October 14, 2010 by Paul Curtin
Ever since Valve hired IceFrog (former developer of the original Dota), there have been rumors of a possible sequel to the Warcraft III mod Defense of The Ancients. Those rumors turned out to be true, and today Game Informer is reporting that Valve is officially making Dota 2 with IceFrog as their lead developer. While details are slim, Valve is saying that the gameplay mechanics will remain the same as the original and the game will not have any drastic changes to anything but the graphics.
The main new feature that Valve is teasing is a new coaching system with achievements that will hopefully persuade players to help others and in return receive in-game rewards. Anyone who has played Dota before knows that it has one of the most brutal online communities of any game due to it’s highly competitive players and steep learning curve with hundreds of heroes, items, and spells that players are forced to quickly learn with no guide or introduction.
I have to admit, I’m excited for Dota 2, but the idea of the same exact game with updated graphics has killed a little of my enthusiasm. The same exact game with updated graphics and mechanics already exists on the market today and is called Heroes of Newerth. Besides a new coaching and reward system, Dota 2 seems to bring little to the table in terms of innovation in Dota genre. Hopefully as more images and information are released, Dota 2 will prove that it’s far superior to not only the original Dota, but HoN as well. Check out some teaser images of the new art direction from Dota 2 below.
