Heroes of Newerth

Heroes of Newerth (commonly known as HoN) is a free-to-play science fantasy, action real-time strategy game developed by S2 Games for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The game was heavily inspired by the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne custom map, Defense of the Ancients and is S2 Games' first game title in the Dota genre. The game was released on May 12, 2010 and re-released as a free-to-play game on July 29, 2011. Heroes of Newerth runs on the Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems.

Gameplay

The overall objective of each match is to battle through the opposing force's defenses, in order to arrive at and destroy the opponents' Ancient Fortress. Because Dota 2 is highly team-oriented, players must coordinate with their teams in order to achieve victory. The towers and stronghold defenses are invulnerable to attacks so long as the towers nearest to the enemy side still stand. Periodically, groups of weaker units commonly referred to as "creeps" are spawned, which move along their lane attacking any enemy unit or structure upon sight.Dota 2 combines the real-time strategy element of traditional top-down perspective, while also incorporating the leveling and itemization system of a role-playing video game. Players are pitted against each other into two distinct factions called the Radiant and the Dire. The Radiant is a faction based at the southwest corner of the map, while the Dire is a faction based at the northeast corner. Players assume the role of a "hero" - a strategically-powerful unit with special skills, who, through combat experience, may progress to a maximum level of twenty-five. The heroes' methods of combat are heavily influenced by their primary property, which can be physical strength, agility, or intelligence. The basic setup of Dota 2 places two strongholds guarded by defensive towers and waves of units which traverse the main paths leading to their base with critical structures called "Ancient Fortresses" at opposing ends of an evenly-balanced map with multiple connecting regions identified as "lanes", in which enemy units primarily traverse, while also combating the towers along the way. Players are split into two teams, each consisting of up to five players, to compete as the primary defenders for each Ancient Fortress.

The currency of the game is gold, which is granted periodically, but typically accumulates at a more practical level by killing enemy units, which grants a distributed amount of gold to the killer's team, with the greater portion being retained by the killer themselves. A common technique utilized to prevent the opposing faction from accumulating gold from a kill is "denying", which constitutes killing an allied unit or destroying an allied structure and can be employed when the unit or structure it is about to be used on is close to death or collapse, respectively. Players also gain experience, which accumulates to gain higher levels. The greatest proportion of gold and experience comes from destroying higher priority forces, such as enemy heroes and towers.