Dota Underlords

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Dota Underlords
DeveloperValve
PublisherValve
SeriesDota
EngineSource 2
Platforms
ReleaseFebruary 25, 2020
GenreAuto battler
ModesSingle-player, multiplayer

Dota Underlords is a 2020 auto battler game developed and published by Valve. The game is based on a popular Dota 2 community-created game mode called Dota Auto Chess, which was released in January 2019. Dota Underlords first released in early access in June 2019 before officially releasing on February 25, 2020, for Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, and Windows. The game is free to play and features cross-platform play.

Gameplay

Heroes automatically fighting on the battlefield grid, with player's inventory below

Dota Underlords is an auto battler, a chess-inspired competitive strategy game, where players place characters, known as heroes, on an 8x8 grid-shaped battlefield. After a preparation phase, when the position of heroes can be changed and new ones can be placed, team's heroes then automatically fight the opposing team without any further direct input from the player.[1] Over the course of a match, players earn gold that can be used to buy new heroes or experience points, that increases the maximum number of heroes that can be placed on the battlefield.[2] When heroes are bought but are not placed on the grid, they are stored in player's inventory; if the player collects three identical heroes, they will combine into a single, stronger version with new unique abilities. Each hero also has a certain combination of 'alliances' - collecting two or more heroes of the same alliance will give a certain bonus to all its members.

Players also make use of items, given after certain number of rounds played, that can be assigned to chosen heroes to increase their power or add a special effect.[2] After round 10, players are offered to choose between 4 different 'Lords', that act as an additional power on the battlefield.

Aside from the classical game mode, "Duos" and "Knockout" modes also exist. Knockout functions as a quick game mode with faster development, while Duos allows playing in a pair of two players, where both share same points of health and experience.[3]

A match features up to eight players online who take turns playing against each other in a one-on-one format, with the winner being the final player standing after eliminating all of the opposing heroes.[2] In classical mode, players start with 100 health, that will decrease after each lost battle, corresponding to the number of survived enemy heroes. Players can play both online matchmaking and single-player matches against bots.[1][3]

Development and release

Dota Underlords was developed and published by Valve for Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, and Windows. It is based on Dota Auto Chess, a popular community created game mode within Dota 2, a game they also developed.[4][5][6] Following Dota Auto Chess's release in January 2019, it quickly became a phenomenon, having over seven million players by April 2019, Valve had met with the mod's developers, the Chinese-based Drodo Studio, to discuss directly collaborating on a standalone version. However, the two companies were unable to come to an agreement, with them both stating that it was in their best interest to develop their own separate games, with Dota Underlords being Valve's project.[7] The game was built using Valve's Source 2 game engine, making it the first game using that engine to be released on mobile platforms.[8]

Valve announced Dota Underlords in May 2019, with it releasing in early access as a free-to-play game on June 20, 2019.[9][10] where it saw over 1.5 million downloads and held a concurrent player count on Steam of over 200,000 within a few days.[11][12] Features such as a replay system, ranked matchmaking, daily challenges and rewards, and a battle pass were added over time during its early access phase before it officially released on February 25, 2020.[13][14] It features full cross-platform play between its PC and mobile versions, with players able to freely start games on one and finish it on another.[15]

Reception

Reception
Review score
PublicationScore
GameSpot9/10[16]

Polygon called Dota Underlords a clone of Dota Auto Chess, stating that while they thought Underlords was more appealing to new players, the many similarities to the original mod could make it hard for veterans of the genre to see a reason to play Underlords over it.[17] Critics also compared and contrasted it with Artifact, another Valve-developed Dota spinoff game released around the same time that was seen as unsuccessful,[18][19][20] as well as Teamfight Tactics, the League of Legends take on the genre.[1][21] IGN considered Underlords to be the easiest auto battler to get into as a novice due in part to its user interface.[1]

References

  1. Gilroy, Joab (July 4, 2019). "An Introduction to Auto Chess, Teamfight Tactics and Dota Underlords". IGN. Archived from the original on July 4, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  2. Makar, Connor (July 8, 2019). "Dota Underlords guide: Strategies for how to play Dota Underlords, from getting gold to when to buy XP and unit upgrades". Eurogamer.net. Archived from the original on July 9, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  3. Tan Guan Hao, Dexter (October 22, 2019). "Dota Underlords gets 2 new game modes for The Big Update". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on October 22, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  4. Bolding, Jonathan (January 13, 2019). "A Dota 2 custom mode may be 2019's most popular new game". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
  5. Warr, Philippa (February 8, 2019). "Dota Auto Chess: The joyful deck-based Dota 2 game that Artifact isn't". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on February 8, 2019. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  6. Sullivan, Lucas (April 12, 2019). "The skyrocketing rise of Auto Chess, a Dota 2 custom map that became one of the year's biggest games". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  7. Gilliam, Ryan (June 10, 2019). "Auto Chess creators bringing stand-alone game to PC later this year". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 11, 2019. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
  8. Bailey, Dustin (June 20, 2019). "The Dota Underlords open beta is now live". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  9. Grayson, Nathan (May 20, 2019). "Valve Is Making Its Own Version Of Dota Auto Chess". Kotaku. Archived from the original on May 22, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  10. McWhertor, Michael (June 13, 2019). "Valve's Auto Chess competitor is Dota Underlords". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 13, 2019. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
  11. Minotti, Mike (June 28, 2019). "Sensor Tower: Dota Underlords sees 1.5 million downloads in first week". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  12. Jones, Ali (June 24, 2019). "Dota Underlords' player count tops 200,000 in its opening weekend". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  13. "Dota Underlords update: what features are coming to Underlords soon?". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  14. O'Connor, Alice (February 25, 2020). "Dota Underlords rises out of early access today". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  15. Lawler, Richard (June 21, 2019). "Valve's 'Dota Underlords' open beta launches on Android, iOS and PC". Engadget. Archived from the original on June 24, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  16. Gilroy, Joab (September 19, 2021). "Dota Underlords Review". GameSpot. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
  17. Gillia, Ryan (June 21, 2019). "Dota Underlords feels like a clone of Auto Chess". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  18. Brown, Fraser (June 21, 2019). "Dota Underlords has more than double Artifact's peak player count". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on June 23, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  19. Lawler, Richard (June 22, 2019). "'Dota Underlords' has more people playing now than 'Artifact' ever did". Engadget. Archived from the original on June 24, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  20. Grayson, Nathan (June 21, 2019). "Valve's New Auto Chess Game Is Already Way More Popular Than Artifact Ever Was". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 24, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  21. Ye, Josh (July 9, 2019). "Auto battlers started with Dota Auto Chess and now Valve and Riot Games are joining in". Abacus. Archived from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved July 17, 2019.