There isn’t a single in-game trailer or screenshot available for DOTA 2, Valve’s sequel to the Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients. Yet, remarkably, they are showing the game off publically for the first time by hosting a huge tournament for it. For the next few days, you can watch the action live, right here. There’s also a CGI trailer out, which I’ve embedded below.
I didn’t play the original Warcraft 3 mod, but it is widely heralded as one of the best of its kind. Mixing tower defense with real-time strategy elements, you control various ‘hero’ characters and their allies against other teams, while defending your own base. Valve have never made anything outside the FPS genre before, so I’m curious to see how this turns out.
I was watching the live feed earlier, and from first glance I can see it has plenty of character and style to it. Embarrassingly, there seems to be some lag, and the match was paused by the ‘referee’. Technical hiccups aside, this is a really interesting way of unveiling a new game. It’s clear that Valve are trying to get a slice of the RTS tournament pie, spear headed by the likes of Starcraft and League of Legends. DOTA has a huge fanbase, so there’s a good chance this will get a decent following when it’s released. The only remaining question is whether it’ll be free-to-play or not.
Here’s that CGI trailer: