OK....First of I am going to start in a reverse review order.I want to make my own way of reviewing games. This game is great.Not legendary yet,but great for the time being. And here is a short history about it. If you are a hardcore player and you like team play with online interaction elements (i.e good team cooperation, strategy development in-game and/or just want to make friends online) then you must have heard of Warcraft III ,an RTS created by Blizzard. So coming from a Blizzard, game turned gold in matter of months after a release,back in the 2002. As like any other game,their Warcraft got an expansion in 2003.This expansion deepened the story more,and continued where the first game ended.With these two games Blizzard published a game world editor that allowed users to create their own maps,characters,campaigns etc. So one player started a history.Under alias of Eul,he created a map under influence of Starcraft's "Aeon of Strife",witch is also a Blizzard's game,as we all know.So Eul created a map where players fight in teams of five and the main task is to annihilate enemy base.What Eul started was divinity undisputed.Map offered unlimited possibilities of editing,hero and item expansions due to the Blizzard's World Editor kit.Every play-trough was different than the last.Few games claimed to have this,but failed(Now I am pointing finger at you Left4Dead!).Now with that said, I'll move on to the next part. Lets say you are not a hardcore gamer,and you only saw DotA as a name,or even just heard about Heroes of Newerth.And you don't have the slightest idea what is going on.Well,as I started, there was this guy Eul and he made a nice Warcraft III map,for 5vs5 multilayer online ownage.As it was created for the original game,it was later redone into map for expansion pack,featuring even more heroes and items and overall game play mechanics improvements.At the time the community was ever growing.Player under name "Pendgragon" created an official DotA Allstarts site featuring guide forums,history,replays,match ups and change logs. Game community started to create itself.A large one too.After some time,Eul couldn't finish what he started so DotaA was given to other people to edit it.Like Guinsoo and Icefrog. Time passed by and DotA became international game for tournaments.Most of them gave money as a reward to a winner team. As the map's editors changed so did the map geography and content .Current map editor is Icefrog,who posted a blog so he can get in touch with players,for bug feedback, hero tweaks and possibly a new hero/item votes and change logs.Although I personally think that older DotA versions were better(even if they suffered for major unbalance and item issues), Icefrog managed to just...mess his and all the other people's hard work and ideas.New heroes started appearing by the month.Most items had their recipes redone (at such a level that even great experienced player like myself couldn't find the way around).Items are needed too boost a hero's ability,or his stats,add effects to each attack or give strike percentage to stun or slow an enemy hero/unit.For years was one item Manta style(axe) an orb effect with mana burn.Now it doesn't burn mana.Icefrog 1:Players:0.Scenery in DotA changed accordingly.And some of the skills animations were improved.But DotA was getting old.And for that reason game play suffered along with players.I am going to be real here:Warcraft's interface worked fine for a strategy game...but that same interface stands in the way of action team RPG.The Monitor area is cut for almost 35% of the screen.It always felt like you are playing it from a post container, with a narrowed view.That is one reason that made exploits like "ganking" (misspelled ganging) possible where most of the time a mid-lane hero gets attacked and killed by three(four or even five) other fraction heroes(there are 3 lanes in DotA map,upper, middle and lower,and one special creep boss- Roshan the Immortal as a big Rock Golem,who drops aegis upon death.Funny fact-Aegis protected from death itself(passive revive) yet you can kill Roshan who carries it many times over).Also,great number of matches were played since the DotA was 1st created.Even the Blizzard's Battlenet features a dota-allstars channel for experienced players to join and have a good game.In time, game and lan-over-internet(VLAN,virtual lan) clients appeared making LAN(Local Area Network) gaming even more accessible and friend-oriented.Two best to mention are Hamachi and Garena.Both client developers take income from special features and sell entrance into crowded rooms over free users.These two worked fine for DotA.Games were lag free.But big problem with DotA community is its biggest gain.Too many new players join every day.A word known as "leaver" was created.People that join a game and leave on start.Since DotA is a team play game,having one or two heroes less means less damage.So a team with leaver has to be godly good to win over that situation.This caused hate,flame and rage over internet.So creation of ban lists started...And the uselessness of th too.With many ban lists online,there are maybe around 10.000 players with synchronized online ban list.Other just have randoms.So that system failed.Having to write messages to team, gets a chatter dead in most cases.The flaws of the game made more frustrations by the minute.Yet community still remained true to it.In short:DotA is an action paced/strategy/role playing game focused on a team(you cover one guy-other covers you). As I said I was a fan of DotA for a looooooong time now(with around 3 or so years long letter "o").The last game map really disappointed me.One sentence "Icefrog wtf?" So one day,a best friend with whom I share similar interests, told me that he saw a "DotA clone game" and it looked absolutely amazing.I was excited to hear it.As soon as I could I looked it up.I was amazed. All the Warcraft engine's flaws were cleared by the S2 Games created engine.Even though I read of lot of reviews online(for consoles too,since I only posses a PC) I never heard about S2 games at all.I looked it up and it turns they made a breakthrough with a FPSRPG genre mix even further combined with MMO.So,S2 team,liking the good ol' DotA,created a beta game for testers to play until full retail.Price is 30$ USD-one time only.This price is more then accessible. What does the game do except ripping off DotA? Well,they asked Icefrog for a green light to do it.He agreed, so it probably means he is soon to give up on DotA(my personal opinion)And they added refreshment to the game.So far,beta has heroes from DotA mainly,with some skills redone and some pairs of heroes now make a one hero(witch is great to cut unnecessary similar heroes and unbalance).It takes a short time to realize what model is what hero.One thing that's great is that every hero will have unique model,since they will be added over time.Considering that, DotA nearly reached the end of its resources on model picks,and for future releases modelers will be sought out(making the new content of the game hard to get since it is free). HoN has a built in VoIP which was lacking in the old Warcraft.You can also mute players who misuse microphone.Hero picks are done before the game start,making it far more fast-paced then the warcraft's DotA.And if someone is just playing dumb at voting or away from keyboard,players can vote him off with just a click.And the game is a complete eye candy.I don't know if I would rather watch masterfully animated skill moves,or see my hero die.Animations and surroundings are just too sweet.Sometimes game just forces you to cast a spell,just to see what happens! So,you want to play a game and enter top ranking ones? Nooo wayyy,you will have to climb your way to the pros with S2 ladder system.It's basically a protection of skilled players,so they wont get pissed off when a beginner makes them loose a game.Because S2 implemented stats tracker for every player,leaving a game is not an option you want to do all the time,since your leaver meter fills,therefore you will be unable to play most games.But there is a call vote option in-game to end a match before the actual ending.When all players of the loosing side agree to forfeit(concede) you are given an explanation that you may leave without any impact on stats.If that is not enough ,it also may happen that you leave the game unintentionally(disconnect,power failure,game and/or similar software error) and you get a 5 minutes time to reconnect! Just reset and get back in game! It is great add on.As for the good game play mechanics and interface(itemshop is now a structure with all sellers in one place,and with interlinking item system...aka one item can be bought from everyplace it exist as a recipe with materials it holds,making shopping more faster and easier).As for other things,few of the heroes responses are not yet recorded,this will not be a case in full game though.But,most of the responces were made in the classical Warcraft III style.After sometime of pesky click-to-select mash ups,a hero will probably start adressing you,and will talk about funny stuff from their own history.For instance,a long katana wielding orc known as the Juggernaut Yurnero, was some kind of a samurai in original DotA map.In HoN it is depicted as a two saber wielding man in a full traditional oni style(horned helmet) samurai armor.He speaks with Japanese accent,and after sometimes he says words like "You dishonor me with your poking!"(sounds like "Yo disonah mi vid yor pokin!") and "Cut....it ...OUT!" Similarly a hero named Torturer(known as Leshrac the Malicious Spirit) threatens player after sometime of selecting him "I swear,[click me] one more time..." with his demonic resonating voice. On the other hand, Devourer(Pudge the Butcher) talks like a philosopher(on the account of being a strength and not intelligence hero). In DotA, he was pretty much zombie talker since he is a rotting pile of sewn together corpses,taking sentences long to finish,like me.S2's Pudge is a sane,comic fun-pun death meat wagon- "They say I am spoiled rotten!" -"One bad apple rocks the bunch!" "Kill them...and eat them!" So end line is this:This is the new DotA,it has a lot of things to work around to accomplish the acclaimed name of DotA,but as the Chronos would say it "In due time". [btw spelling check wants to change my VoIP into poop :S) Developer: S2 Games Published: TBA,Closed Beta testing Graphics: 8.2 Gameplay: 9.0 Sound: 7.0 Interface: 9.5 Difficulty: Easy to Medium (considering previous experience) Replayability: Forever Community : Medium Price: 30$