Getting to know Dota 2 is getting easier and easier day by day. The word “easy” here does not mean that you can put your brain at rest while playing or the game suddenly becomes uncomplicated. What I mean here is that if you ever want to know what is happening, the game will show less frustration.
Dota Auto Chess is taking the gaming community by storm and what you have to do is to choose a hero from Dota and they will fight against others on a field shaped like an 8x8 chessboard.
Apart from the battleground, the game has nothing to do with a traditional chess game. Dota Auto Chess shares more features with a deck-building game than the two games its name suggests.
Each round sees players use the same strategy, which is collecting money, spend what you earn on heroes, place your heroes on the battleground, and lastly, watch the match between yours and a randomly-picked rival happens. The winner gets gold and the health bar remains intact while the losing side takes damage. The ultimate goal of the game is to find the last hero standing. To take a peek on what others are doing by looking at the leaderboard on the right.
That may sound straightforward but things are actually more complicated than that. You want to keep your gold account balance between investing in heroes and earn more by participating in battles. You want to save money to upgrade the donkey to have a larger number of “chess pieces” which are heroes.
Heroes come in different classes and species. Having a certain number of chess pieces from the same class or species will result in a boost. For example, gather enough orc heroes and each one gets an increase in maximum HP while the special effect of mage is to make the opponent more vulnerable to magic.
As you get deeper into Dota Auto Chess, you will see that it requires a certain degree of strategic thinking. Players will constantly find themselves considering how to distribute their troops, whether to sacrifice a unit or protect them to keep the special effect.
Another aspect that this game shares with Dota apart from the system of players is the items. Sometimes you will face the creatures that come from the jungles of Dota. Defeating them and players might find something the donkey can pick up and store on its back. To take advantage of a certain item, you can tell the donkey to give it to the unit of your choice. Knowing which item gives the most benefit to which hero and your start with Dota Auto Class will become a lot easier.
In this game, you have the option to merge three heroes of the same level into one who has more power. A note here is that this option is only available if the three heroes are alike. This can change your decision when you purchase your heroes and gives you the power to increase or decrease the number of units appearing on the battleground.
For first-timers, be prepared for the panic of not having a single clue of what is happening. You will find yourself in a place you do not know where and all the tips you just saw disappear right in front of you before you even have time to read them. The next thing you know is that you are looking at your enemy, which means you do not get to see your own arrangement.
The next major thing you need to do is to find out that you need the donkey as your representative to communicate with your chess. Spending enough time with the donkey and you might realize that it is not an actual donkey but Io the Wisp in a donkey suit. What gives Io away is the iconic sound and the visible particle effect.
Dota Auto Chess serves as a nice reminisce of the Defence of the Ancients, the version that came straight out of Warcraft III’s community-created mod. The oddity players notice may result from the fact that the features of the classic game are repurposed for this newer title.
Dota Auto Chess has everything that brings joys in a casual game gathered in one place including the excitement you have when you join heroes together, satisfying effect of the battles, and the matches where characters fight automatically.
What I appreciate the most in this game is that there is less pressure than the traditional PvP title. Your team of heroes gets to fight against another squad controlled by a real human being but that person might be watching a match where his or her team is in battle with someone else. That person might be you or not, either way, the joy of winning is as much as when you fight face-to-face but the sore of losing is definitely easier to bear. Let’s just admit that no one wants to end up badly on the leaderboard and no one wants to lose and what this game does best is to make being on the defeated side more bearable.
A few people might raise their eyebrows when they realize that Dota Auto Chess is a free game inside of another free game. Does this mean players can pay to win? The closest thing you get is a slot machine that takes candy, which you can either buy or earn to win new look for your characters, as long as they are not the chess pieces.
The fact that the game does not show any pushing messages to suggest players purchase anything is a nice addition, a complete opposite of the Dota 2 where you will get all kind of invitation from buying new outfits for your characters or to unlock a seasonal gift chest.
What I talk about should provide you with a brief idea of the lowest as well as the highest barrier you may expect to encounter in this game. Dota Auto Chess is both a casual and hardcore title, which brings you the best of both worlds.