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Dota 2 [Official Site, Steam], the free MOBA from Valve has been updated with The Underhollow, a Battle Royale-like mode that's exclusive for Battle Pass owners. It's so good, it should be in the game.

This new mode pits eight teams of three, to be the last team standing in a fight for cheese. You can bring two friends or you can queue up to be matched up with strangers. Even while playing it with people I didn't know, it was an interesting experience.

It's a surprisingly frantic mode, being a mix between a dungeon crawler and a Battle Royale. The map is unexplored, so you've no idea what enemies will be awaiting you in each room. As you move around, you will battle various different types ofAI enemies, once defeated you will be gifted a chest full of gold, items and so on. Eventually, you will come across other teams and so the battle becomes a lot more full-on and more Dota-like. You can revive your fallen comrades, as long as one of you is left alive. Once all players in a team are down, you're completely out.

As you progress, the play area does get smaller (much like a BR game) as the rooms begin to collapse, which can leave you in an awkward position. A game I had earlier forced us back into a room with a team that had already kicked our butt once, but now yet another enemy team had wandered into the same room due to the shrinking play area and naturally—I died first, at least I wasn't as stupid as my team who decided to stay in the collapsing rooms and die from that, at least I tried to make a break for it…

I've had so much fun with it, I really do hope Valve continue to tweak it and bring it back for everyone in some way. It gives Dota 2 a whole new flavour and it's way more fun than I thought it would be.

To access it, you need the The International 2018 Battle Pass, which can be purchased at the lowest tier for £6.99/$9.99.

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15 comments Subscribe

Zelox 15 Jun 2018
Are we gonna se some gameplay on gol's YouTube ??
Liam Dawe 15 Jun 2018
  • Admin
Are we gonna se some gameplay on gol's YouTube ??
Absolutely, when I get a better grasp on it :P
Ehvis 15 Jun 2018
  • Supporter Plus
There are times when I consider giving Dota 2 a go. But then I remind myself of what I posted in the Oxygen article and decide that it's probably not a good idea. Probably. Maybe.
razing32 15 Jun 2018
Odd they lock it behind a battle pass.
What means "Battle Royale-like mode?

Is like when you say "Rogue-like"... I don't understand the meaning.
razing32 15 Jun 2018
What means "Battle Royale-like mode?

Is like when you say "Rogue-like"... I don't understand the meaning.

It's the PUBG style
Or H1Z1 , Minecraft Hunger games etc.

All these games have their root in a Japanese novel/movie of the same name , Battle Royale , where some teenagers are left on an island. Last one alive wins.
Game idea is this - Every man for himself , get a weapon , last man stadning wins. Gameplay area shrinks over time, if you are cought outside you die.
monkygames 17 Jun 2018
Please do not promote games with Illegal Loot Box Gambling such as Dota 2.
scaine 17 Jun 2018
  • Contributing Editor
  • Mega Supporter
Please do not promote games with Illegal Loot Box Gambling such as Dota 2.

Is it illegal? Or just immoral?
Rhythagoras 18 Jun 2018
Please do not promote games with Illegal Loot Box Gambling such as Dota 2.

Is it illegal? Or just immoral?

Just immoral, really. Yet it isn't even near as immoral as other loot box selling games. The loot box items have no stats or impact on the game other than making you look cool.

There are only two other things in the game for sale that might possibly give you extra experience, and I would say they really don't.

1) Battle Cup - Saturday bracketed tournament for $.99
This is truly only good practice if you already have a solid team of players that you work well with. I've jumped into a few of these battle cups with random players and it is just a crapshoot as far as the experience goes. Last battle cup, I was invited from the chat channel into a team that no one else spoke English. I advertised my availability in English, and still got invited in. (may have been slightly my fault, I was a little late and joined the party invitation channel near the last minute). The team got frustrated and tried to end the game by spamming 'gg' in the chat channel after the first five minutes.

2) Dota Plus - $3.99 Monthly Subscription Service that includes free access to battle cup
I personally now see this service as a pay-to-lose feature. It was kind of funny to me that people argued about it destroying the game and making it play-to-win. The skins you unlock with it are cool, but you are paying for them just like any other character skin (and most of them you can purchase without dota plus anyways). The extra damage reports and item popularity reports are negligible in the amount they actually improve your game. All the character levels and unlocks are rather distracting. The worst disadvantage this service gives you however, is that it replaces the draft phase Team Composition bar graph with personal character picks (and it gives you terrible advice - every single time). With the loss of the Team Composition graph, I would say that is enough to put Dota Plus players at a severe disadvantage versus free-to-play players.

This game is a free-to-play game done right. You don't have to spend a single dollar to enjoy it in full capacity.
Exidan 18 Jun 2018
Please do not promote games with Illegal Loot Box Gambling such as Dota 2.

Is it illegal? Or just immoral?

Just immoral, really. Yet it isn't even near as immoral as other loot box selling games. The loot box items have no stats or impact on the game other than making you look cool.

There are only two other things in the game for sale that might possibly give you extra experience, and I would say they really don't.

1) Battle Cup - Saturday bracketed tournament for $.99
This is truly only good practice if you already have a solid team of players that you work well with. I've jumped into a few of these battle cups with random players and it is just a crapshoot as far as the experience goes. Last battle cup, I was invited from the chat channel into a team that no one else spoke English. I advertised my availability in English, and still got invited in. (may have been slightly my fault, I was a little late and joined the party invitation channel near the last minute). The team got frustrated and tried to end the game by spamming 'gg' in the chat channel after the first five minutes.

2) Dota Plus - $3.99 Monthly Subscription Service that includes free access to battle cup
I personally now see this service as a pay-to-lose feature. It was kind of funny to me that people argued about it destroying the game and making it play-to-win. The skins you unlock with it are cool, but you are paying for them just like any other character skin (and most of them you can purchase without dota plus anyways). The extra damage reports and item popularity reports are negligible in the amount they actually improve your game. All the character levels and unlocks are rather distracting. The worst disadvantage this service gives you however, is that it replaces the draft phase Team Composition bar graph with personal character picks (and it gives you terrible advice - every single time). With the loss of the Team Composition graph, I would say that is enough to put Dota Plus players at a severe disadvantage versus free-to-play players.

This game is a free-to-play game done right. You don't have to spend a single dollar to enjoy it in full capacity.
I dont even think it is immoral, they are just cosmetics. Actually it is the "most moral" type of monetization for a free to play game I've seen so far.
Rhythagoras 18 Jun 2018
I dont even think it is immoral, they are just cosmetics. Actually it is the "most moral" type of monetization for a free to play game I've seen so far.

Even though they are just cosmetics, there is still a touch of the 'buy many random loot boxes to get the one you want' type of unfairness... pure gambling.

For example: this one character skin I want for Abaddon, as he's riding a moose and looks super awesome, is only available in these past treasure box loot cases. This one here: http://www.dota2.com/store/itemdetails/11455?appid=570&r=1f4

My only choice, if I want to own that skin, is to buy that treasure. Although I'm not guaranteed to get the skin I want upon purchase - there are random rewards within the treasure. I won't receive duplicate rewards until I've collected all of them, yet the gambling system is still present. I potentially have to buy up to 9 copies of this treasure loot box until I get the skin I want. Some of these treasures have even more additional prizes.


Last edited by Rhythagoras on 18 Jun 2018 at 3:04 am UTC
Guppy 18 Jun 2018
What means "Battle Royale-like mode?

Is like when you say "Rogue-like"... I don't understand the meaning.

Near as I kan tell "Battle Royal" refers to the game modes from quake era games that were called "Last man standing" or "King of the Hill"

"Rogue" - refers to games with randomly generated play levels/dungeons and permadeath
"Rogue-like" - as above but some or levels are hand crafted ( and permadeath may be optional )
"Rogue-lite" - permadeath is not a thing or optional

The terms are just made up by game reviewers*, and they can't even agree amongst them selves what they mean so the above it just how I usually make sense of it rather than a hard and fast rule.





*) to get the title "journalist" you need a code of ethics and most have proven not to have any :P
tuubi 18 Jun 2018
  • Supporter Plus
What means "Battle Royale-like mode?

Is like when you say "Rogue-like"... I don't understand the meaning.

Near as I kan tell "Battle Royal" refers to the game modes from quake era games that were called "Last man standing" or "King of the Hill"

"Rogue" - refers to games with randomly generated play levels/dungeons and permadeath
"Rogue-like" - as above but some or levels are hand crafted ( and permadeath may be optional )
"Rogue-lite" - permadeath is not a thing or optional
Battle Royale seems to require at least the basic elements of the older game modes you described plus the addition of an initially large but shrinking play area. I'm no expert though.

[This is Rogue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(video_game)) and popular Rogue-likes are games like [Ancient Domains of Mystery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Domains_of_Mystery), [Tales of Maj'Eyal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Maj%27Eyal) and [Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Crawl_Stone_Soup). It's really easy to see how they qualify for the term. Rogue-lite should probably mean that the game draws some inspiration or features from these classic dungeon crawlers, but the "genre" is stretched to oblivion by being generously applied to anything with generated levels, random loot or permadeath.

And of course all genres have been made up by reviewers or game devs. In the end religiously adhering to genre definitions can only limit a developer's creativity anyway, so I wouldn't worry about their application too much. Genres are useful in describing and categorizing games but arguing about them is a bit pointless.
Grimfist 18 Jun 2018
Hmmm if this gamemode finds its way into regular Dota2 I may be interested in reinstalling it again. But until then, my pile of shame is high enough to not play any Dota2 again. Wasted to much hours into this...
scaine 18 Jun 2018
  • Contributing Editor
  • Mega Supporter
Given my backlog of unplayed games, epic learning-curves like DOTA2 will also put me off. Also, unless the multi-player is co-op, I'll tend not to play. This sounds like it might be cool, but if it's behind a sub, then nope. If it was a one-off payment, I might be tempted. Maybe. Still that massive learning curve though.

What's it at these days? 110+ heroes? How many items are there? And each hero has, what, five abilities? Just mental, the hours you'd have to invest into this game to be effective at it.
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