Review | Heroes of Newerth
No newbies club…
Format: PC | Genre: RTS | Publisher: S2 Games | Developer: S2 Games | Release date: 12/05/10 | Price: $30
Jennifer Allen discovers that gaming is very serious business in HEROES OF NEWERTH.
ONLINE MULTIPLAYER games live and die by the strength of their community, which is a shame for Heroes of Newerth. While the game itself contains all the appropriate components to be somewhat enjoyable, it’s the frequently obnoxious player base that’s likely to put you off giving it a well-deserved chance.
Much of this is down to Heroes of Newerth’s origins. While the game’s only just been officially released, it’s been in various beta phases since last summer. Further to that, it’s the spiritual successor to the much-loved Warcraft III custom scenario Defense of the Ancients. Clearly, much of the community has been around for a long, long time, which makes Heroes of Newerth rather intimidating to someone new. Really, you’re entering a whole new subculture, with its own set of norms and phrases. Such as “feeder” – and believe me, you don’t want to be one of those.
The structure of Heroes of Newerth initially appears to be very simple. You control a character on a single map with the aim of wiping out your foe and their base. To do this you must work together with your allies. Typically, games are five versus five, although smaller teams are possible.
It’s a bit more complicated than that, of course, with a series of defence towers along the way and the introduction of NPC ‘creeps’ who constantly take a set path towards their enemy. Each map is arranged into a series of lanes which the creeps walk down, bringing about the concept of ‘laning’: following the creeps to your goal. Safety in numbers is crucial in this game. Going up against anything by yourself is just asking for trouble.
If you make the mistake of being killed, the opposing player gains experience and gold, thus making them that bit stronger for next time. Heroes of Newerth is a game in which defensive 
manoeuvres are frequently more important than going on the attack. It’s an interesting concept, and one that offers a great level of depth.
There are 64 heroes to choose from, which in itself adds a huge wealth of options. Each hero has various advantages and disadvantages, and players would do well to focus on just one or two to learn before figuring out the others. You can also buy items with your hard-earned gold, which again provides numerous statistical advantages. The real failing of Heroes of Newerth, then, is that there’s just so much to take in, and so little time to accustom yourself to it.
It’s only a game
There’s a basic offline tutorial, but it’s insubstantial. The game could have really done with a practice mode with AI-based opposition to make the learning curve that little bit smoother. As it stands, you’re thrown into a world of confusion even after choosing a beginner game. Unfortunately, these games don’t seem to be populated by beginners. I was still frequently lambasted for not being able to read another player’s mind, or for getting killed too easily.
I’ve played various games online over the years and I’m used to the insults and mistreatment of newcomers. Yet I have never seen anything quite this extreme. The majority of players 
I came across were frankly downright nasty. I did eventually encounter a few slightly friendlier souls, but they felt distinctly few and far between.
These friendlier souls advised me to look for various video guides to help me. They were right: after a good few hours studying videos and reading guides on the official forums, I felt very slightly better equipped to return to the fiercely competitive world of Heroes of Newerth. It made a difference, as I went on to enjoy future games that bit more. I’d also learnt that playing ‘no stat’ games where the result didn’t really matter was an ideal way to learn, even if other players were still far from pleasant.
The score below is for the game, not the community. But it all links back with Heroes of Newerth’s main problem: a steep learning curve that is unduly harsh, one amplified by an inefficient tutorial. There’s nothing wrong with complexity, but the learning process needs to feel smooth. Here, though, it’s unwieldy and bewildering – so without a firm helping hand, what hope has a newcomer got against someone who’s been playing this game and its spiritual predecessor for years?
Lewis made an interesting point – reviews of online games should indeed review the community as well as the game, when necessary.
I had the exact same experience. After three games and countless insults, the beta client was wiped off my hd, and that’s that. I don’t mind complexity or steep learning curves, but I demand at least some basic level of general manners in any online game I engage in. Shame on you. You bad, bad community.
Re-jigging of an old comment from RPS:
One of my gripes with the game is the hero count. I mean, 64? Honestly, that’s the farthest thing from a selling point for me. And each of them need different items for viable builds, and you need to learn how to change your playstyle against other heroes. I just can’t be bothered to learn that, or even half of that. It’s a great bullet point for the back of the box, and probably provides endless variety, but the the insane hero count strikes me as an unnecessarily complex barrier for entry — something that can probably be said for the genre in general.
Cry more newfag, get tougher skin or leave.
Your obviously a newbie rofl gtfo
Indeed HoN / DotA are hardcore games, but with great rewards. After achieving a certain level ull experience a great game. Millions of fans cant be wrong right?
Take note that:
1.u tested briefly
2.only pubbed probably <1500PSR (pubs going downhill)
3.it is a hardcore game.
If u are not willing to learn and to progress this game isnt for u.
Maybe ur a casual gamer nothing wrong with that. But most of the "problems" of the game (not the community) arent actually problems. Just ur incapacity to appreciate the features.
Go back to wii sports? (not trying to offend… but if light games makes u happy game on)
PS.. Ya like miker who isnt willing to learn builds for 64 heroes. OMG thats to much!!! my brain cells…. overcharged….. danger! danger! danger!
What kind of terrible scrub site is this?
0/10, u mad?, butthurt, asspained etcetera…
What really makes you feel dirty is when you learn how to play and you find yourself harrassing others. Because the attitude is really inherent to the game type.
HoN demands team play, and in order to win, your team mates have to be good to a degree. If they feed the enemy, it can completely destroy your efforts. One has to grow a thick skin in order to play it.
On the other hand, it is extremely rewarding when you get to win a match. Eventually, the rule will become to win rather than to lose, and those few matches you find yourself playing with some newb on your team, whose only realisation in life is to screw your game, will make you rage.
Then again, as I said above, aside from being a really superb game, with great gameplay and immersive lore, the developers have actually achieved perfection when it comes to the rewards system.
~IntEr
Cant say Im suprised. This game is ridiculously hard to learn, but the reward for learning is incredible. This is easily one of, if not my favourite game of all time. Stay far, far away if your a casual gamer.
suck less
@ Miker “each of them need different items for viable builds, and you need to learn how to change your playstyle against other heroes. I just can’t be bothered to learn that, or even half of that.”
what you say does not remotely make any sense. In ANY game you play u learn what a person can do you will learn shortcuts you will learn weaknesses add all that up and it will be way more than item builds on HON. They even have a item list in game wile playing that work well with your hero what more can you ask for?
as for this article Hon is a competitive game . In the competitive world people take games seriously.
For new people being thrown into the game. This is not true at all. People just don’t look. Join a clan they will help you learn the game. Not all clans are competitive.
________________
“so without a firm helping hand, what hope has a newcomer got against someone who’s been playing this game and its spiritual predecessor for years?”
We are in the time period of the internet you search things to help you. Not all games if hardly any tell you what to do. They give you hints. most games throw u in the wild and say this person needs to be killed and that’s about it.
i don’t want to come off sounding like a dick but it seems this article is just from someone with a 1 track mind who wont think outside the box and wants things handed to them without working to learn something.
example in real life job related situation you wont go to a job not knowing anything and expect the boss to teach you everything you need to know. You should have a fairly good idea of what and HOW to do it. Same goes for this game watch videos ask a friend who has played the game for tips play DOTA for a wile get the hang of it. You have many ways to do this yet people bash the game for being throw into the kitchen and getting burned.
To sum it all up new people tend not to research, read . They get the end of the barrel from people due to this. You have so many ways to do this yet they will complain saying they don’t get any help/idea how to play. Buying games comes with booklets aka hand guides that tell you the basic’s internet game guides are the internet itself you are not held back to what you can learn.
It is true that the hon community is somewhat harsh. The thing with this game is that you should be able to learn things rather fast. After playing about one game, an experienced RPG player or RTS player in general would be able to know the fact that you have to stay back somewhat in the beginning… this is often a problem for new players.
I myself started playing hon completly on my own without any dota experience in september. At that time there was NO tutorial, no stat games were not implented, and there was no practice mode either. After playing about 2 weeks, I got the basics down. The hardest part is getting to know the game… after that it’s an eazy road!
Hon is created to be a competitive e-sport game… it is a shame the review did not talk about that because in the competitive scene there is a LOT of potential ;)
You’re noob, therefore you can’t review this game. Stfu and QQ somewhere else.
its tru that this game have bad communitee. many many hackers in game that see invis player wen hiding in tree. i love this game befor it go pay 2 play only an now i play legue of legend insted, much much better and more importanly free. :)
FelixD, f u for basically stealing my name u fk!
although you’re right the author is obviously not competent enough to be writing this article
@avinash
I just wanted to laugh at you for a second ;)
lol @ the raging HoN nerds proving the reviewer’s point.
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oh and btw some nerd in the forum posted this… wtf is this shitty unknown website ahahhahaahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahahahahahahaahha
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/3934/lamont.gif
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How is the communiy bad? The only reason I play is for the lovely community.
This game would be complete trash if it weren’t for all the young boys and girls I come in contact with during my pubbing crusades. :)
sorry jennifer i love u
I’m going to let some of the above go for now, but have deleted two of the more egregious comments. From now on: grown-up discussion and debate, or comments purged. Your choice.
Good grief! The author of the post was complimentary about the game! Why are half the commenters attacking her? Maybe the game’s obvious to you, but perhaps that’s just because you’ve spent time playing it! Were I to hand you an complex algebra problem and say ’solve that’ having just taught you the bare essentials, you’d struggle, because you wouldn’t know how to do it. It’s the same here. Why the insistance on calling her a ‘casual gamer’? What evidence do you have to support that claim (apart from the obvious closet sexism)? As for questioning the author’s competence, I notice the article was correctly spelled, had proper grammar and syntax, and was well-written, which is more than I can say for the imbeciles posting uninformed nonsense on here. It does reflect rather poorly on the HoN community if this is how you react to minor criticism.
umad?
you’re just a casual
stick with wii fit
i think its not ur game :( u should try in 5v5
I’ve been with HoN for quite a while and I know how horribly bad the community can be most of the time.
I decided to do something about it and with the help of some good people we created the clan HfH which we lead from the traingounds forum. Our goal was to help newbies(like the writer of this review) to get better by playing no-stat games and watch as a spectator giving points as to how they could improve their game and to help them past the learning curve.
I can easily see how the reviewer came to the conclusion that the game is filled with retards, because it is… I rage A LOT when I lose due to bad teammates, but I keep it to myself and then just ban them to make sure they do not ruin more games. It may not be fair but it works for me and stops me from being a complete ass(like a lot of the people who replied here obviously are)
I wouldn’t give the game 6/10. I love Heroes of Newerth, just as much as I love DotA. but the community is bad, really bad. I would give the game 8/10, it’s not perfect but it’s damn good. AND then i would give the community 2/10, there are a few good apples but most of them are rotten inside and shouldn’t even be touched with a shovel.
Good and fair review none the less.
GG WP Jennifer Allen.
Can you go cry somewhere else please?
@Z “what you say does not remotely make any sense. In ANY game you play u learn what a person can do you will learn shortcuts you will learn weaknesses add all that up and it will be way more than item builds on HON. They even have a item list in game wile playing that work well with your hero what more can you ask for?”
I think it makes sense. Take a look at TF2. Nine classes, and that’s plenty. There’s no steep learning curve into the metagame. You won’t find yourself outclassed because you didn’t realize hero X with items Y isn’t good against hero Z with items A, even though hero X with items Y is perfectly fine against another hero with another build, etc. It gives it great depth, yes, but in my mind, it’s a depth born from sheer complexity. Some people want their games punishing and obtuse, and hey, that’s good for them. It does, however, tend to create insular communities, as this comments thread has shown.
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I’d suggest visiting the training grounds section of the HoN forums and finding other newbies play with there. Also if you meet someone nice add them to friends list.
This game is not for the faint of heart, it has 30 000 concurrent players online at peak times. The brilliant net-code everyone around the world to play with or against each other quite competitively, something that just doesn’t exist in many other pc games. Cultures and personalities will clash.
HoN is hardcore.
HoN is competitive.
HoN has a huge player-base.
HoN is team orientated.
HoN is serious business! Unless you can find some casuals to play with for fun.
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I was on the beta for some months last summer, and the a lot of the comments we’ve had here are very much typical of the kind of behaviour a lot of HoN players are known for. The trouble is, S2 built more or less a clone of Defence of the Ancients, and has never made much effort to appeal to anyone but the old DotA hardcore – this kind of development plan is bound to produce a community intolerant of newcomers.
It’s a shame, not least because S2 are capable of better things (as displayed by the flawed gem that was Savage). Personally I found HoN to be a mixed experience – it’s euphoric when you’re winning, which is heavily dependent on having an able team, but it’s intensely frustrating when you feel you’re being held back by someone, whether that’s the case or not. It’s curious… there’s definitely a case to be made that the game’s mechanics, its reward/punishment mechanism for victories/losses, encourage people to get arsey.
Miker, I think you miss the whole point of “item builds” and heroes in general.
Items are there so you can create strategies and counter strategies against teams. There being many items is in no way a bad thing or complex if you actually take a little time to go through them to see what’s available. If someone is countering you somehow with some item, then you can just as easily counter back in some way.
The spotlight is obviously on the heroes though and that’s what keeps the game fresh. How you can even compare a class system with a individual hero system is beyond me. X hero might counter Y hero, but every team based multiplayer game with casted abilities has this. This is why the games are always balanced around team play and not 1 v 1 encounters only. While one might be good at 1v1, the other can be extremely devastating in teamfights.
Everything has it’s place in a game type such as this that has seen years and years of balance and reworking.
If the game is too complex for you, because you are not willing to put time and effort into it to learn how to be good at it, then that is something that lies with you. I feel the same way about games like Starcraft.
I think the comments here validate the author’s comments about the game’s community.
Good job guys!
I think this is your first time seeing an internet troll.
Good job, Jacques.
P.S.
Most people that are actually serious won’t even bother replying to this review, because they will see it as a joke that’s not worth their time. Giving a game score based on the behaviour of individuals on the internet is pretty much laughable.
Whatsup: The review specifically states that the score /doesn’t/ reflect the community.
@whatsup
Thanks for one of the few decent comments in this thread :). I think a game like TF2 has gotten to the point where its class system is comparable to the heroes’n'builds system of games like HoN, what with kritz medics and targe demos running around, but obviously you don’t agree. And that’s fine.
Here’s another question, though: what would HoN lose if the hero count were cut down to say, 32? Half the number of heroes would technically result in half the variety and viable strategies, but just how much would the game lose in return for lowering the learning curve for new players? Surely its metagame (emphasis on meta) is deep enough to eventually provide new strategies and counters despite a smaller cast of characters? Take a look at Street Fighter IV — before SSFIV’s release, people were saying that the lesser-played console characters not in the arcade version were better than people that they were giving them credit for because their metagame hadn’t been fully explored yet, even a year after release. Just food for thought.
Also, perhaps I should’ve made it clear that I /would be/ willing to put in time and effort into it if it weren’t for, well, the community.
I find this to be a very one-sided review. HON is not a game you pick up at the video game store and take it home to play with the family. It was created with specific intentions on being very competitive.
You are using the logic one might apply to something like Call of Duty where you play it and assume everything comes to your fingertips without much effort. This is an entirely different type of game where there is intentionally a learning curve.
@Miker
I understand where you are coming from but these are 2 completely different game types.
as well the point of 9 classes wont work in the game HON. It would be terrible to have multiple heroes of the same type runing around. (there is a mode for this) But in the main game you want strategies and with this many heroes you can build a start to work for you. Same goes for with items ill use diablo2 as a example.
Lets take the pally if diablo was like HON you would see a hammerdin hero a smiter etc not all skills for one hero and you can use it to your advantage.
for the items in diablo hammerdins , smiters etc all have different item builds on what you need to exceed in the part you are playing same goes for HON if you are a “carry” the main man of the team you would be building on out damaging the other team along with survivability. Now before you start a game one should first under stand these terms you tube shows this great. A user of HON has made a great tut for this Nigmanoname.
Some of the items you need depending on the hero you are choosing is common in most games that require items like most rpg’s .
AS i said before people just jump into the game without thought of looking on the internet.
As for the community not every one has patience of the gods with them.
Most of them if not all help people but when someone asks. But there is a fine line of how many times a question can be asked over a period of time. Search functions on the forum, a good tool yet no one uses it they will ask the question without looking. This goes with what i said about new players not doing research/reading.
tho some people on the forum are a bit to rowdy but this is the internet on any forum you will have people like this.
duno if i said before but im not trying to sound like a bad guy but it does get annoying. I speak my mind its just how i type if it comes off to hard sorry.
Well if some of the people who left a comment here are representative of some of the attitudes within the game, no wonder she was disappointed! Fair enough if you rate the game higher that is the nature of reviews, but there is no excuse for such abuse.
@Z
I already kind of addressed this with my reply to whatsup right above you, but I can definitely see where you’re coming from as well. While I agree that nine classes is too few for a game like HoN, (as I asked earlier) how would would the game fare with a number like 32, or 40?
The guy who posted this on the HoN forum must really hate this site leading all these HoN trolls here.
I respect Jennifer’s review, since it is just how she feels about the game.
Review from one person who can’t handle games with a steep learning curve. It’s okay, there are games for those people: World of Warcraft.
The community is fine. Anyone who thinks the community is “too” bad either a) sucks really bad and has no determination to get good, or b) is a panzy.
my 2c
in b4 comment removed
Diablo 2 probably isn’t the best comparison.
Most duels are 1v1, and some builds just aren’t competitive against others.
Hammerdins and smiters, for example, have some great advantages over a lot of other character builds.
Also, D2 was never optimised for PvP play.
@Miker
The number of hero’s are a lot at this time but this leaves people with variety. To choose what flavor they like. 40 may sound fine but when playing HOn or DOTA for a wile even tho 40 sounds like a lot you will notice its actually very few.
You will see you would go through these hero’s like water.
and if you ment your post right above i did not see it when i was typing
@Jacques
D2 was not the best i could use but using the pally as a example of how easy it is to make him into multiple hero’s was the best i could think of on the spot as well as with the items builds varying can also be seen in HON for each hero using different items.
Also i did not see a edit button so sorry for double post
@ Miker
When you look realistically at what you are buying when you purchase Heroes of Newerth, then it’s nothing more than a map (there are 2 other maps, but they aren’t considered competitive) and a bunch of heroes. Sure the game will game a map editor / SDK soon for the public to create custom maps ala Warcraft 3, but that’s not the topic atm.
I think you can already see what the focus is on in this game. Heroes add the variety and fun that a game of this genre thrives on. Making new hero combinations that might work and win you a game is a huge part of what makes the game what it is. One might say that the battle already begins at the hero selection screen where you try to set up strong teams and theorycraft about how to run your lanes/early game/ganking/late game.
If you would half the hero count, then the lastability and depth would go down exponentially instead of just getting halved. Every single hero added is a huge change to the meta-game and diversity the game can offer thanks to the many new combination possibilities it offers. Single heroes by themselves are just too limited to keep a game like this interesting. There just can not be enough heroes in a game like this.
Games like Street Fighter also have individuals in it instead of classes, that is true. The difference though is that in a game like Street Fighter (a series I have been a huge fan of since the snes days btw <3) is that a different skill set determines the outcome of games. Skill of execution determines the winner for most part. In Heroes of Newerth you can't really outskill someone in the same way. There is only so much you can do when you have only 4 abilities and 6 item slots. This is why it really comes down to putting yourself in the right situations and avoiding bad ones. Having the right heroes and using them in the correct ways be it solo or with teammates. You can't win on individual twitch skill alone like you can in fighting games. You can beat better players by outsmarting them team wise unlike in fighting games.
I hope the last part makes sense to you, because I couldn't find a way to explain it well in a simple sentence.
I can understand you not willing to put time in this game. I have 2 friends that started playing the beta with me and they quickly grew tired of being called noobs while they were trying to learn the game. I myself have also had to go through that, but I guess I just have a different mindset and didn't care that much. I've been on the internet for far too long to have some kids provoke me on it. Not everyone in the community is bad by the way. You just need to get through the newbie phase and get to the point where team mates actually communicate in a civil manner trying to pull off a win like a clan would in any kind of game.
Wall of text crits game review site for over 9000. :p
@ James Woodcock
The reason many other online games don’t have as much name calling and such is because you can play a solo game and still have fun.
In Heroes of Newerth it is quite easy to ruin a game for your team mates and it can get pretty frustrating at times. People used to rage on me aswell, but I actually accepted the fact that I was bad at that point and keeping my team down. I did not let them ruin a game for me that I saw potential in though and it all worked out for me.
All you need to do is play games under the “noob only” category and ignore whining of fellow noobs. Believe me or not, but in Heroes of Newerth it is always the bad players that rage and sling mud around. People that actually know how the game works just accept that they got outplayed and leave it at that. Concede the round and on to the next battle while learning from mistakes.
this website sucks posting on a useless thread
Jennifer Allen, this review is very substandard.
You give a recap about what the game is about, then your entire review portion is relating to how difficult the game was for you to grasp.
I get the gist that you dislike the game, but please put a little more effort into your work.
Smalls heads up, Jen’s profile says
“One day, she will have the honour of reviewing a game that isn’t awful.”
So I take it under the assumption that Resolution Magazine purposely gives her games to be negative about, perhaps in a similar vein to Yathzee… except lacking humor… and quality.
Know what all this reminds me of? Teenagers who have just passed their driving test hurling abuse at learner drivers when they’re stuck behind them and going at a snail’s pace. They can never, ever, remember they were that learner once upon a time.
Never mind, one day they will reach an age of maturity that stops them from hurling abuse at strangers who aren’t very good at a game they’ve just started playing. Of course, when they reach that age they won’t be playing games anymore because they’ll be sick of the immature attitudes of the younger community…
Feel free to hurl at me, I’m not coming back to this thread so I’ll never know how grumpy you got.
Urgh, comments on casual gaming.
A- I spend an absurd amount of time playing a game which refuses to teach me things (so I have to read what to do with characters, and what items are good with me), to get good at it
B-I play a wide range of games
Who is “more hardcore”. I’ve never had the patience to deal with the barriers to entry that games throw up- same with dwarf fortress. The experience may be terrific, but the thing is- there are hundreds of games WITHOUT the barrier to entry which are just as terrific.
Bloody hell, I think even a devoted masochist would think twice about setting foot in HoN after reading this comments thread.
LOL. HoN’s board makes 4chan look like a bunch of saints.
Nice review, and true. I enjoy these games a lot, but the fact that so many people flame their teammates drives me up a wall. It is not pro. It does not help you win. But it is part of the culture.
I also play LOL, and although there are flametards there as well, I think there are less.
Give your teammates constructive advice or stfu. You aren’t helping. Often, the biggest flametards are feeders themselves.
@Colin Robinson – That’s a bit of an arrogant-sounding comment to be honest. I don’t get why people are saying this isn’t a fair review. The writer clearly says that she enjoyed the depth but found the learning curve to be too steep due to a lack of a decent tutorial, and that she also didn’t like the community. How isn’t that a fair review? How does that show a lack of effort?
“Can you go cry somewhere else please?”
OH THE IRONY.
Good review. I’ve found HoN very instructional in watching team dynamics. When teams communicate, punish failure proportionally and respectfully while offering suggestions (“Dude, WTF? Why did you run in alone? Wait for the group next time.” instead of “GTFO U FCKING NOOB U SUK FCKING NOOB!!!!11111″), express gratitude, and delegate responsibilities, the team will win. It’s pretty cool, actually.
Of course, in HoN as in life, random interactions are bound to turn up immature people, both in biological age and emotional age. Since this is the internet, and a video game / e-sport, you’ll get more of the latter than average, unfortunately. But there are still good people playing.
And here’s a pro-tip: learn which heroes are the “carry” heroes and which heroes are the “support” heroes. You’ll be surprised how often the gamers who predominantly choose “carry” heroes are hot-tempered jerks in real life– just like the heroes they play, whereas those who predominantly choose “support” heroes are more easy going and friendly. It takes both kinds to win a game. And always feel free to ignore comments from a hero playing Night Hound. 99/100 times that gamer will be a jerk^1000.
Honestly, I play on a mid/high team and can respect this review as completely accurate. When I first learned dota, it was impossible to play and I was impossible at it. The community was very angry at me, I gave up. A few months later I came back but I read guides first. I spent weeks reading guides on warding, on hero roles, on different builds and strats, and everything else. Even then I wasn’t great at it. The game has a ton of depth but absolutely the worst community. This is from someone who’s played with a lot of bad communities in the past as well (played cs:s competitively, UGH). All you commenters have done is prove her right. She’s probably more than capable of learning, it just takes time and help; those are two things the hon community rejects giving new players.
Something tells me that Jennifer is not a bright person if she found a simple game like HoN difficult to grasp. The steep learning curve is an absolute myth. You can learn the basics (such as not auto-attacking, keeping an eye on the map, keeping your team informed of changes in your lane, and showing up to team fights) simply by playing a few match-making games.
As far as the community goes, it’s really not much different from any other game. As a new player, it actually helps to have critical players on your team as they are quick to point out your errors, even if they are spiteful and sarcastic about it. If you’re the kind of person who can’t be arsed to put a little effort in improving yourself, then competitive gaming is not for you. I’d suggest an alternative, but all games require at least some common sense.
I feel that Jennifer and most of the people that defend her point of view here don’t really understand what they’re talking about. And how could they, if they haven’t spent the time to learn the game. Now I think it’s ok to not understand things, but don’t judge them.
The game is based on countering the other team in hero choice/skill build/items/behavior/positioning/map vision/etc. You have to accurately guess what your enemy is thinking. It’s absurd to think that any game like this should be simple or have an easy learning curve.
I think that the problem that most people have is that they don’t understand that HoN/DotA is its own genre. You have to build a model of how they work when you start playing them. It’s also a relatively new genre, so there’s not that many games to get used to the gameplay.
@Miker
I never played DotA or any other game like HoN. When I started there were about 45 heroes, and I can tell you would’ve felt the exact same way. The feel of the game was the same, and it was just as hard to learn. Adding more heroes has increased the learning curve a pitifully small amount compared to how much better it makes the gameplay.
You can’t use TF2 as an example of an easy to learn game with its small number of classes, because HoN is a completely different type of game. HoN’s game style requires an inherent amount of complexity and a variety of options. If some of you can’t handle that it’s fine; there’s a huge number of people that can. I don’t care if HoN is too hard for Jennifer to learn on her own and that she thinks it’s too hard to find someone to help her, but I think it’s bad that she judges it without even experiencing the intended gameplay.
If you think the comments here are harsh, then go tell football team a that football has too much running, that you shouldn’t have to learn so many plays, and you think the players are too mean. Then tell them that you give football a 6/10 because “it’s unwieldy and bewildering – so without a firm helping hand, what hope has a newcomer got against someone who’s been playing this game and its spiritual predecessor for years?”
I would also like to point people to one of Nigma’s blog posts:
http://nigmahon.blogspot.com/2010/05/hon-community-how-bad-is-it.html
He explains much better than I could (as usual) the nature of the HoN community.
There are plenty of complicated games that contain smooth learning curves; many multi-player games have single-player modes that are basically extended tutorials. HoN isn’t being criticised for being complicated, it’s being criticised for dumping players into the MP environment without a working knowledge of the tools at their disposal. It doesn’t matter which way you look at it, it’s a flaw in the game.
I can imagine it’s terribly frustrating for experienced players. One new player can really mess things up; surely it’s better for newbies to know what they’re doing before they start playing with other people. It’s all well and good pointing to online tutorials, but if someone needs to go out of the game to achieve basic proficiency, then the game has failed.
I read the link you posted. I get it. HoN is a competitive game where one weak link can screw up a whole team. It’s too complicated to teach people on the go. I can totally understand the sentiment, I’ve played MMOs for the last twelve years and having someone with you who doesn’t know what they’re doing is frustrating. It’s not a direct comparison; from my experience with DotA-style games, it’s like being dumped into a level 80 WoW raid having never played the game before, no idea what your abilities do, no idea what gear to use, no idea what anyone else is going to do and no knowledge of the bosses. Essentially nothing but the basic controls and a vague idea of what your objective is. In short, it sucks, both for the newbie and the people they’re playing with.
However none of that is any excuse for the kind of behaviour described in the review or demonstrated by HoN community members in this comment thread. There is no reason to insult or belittle new players. All it takes is a polite suggestion that they stay out of ranked matches and directions to the aforementioned online tutorials.
In short:
Complicated = good.
Lack of learning in game = bad.
Frustration at new players = perfectly understandable.
Rude and derogatory response = totally inexcusable.
http://gethon.blogspot.com/ visit to download lan and private server. heroes of newerth is now a beta. it means you cant play it for free. you have to buy per account. and its cost 30 us dollars per account. using private server. you can connect to other server without paying anything ^^ play free
I’ve been playing DOTA and now HoN for over 5 years. There is no other game with this type of lasting appeal. I have an xbox 360 that never gets turned on because nothing can top this game for some fun when I have an hour to spare.
When I first started playing dota, everyone was a noob, you could hop in a game and it wasn’t so hard to pick up (I use “hard” relatively.) Back then, you could learn the basics of the game in a few days. Now, it’s completely different. This is the hardest game to pick up and become an average skilled player at that I have ever seen in my life.
A lot of my friends from World of Warcraft were introduced to the game by myself or other friends who have been playing for years; they are hardcore gamers, but it took months for them to be able to play competently without being a drag on their team. Today still, people who have been playing the game for 6 months are NEVER as good as someone who has been playing for 2-6 years. That’s how steep the learning curve is. I would say that you have to play for at least 100 hours before you can even call yourself a beginner.
If you can’t handle that, I don’t blame you, but this is the best game ever made in my opinion.
i have never played hon, but i read this review to see if it was worth getting into, and dear god is this a terrible review.
it said 2 things
– Hey! im really bad at this game
– Hey! i dont like people getting mad at me for making them lose
what a useless review. i learned nothing except this site is no wear near credible or logical in the matter they review games.
LOL at the mods trying to stick up for it. this is a joke
Chill it’s just a game.
a good beginners advise would be to play some dota. Plp join noob-games due the hon stats/ranking – system, and as there is no system in dota u can play along with noobs. Dota gamers are often more friendly helping out, and the gamespeed is slightly decreased. Start learning laneface from dota, woodwalking and teamplay – then play hon at learn the mapawareness.
hax0rskill ( 6 years of dota, 4 month hon)
It’s true the majority of players on this and Dota are angry lifeless losers that have nothing else in their life to bring them joy. But the game itself cannot be judged solely by that. It is one of the DEEPEST multiplayer games ever created if not the deepest. The level of replay value is amazing as no game is ever the same. I remember I began playing Dota around when it was brand new near 7 years ago (Thats right, when the reviewer says people have been playing this for years it IS 6-7 years) and have been playing it since (not frequently). 64(and growing) Heroes that are COMPLETELY different (In Dota 99+ heroes and growing)with completely different strategies and a plethora of equipment and items. Games can last 15 minutes or up to 2 hours it’s amazing. As for being yelled at for not reading someones mind it’s 100% true. Teamwork in this game to veteran players has become something of second nature. When I see my teammate stun an enemy I KNOW he wants me to rush up there with him to whoop some ass without even saying a word. When I see a teammate being chased by some enemies and being near death of course I naturally run up there throwing out whatever I got to try and save his life and guarantee our escape. Advice for newbies hmmm I guess…. is practice. Play unranked matches off the getgo and if needed go play some Dota first. It’ll take months if not years to get good at this game and even then theres still things to learn.
As for all the stupid A*Hole comments here, don’t worry they’re are just nubs that grinded through their own beginning and think their decent players now (Which they are not.) Veteran players are wise.
Experience:
(6+ years of Dota, 3+month HoN Beta, 1+month HoN)
if your not gonna put time into the game to get the full experience don’t rate, thanks
+ no stats = newbies
try it out
This review should be reviewed.
By the way, HoN is now launching in the Philippines.
http://www.facebook.com/honphilippines
DotA based games FTW!!!