'm trying to say.  HoN is still a lot of fun though

 

on Jul 28, 2009

Rocky_Tooth
Well the OP is completely ignorant.  Stating facts that are completely wrong and innacurate.  Especially when he stated you have to heal with potions
 

Hehe, I learned here that you heal if you step in the pool. No one in HoN bothered to answer me in my first game.

15 PagesFirst 5 6 7 8 9  Last