Did only read through half the thread, but here's my opinion of DotA 2 compared to HoN (and do note that this opinion does not by any means reflect that everyone else should think the same):
Graphics:
I don't find it appealing. Rather, I find it too dusk, dull and flushed at the same time. Sure, if this game would be named "Diablo: DotA" or something, I might accept that,
but for a DotA game that is the successor of the WC3 mod I think they need to brighten it up a notch, and somehow with that style make it less flushed/boring.
I have nothing against cartoony graphics, but I think if they would blend it with cellshading it would look way better.
Heroes:
As many has said, I find the heroes kinda lackluster in the aspect of their looks. Specter for one I actually do like, he stands out.
But otherwise I think they are too generic, the colors are too similar and they blend in way too easy with the creeps.
I also feel that their movement animation and animation overall feel dull and slow. Comparing that to HoN I find HoNs animation being sharp and swift, just like it should be.
When fighting, your attacks are supposed to be swift and agile, unless you are a big boulder named Tiny.
Creeps:
The creeps on the lane are way too big. They also look too much like a Hero unit by the colors or by the size,
which annoyed me quite the lot during several of those matches I watched during streaming.
Spells/Effects:
This is both good and bad. I had a hard time to notice some of the spells that were made due to effects either being lackluster, barely visible or just hard to notice.
In one way that is good during teamfights because it won't be cluttered and chaotic, but at the same time,
it will be way harder to actually notice and react what spells people will have on cooldown and what are still active.
However, I think this one you can get used to over time, and is probably easily polished quickly, so I won't say any final conclusion about this yet until the game is actually released.
Pacing:
This is one of my biggest concerns. I find the pacing in this game way too slow. I actually got bored on all of the games, due to the pacing being so slow.
The pacing I'm talking about is movement, the speed game progress, how long/short time teamfights lasts etc. I find HoNs pacing being perfect,
where a teamfight is most of the time quick and paces fast back and forth.
Some of the teamfights in DotA 2 would lasts for minutes before you actually could see which team would come out of it as victorious, but fights that are so long is more of a drag than it being good action.
Health and Damage:
Something I noticed was that the scaling of health and damage is somewhat different from HoN, and also one of the factors of the pacing.
At times it felt like the towers health are way too low, causing it being too easy for teams to tower-push, compared to HoN,
while at the same time it feels that health and/or damage on heroes is so mixed so the fights lasts way longer.
Some might find it good, but I find it a bit boring, as it just drags out the fight.
Announcer:
To be honest, I did not like it at all. Her voice was kinda annoying, as well as she shouted way too many times.
An announcer should be something that you know what's happening, yet does not disturb the gameplay.
I hope that Valve will bring options/DLC for new announcers just as S2 are doing, so that you can choose one that fits you the most.
Soundeffects:
This one was a huge disappointment. The soundeffects of the attacks, spells, tower attacks etc all sounded hollow and repetitive.
It felt like all melee classes had the same soundeffect on their autoattack, which after a while got very annoying.
Granted, this is at the end of the Alpha stage if not already on the early Beta stage, so this one will also be easy to fix before release, but so far I'm not very profound of it.
Conclusion:
So, this is my thought on DotA2 so far. As I said to my friends, first impression was that the game is a big lackluster with many improvements.
The Trailer already hinted that with the slow-paced action and over the top story-telling. But after seeing the game live today,
I clearly see that this wasn't one of the "Gotta place my order now!" games. I will buy the game,
since I always think that personal hands-on is required before a final conclusion can be given, but so far, I'm slightly disappointed.
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nagyjábol