It is controlled directly with WASD and spells are aimed with the mouse, meaning you will miss if you misjudge the shot or if your opponent dodges out of the way quickly enough. You cannot target abilities on enemies. The action is quick and relentless, and there are no random numbers, no levels, no critters, no items and no mana. Just you, your six skills with different cooldowns and an ultimate you have to build up to buy using those skills well, and even ultimates can be avoided by skilled players. Wining comes down to player skill, coordination, teamplay and learning the bloodlines.

In the arena game mode you are 2 to 5 players to a team, there are no respawns, instead you win the round by eliminating your opposing team, and first to win 5 rounds wins the match. Since a round only takes a few minutes, a match can be a quick thing of 15-20 minutes, but can draw out longer too (though no way near as long as HoN/Demigod/LoL games). There is also a CTF game mode in the game at this time, which takes a little longer to play.

I heartily recommend this game, it is a breath of fresh air by indie devs who dare to make a different game instead of carbon copying an old one. The only game I know of that is similar to it is Dawnspire (coincidentaly, also by swedish indie devs), which unfortunately is all but dead. Check out the webpage to learn more, and sign up for beta if you like what you see.

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It looks solid, to me. Not necessarily a DotA clone. The Bloodline website FAQ has pretty accurate and understandable explanation of the game. It plays like WoW Arena in the form of a top-down shooter, but incorporates the design of Warcraft 3 heroes (3 abilities, 1 ultimate). However, there is no laning, no leveling, no items. Your ultimate is accessible when you successfully hit with your spells. You also have two basic attacks (mouse left and mouse right) and an escape ability (spacebar).

This game, I predict, will be much more appealing to FPSers. The game is based around WADS for movement and your cursor guides the direction of your character as well as aims his or her abilities. No dodge, no crits, no armor, no decimals — whole numbers, simple math, damage and health are comparably low to other games (max HP in Bloodlines I think is around 190-200 and damage can get up to maybe a max of 50 for ultimate).

They also have different modes: Elimination — typical Counter-Strike or WoW Arena premise, no respawns, kill the enemy team before youre team is killed — and Capture the Flag — point based, similar to any other CTF mode in FPS’s.

To be honest, the website is fairly resourceful about the game, which includes a “How to Play” video (http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/thegame_howtoplay.php) and two “Battle Report” videos (http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/media_movies.php).

Also, join the community and sign-up for beta. This game, I have a feeling, is going to be the next DotA.

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I am quite looking forward to seeing more DotA clones, so RPS please continue posting away!

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Actually having worked that out I now feel a little guilty that I havnt spent a bit more to reward the developers, probably gonna go buy a new champ or a skin…

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Normally, yeah, free games tend to attract more immature/rude players, but I encountered a much higher percentage of jerks in HoN in the 100+ games I’ve played in both games. It was even evident in the forum community. Now, this might be because HoN is still technically free, being in beta and all, but I think it’s more a splitting of the DotA community. The more “hardcore” players have gravitated to HoN, while more casual DotA players tend to play LoL. Not that being a hardcore player makes you a jerk (I met a couple competitive players in HoN that were great people), but overall it just led to more impotent internet rage when playing games. Which I can ignore for a while, but after months of it, it just got old.

I’ve seen less early leaves in LoL than in HoN. LoL has penalties for leaving as well, and in my experience it works better, but that’s just my experience. Both of them work pretty well. I never played DotA, but I can only image how bad the ragequitting was with no penalty for it.

Regarding team fights, I’m not saying they’re not decisive in HoN, I’m saying in LoL all 5 players are more important to the team fights through the whole game. Maybe that was a poor way to word it. But especially late game, team fights in HoN are more about which carry has gotten more gold. Carries aren’t quite as powerful in LoL. Some people might like one player having that much influence, but in a team game I think it’s better to keep the emphasis on the team. Regardless, as I said earlier, it’s only a “little” difference, but it’s one I like.

I don’t really miss denying. I like focusing more on harassment to get kills or send the enemy back to their base to heal as a mechanic for setting the enemy back in exp/gold.

Have you played much LoL? I’m curious to know because much of what I’ve said above is anecdotal, and if you have played a lot of LoL you’ve had a much different experience than me, which is interesting.

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Really, I’m just waiting for Valve to make its own Dota clone w/ Icefrog and playtest the shit out of it like they do with all of their games.

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