GameOn - MOBA Games - Heroes of Newerth

Official Site: http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/

Source: Youtube Channel machinima

If you're a DotA veteran and you seek challenge from a hard-core game, Heroes of Newerth (HoN) would be the game for you.  With the help of major DotA contributor "Icefrog", S2 Games had developed Heroes of Newerth within the world of their "Savage" series with the gameplay mechanics from DotA.  Many of the limitations and problems the Warcraft 3 engine suffered from has sought solutions within HoN.  The game is very fast-paced, highly competitive, has over 100 heroes to choose from, and is now free to play.  The graphics are beautiful with a more up to date graphics rendering compared to the Warcraft 3 engine and has a really nice lighting and effects visual that creates really nice animations for spells and attacks.  Unfortunately, HoN has its own problems.  Because of its steep learning curve, the game is very difficult to pick up and play.  Furthermore, the community within HoN is relentless and unforgiving.  Players will talk down each other, even within the same team.  The attitude of players can range from the immature to the most profane one can encounter on the internet.  Although the animations and effects are really nice, the overall color scheme and graphics style makes it really difficult to distinguish units from the environment.  Others might complain that the game is "too" similar to DotA and doesn't offer anything new.  Still, my experience with HoN was mostly good and I really liked all the different characters to choose from.  There's still a lot of dynamics and variation to keep the game fresh and exciting every time I play it, and it's definitely worth checking out now since it's free to play (originally a $30 purchase).

NewNews - Heroes of Newerth goes Free to Play

Official Site: http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/

Source: Youtube Channel IGNentertainment

Hey MOBA players!  If you haven't heard yet, Heroes of Newerth is now free!  It now follows a very similar business structure to League of Legends.  Every week, there is a 15 character rotation for free2play users.  In-game currency can be accumulated and spent on buying characters to use permanently.  If you had previously bought the game, you will automatically receive a special status that allows the use of all characters like you always have had and will gain access to new characters after a short duration.  If you haven't heard of HoN at all before, it is a Massive Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game that's highly influenced by the popular custom campaign mod on Warcraft 3 called Defense of the Ancients (DotA).  It's a unique Action RPG Tower Defense game where two teams of 5 players battle it out on the field with AI controlled minions pushing into each side's base until their main structure is destroyed.  Players choose a champion/hero/character to play as.  Each of these characters have something they excel in such as being a Tank (taking a lot of damage), an agility type character (damage per second characters) or intelligence characters (lots of damage in each skill, nuking) and play that important role in their team.  Players kill minions and enemy players to gain currency to buy stat altering items and to level up and gain new skills while trying not to get killed themselves while defending their towers and bases.  The ultimate goal is to destroy the enemy's main structure to end the game.  The game is frequently updated and adds new characters and balances to the game regularly to keep the experience fresh.  This goes for all MOBA games: Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, etc.  If you're interested in these types of games, you can also check out "Rise of Immortals" and "Realm of the Titans".

Source:
-Gamasutra - S2 Games Taking Heroes Of Newerth Free-To-Play