Game Review: Dota 2

Today I'm going to write a review about a game which has taken up far too many hours of my life, Dota 2. 6336 Hours to be precise. This is a game which borders on addiction, requires practice and dedication to learn and improve and keep up to date just with the many changes the game adds in with it's patches. For every win comes a loss, and the drive to keep playing remains even after my first game of it back in 2013.

The current map (07/03/2025)

The first thing you notice in this game is the wide range of heroes to pick from. There are 126 playable heroes at the moment and usually there is a new hero each year added. These heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and are split by which attribute they are (Strength, Agility, Intellect and Universal) as well as which roles they are best at. Some heroes can be played across multiple roles depending on the items that they buy within the game. You have heroes that are melee heroes where they have to be up close to fight enemies, heroes such as Axe and Juggernaut are examples of these, whilst you have ranged heroes as well such as Viper and Sniper who can hit their targets from a distance. For the most part, heroes have 4 skills they level up throughout the game as well which can help them stun enemies, take more damage, heal themselves or allies, reposition people, teleport around the map. If you can think of it, there's a good chance there's a character in the game with a skill to do it.

All the heroes of Dota 2

All of this variation of heroes makes every game different, even if the overall structure of the game is exactly the same. The game is made up of two teams of 5, in which you have to defend your ancient whilst trying to destroy the enemy teams. The ancient is just a building that sits in the centre of your base. The map is split into three lanes, known as safe lane, mid lane and offlane where there are 3 towers to destroy on the way up to the enemy teams ancient. In between the lanes are camps where jungle creatures spawn to be attacked for gold and exp, and every 30 seconds both teams automatically send forward a group of creeps which will attack towers and the opposing creeps as they get to them. These are killed again for gold and exp which help you level up your hero and buy the items you need. The teams are split into roles as well, starting off as either a core or a support, and then that is further split down into a carry which is the teams most farmed hero, designed to kill enemy heroes, your mid which can kill and distract within fights, and your offlaner who is usually the initiator and will be the first person into fights as they have the most health. Your supports are split into a hard support and a soft support, both work together to buy items that give your team vision around the map to be able to get the jump on the enemy, as well as healing items or items for saving your teammates. Every role is important and should the heroes be picked to align with each other as well, games can become very easy to win, however Dota 2 is a punishing game, any mistake made or wrong choice can swing a game in your enemies favour, and can very quickly be lost as a result. This is what makes Dota so fun and enjoyable. It takes plenty of time to learn which heroes are strong against or with other heroes, as well as which items work best for them and in what role, so you have to be prepared to take in a lot of information when you first start. It's a steep learning curve for a game but really rewarding once you start getting the hang of it all.

All the items within the game

Sniper Hero Page

As the game goes through the time, it is constantly updated by Valve and sometimes those updates are completely game changing. There is usually a big patch each year which amends the map, changes the abilities or removes and replaces abilities with new ones of each hero. They've also added facets now where each hero has a choice of facet which will give them abilities or slightly alter the way they're played as a result. These patches keep the game fresh and change the meta each time, so some heroes that are very strong at the moment may become completely trash the next time a patch happens. This is why it's good to learn a range of heroes and I'd recommend learning to play both core and support roles, as you'll be better at both by knowing what you need from the other. Another key strength of this game is that there is no pay wall to break through with it, all heroes are available to every player so everyone has the same amount of choice. However there are cosmetic items you can purchase to change the looks of your heroes, or even change the look of your courier or wards or towers. You can get these by chance from random drops after a game, however to get more of the better ones you will probably find yourself buying treasures (same as your loot boxes in other games). The other things you can purchase within the game is Dota Plus which just gives you a bit more information from each game as well as some challenges to do within your games whilst leveling up your heroes for you to see which ones you use most and have gotten best with. Also when certain tournaments happen you can buy the battle pass, which usually has a few fun challenges to make you try different heroes out as well as rewarding you with more cosmetics for going through the challenges.

Sniper farming the creeps in the mid lane

Dota 2 is a game which falls into the category of MOBA, which stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, and is one of the biggest games in that genre, it's main competitor is League of Legends. Whilst the games are very similar, they also have a few differences which make people choose one or the other usually. The art styles are quite different as League has a bit more cartoon style but in terms of difficulty Dota probably is the slightly more difficult one just due to having a few extra mechanics within the game. However both of the games have a huge professional scene, where massive tournaments for huge amounts of prize money is on the line for the best players out there. This isn't just a fun game to play, it's a fun game to watch and cheer on your favourite teams. In Dota 2. the biggest tournament is called "The International" where the biggest teams from around the world compete for the biggest prize pool in Esports each year. Watching the tournaments is probably the easiest way to work out the current meta within the game as it is the pros who figure out the best parts of everything within the game and keep using it to win as many matches as possible, so it really does help to watch the tournaments whilst you're learning the game.

"The world of Dota never stops"

Going back to the different heroes, where the game itself doesn't really have a story to follow, each hero has it's own lore which creates them a bit of a back story and builds the hero up. Knowing the lore behind them doesn't really help you get any better at the game, but it's a fun little bit of trivia knowledge to add to your favourite heroes once you've started to get the game worked out. Knowing Tusk is only there because he's been able to win every fight at his tavern so now wants a bigger challenge for his fighting doesn't make you any better at playing the hero, but it builds up a reason for why this hero is now within the Dota world. This is the only constant bit of story to the game, although they occasionally add a bit of a story to some of the battle passes when you're progressing through them. The only other part of Dota which has a story is the Netflix show based on the heroes from the game, and again that is based really on the lore of the heroes and telling that story, rather than a story based on an actual game of Dota. Thankfully, it's not a game which requires a story to it so it doesn't feel like it's missing at all.

Pudge and his lore

So that is Dota 2, a competitive and fun game which will suck you in and take over as much time of your life as it possibly can. Will you get frustrated with it and team mates within the game, of course you will, but is it rewarding when you win a game and it all just comes together nicely, massively so. It is everchanging, there is always more to learn and new ways to improve, it's honestly a game that just keeps you hooked. Possibly one of the best examples of why gaming can be so interesting for such a prolonged time period and without having to be a yearly release game which a lot of the big well known games seem to go down the route of. I have loved and I have hated playing Dota 2, but I always seem to find myself coming back to it.

10/10

Written by Lee Watson