Other Games Dota Players Might Enjoy – DOTABUFF

With Crownfall coming to an end, we all feel like we need a little break from Dota. While Valve prepares the next update, whether it’s a balance overhaul or a new content patch, it’s probably a good idea to try something different. Yes, there are other games.

Choosing games for professional Dota players is difficult. Playing Dota definitely has an impact on the taste of players and most of the unofficial and well-known offerings do not achieve success. So, in this list, with one notable exception, I’ll try to highlight some of the lesser-known games that I’ve personally enjoyed as a Dota player with nearly 20 years of Dota experience.

Hades is definitely a title that most players have at least heard of. Probably the most polished and innovative rogue-lite game out there, with great lore and story and hours upon hours of high-quality gameplay content.

I’ve always wondered why this resonated so much with me and why I spent almost 200 hours playing Hades instead of Dota, until I found this A bit of an interview With the creative director of Hades.

Suddenly it makes sense: the reason Hades is so broad and deep is because it took so much inspiration from the game we all love and cherish. While most games today are faster, flashier and more casual, Hades II I went in the opposite direction and made the gameplay slower, more strategic and in my opinion closer to Dota.

Controlling Melinoe is very different from controlling Zagreus: her combat style relies heavily on crowd control and high-impact abilities, in contrast to the more frantic gameplay of the original Hades. This has been a point of contention for parts of the community, and understandably so, but I feel that Dota players specifically will be able to appreciate this new approach. After all, Dota is a strategy game first, and an action game second.

So, if you haven’t tried Hades yet, I definitely recommend you give it a try. As for the second game, it is still in early access and Supergiant is still modifying some systems, but it is already an amazing game that deserves attention and praise.

Most of you know how Dota appeared – it was a “mod” or rather a map intended for the RTS game Cans 3 That started it all. The RTS roots are still present in Dota to this day, but the original genre is struggling mightily. RTS games are few and far between, and for most younger gamers they simply don’t exist.

There are some understandable reasons for this: the barrier to entry is very high and small requirements can get out of control very quickly. To truly appreciate strategy The aspect of the game that one has to go through hours and hours of training to get units to do what the player wants them to do, when they want them to do it. At the highest level of play, RTS players typically perform over 250 actions per minute, which equates to roughly four different commands per second.

But what if I told you that there is a game that puts capital S Strategy up front, gets rid of the micro side of things, gets rid of the preset build order execution checks and just lets you have some clever fun by outwitting the human opponent and maneuvering your armies?

Mechabellum is exactly that. It draws heavily from several games I’ve personally enjoyed over the years: Generals C&C It’s an obvious inspiration, but there’s also a great deal of it Dutta: Gentlemen DNA in it. In Mechabellum, you can place your units on the game board and let them fight against enemy units for about 10 rounds. Each round, you can add a few more units, unlock new ones and upgrade existing ones, and the game is all about knowing what to prioritize and when, since your resources are so limited.

The end result is a constant back and forth of counters, bluffs and tricks. There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you read what your opponent might be planning and stay a few steps ahead of them, pre-empting their newly deployed forces.

There’s a lot more to it as well, as there are some surprisingly fair random boost cards between rounds and different single-round abilities that the player can use to turn the tide of battle, but I’ll let you explore this amazing game for yourself, if I can pique your interest.

Hey, wait, how about Baldur’s Gate 3 for Dotabuff’s favorite CRPG? Well, yes, BG3 is an absolute masterpiece of a CRPG with an engaging cast, great interactivity, and high production value. But is it a good CRPG for Dota players? Well… yes, it is, but there’s something better! At least in my opinion.

As a Dota player, I care a lot about the core gameplay systems and how accurate the calculations are behind the scenes. 5th Edition DnD doesn’t really do that – it’s a great storytelling tool with a simplistic ruleset that leads to great events and plot lines, but it doesn’t deliver great combat. Character progression and combat encounter options are very limited by design, to appeal to a mainstream audience, but as Dota players, we’re not exactly “mainstream.”

Pillars of Eternity (and to a lesser extent the OwlCat Pathfinder games and the upcoming PF2e tactics game) puts combat front and center, with incredibly tight and fair calculations, countless subsystems to manipulate and highly specific encounters to overcome. In it, especially in Deadfire, you’ll feel annoyed and angry a lot of the time, at least if you play on the harder difficulties, but the feeling you get from defeating a powerful boss is very similar to the feeling you get while playing and winning against a Smurf absurdity. Be prepared, be smart, be creative and you will be rewarded, just like in Dota.

Great lore and intrigue is certainly a contributing factor as well. Sometimes it’s nice to immerse yourself in a fantasy world that differs significantly from the Tolkien-derived high fantasy offerings. And while the production value and interactivity are certainly not on the level of Baldur’s Gate 3, we think the Pillars series as a package, especially for Dota players, is simply better. Oh and I confess It’s coming soon too, so it’s probably a good idea to familiarize yourself with the world of Eora before what could be the best FPS of the year. Hobium exhales

Slay the Spire inspired a whole new type of game back in the day (although it technically derived heavily from Vlaada Chvatil Knight Mage) and was one of the games that not only matched the depth and complexity of Slay the Spire, but perhaps even surpassed it, Monster train. It ended up being a very successful title that still has a strong following, but the developer’s next project, Inkbound It never reached the same level of praise.

Which is a shame, in my opinion, as well Inkbound It’s probably one of the best cooperative turn-based games on the market. The gameplay is satisfying, it’s very deep and solving combat encounters and character building over the course of nearly two hours is very similar to playing a Dota match in a good group.

Basically, think Hades, but in turn-based style and with your teammates. Personally, I feel like the game’s lore is all over the place and presented in huge info dumps, which isn’t great at all, but if you’re the kind of person who ignores story and just wants to whack some monsters through construction then this game might be for you as a superhero, especially If you have two friends who are similar in Dota.

As a side note I would also highly recommend it In the wind from Dead cells developer, for a very similar experience, but in real time. It doesn’t have the level of depth and complexity that Inkbound offers, but I know that turn-based games are usually less attractive to the majority of players.

This post ended up being much larger than expected, but I think it was worth it. We all need a break from Dota every once in a while, but we also have very particular tastes, ones that aren’t necessarily reflected in mainstream game development. It’s hard to find games that can take us out of Dota.

So share your favorite titles and experiences in the comments section below and let us know if this type of Dota-related content is something you’ll enjoy in the future!