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- Valve Software
- Valve Software
- Valve Software
- Valve Software
Dota Underlords
Released On: Feb 25, 2020
Metascore
tbd
7.4
All Platforms
Dota Underlords is a diverse and constantly captivating experience where no match plays out the same way twice. Having been with the genre since it was a custom map mod, it's heartening to see it executed as well as it has been here. Outwitting your opponents and the odds through clever thinking is always immensely satisfying, and the game's complexity means that there are plenty of interesting strategies to try. Dota Underlords is a wonderfully robust and well-crafted strategy game that is very easy to lose yourself in.
The Underlords themselves, among with a bunch of different changes in game mechanics and a robust progression system, make Valve’s auto battler a compelling evolution in the genre. [05/2020, p.66]
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 119 User Ratings
7.4
61% Positive
72 Ratings
72 Ratings
23% Mixed
27 Ratings
27 Ratings
17% Negative
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 119 User Ratings
7.4
61% Positive
72 Ratings
72 Ratings
23% Mixed
27 Ratings
27 Ratings
17% Negative
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
I'm a Magic the Gathering player that loves this game!
It takes the best format of Magic and turns into a very smooth online 'auto-chess' game that has the perfect combination of luck and strategy. The developers seem to care a lot too with regular updates and maintenance.
I played it for months in Beta and have found the $8 or so Battlepass now that it is in release very good value.
While my 2017 iPad crashed sometimes (I"m not sure why this is just listed as a PC release here?), my iPod Air 3 runs very smoothly and very prettily (upgrading my iPad was strongly catalysed by this game!). Highly recommended.
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PC
This game is getting better and better after each updates. City crawl and knockout are fun ways to play but I prefer standard rank matches.
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PC
DoTA Underlords has a confusing interface and it is too much unbalanced to work properly.
I can’t say Dunderlords excites me anymore. It’s too dynamic to feel dry, but I do find myself in the same situations, and aiming for the same compilations. Playing now is about tweaking well-trodden paths rather than forging new ones, but that’s OK. We’re in a good place, Dunderlords and I. We’re comfortable, though you’d never have caught me using that word when I started.
Dota Underlords is pretty cool and addictive game and is probably the best autobattler out there.
First of all, it's about the way the it handles basics. There are no item recipes, random item drops, even neutrals are gone here - you get one item that you like out of random three (and you can reroll instead to get another three). This can guarantee you that you get item that you like more. The game is fair even if you're behind (and playing from behind is an actual strategy) without weird carousels and other out-of-place stuff. The main gameplay works perfect in this regard.
The "random" formula itself is far from being "pure random" and "luck". The actual game requires you to have a good strategy, a good use of your gold resources and a good priorities. You don't just get things by pure luck: all players in a match have a shared pool of heroes (so you have lower chance to get popular heroes that everyone is going for), you get higher chances for better units if you have a higher level (so you need to understand when you want to go for levels and when for new units) and you get money for both of these when you don't spend it mindlessly. And even when everything is not going as well for you - you can get a reroll option which compensates that.
The game also has pretty good tutorial, bots AI and a lot of quality of life improvements. ALl of that makes learning the game and keeping up with it easier.
Another great thing is addition of Knockout game mode. Autobattlers are clearly at their best as mobile games, but at the same time matches usually take way too much time and strategy to play them and normal matches usually last for 30-40 minutes.
BUT Underlords has the Knockout mode - the "turbo" of autobattlers. It is the fast and a bit more casual version of the main game mode and it's perfect. Match lasts for 4-10 minutes, you can just play it on mobile to kill time.
There's even a more challenging competitive mode - Duos, where you play as a team of two players. And that allowes you to have fun with your friends.
People tend to point out that "it's just a cheap lazy game mode rip-off with dota assets that brings nothing new", but the truth is - it already brought to the genre formula a lot of improvements and it's far from just reusing Dota assets. While there are hero models (which are a bit changed anyway), you have a ton of new art, models, characters, sounds and responses, even lore. And reused models are just like 5% of it.
And so we came to the actual Underlords. The current implementation of the Underlords allowes you to choose one of four only after a certain round and you don't get the same set every time since every Underlord has two different playstyles - and there's no guarantee you'll get the playstyle you want, but you can change your playstyle and strategy with what you've got.
There are also Battle Pass and City Crawl. They are not required to play the core game, but they are important pieces of it. Battle Pass brings a lot of new content and cosmetics (and joy of getting them) which in turn makes playing so much more fun and make the board feel alive.
City Crawl is, well, a city crawl themed campaign and is divided into three kinds of missions: puzzles (you solve a puzzle with a set of rules and against a set of enemies - you win), then you get some challenges against a thematic opponent and then you get a challenges that you complete by playing matches against people or hardcore bots. This thing not only lets you to feel all the mechanics and learn to make a good team composition. It also provides some interesting challenges and brings a lot of fun.
So all of these things just make the game feel great for me. After it came out of beta I didn't really feel like it was missing something and was bad at anything. You could probably say something about balance - but you still have City Crawl, and the devs are actively listening to community, communicating with players and release balance patches pretty often, so balancing is not really an issue. You also get a "seasons" system and the Underlords team had plans to have 3-4 seasons each year, and each season changes the roster of available heroes and alliances.
Then you also get an ability to actually play it as a mobile game, get your non-dota friends (or just jump in and have fun without playing dota), it also allowes you to play with your friends as well. The game brings joy, the game brings challenge, the game brings these little details that show how the devs love their game. It's all here and you can enjoy it.
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PC
много особенного сказать о игре не могу, люди которые играли в mobile legends bang bang вероятно знаю про магические шахматы, так вот эта игра идентичная режиму режиму магические шахматы но для людей которые не играли, скажу что попробовать стоит та как игра которую можно скачать на телефон так вообще класс, можно позалипать в неё на телефоне пока стоишь в очереди или просто пока обновляешь доту 2 или во что там сейчас играют люди? в любом случаен игра хорошая. я рекомендую попробовать, ведь пусть даже актив и популярность игры уже давно упала, в неё стоит поиграть.
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PC
Could have been a really good game but I feel like Valve took the wrong direction with updates and eventually caused the demise and death of underlords
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PC
Ну что тут можно сказать? Валв как обычно из крутых игр делает гробовозки и последнее обновление над которым они 2 месяца бедолаги трудились тому доказательство. Я с удовольствием играл в игру до патча, но теперь у меня нет желания в нее играть, потому что они все уничтожили что было хорошего в ней до патча с лордами, которых всего два.
Как итог, я бы поставил палец вверх и рекомендовал бы игру, если бы откатили обновление, потому что в противном случае ее ждет участь Артефакта.
P.S Для тех кто не знает, тоже игра от Валв, которую они убили с 0 минуты игры в игру :)
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PC
its an alright game. Ive played for about 140 hours and there a many pros/cons. First of all, the game is well developed. It runs mostly problem-free and looks fine. It gets regular balance and content-updates. Its free to play with optional monetization if you choose to.
The big problems with this game lie in balancing of heros/alliances/items. Because of this awful balance, in order to prevent everyone from playing the same combos every game, they introduced another frustrating mechanic: The shared hero pool. It means that you can (and have to in ranked) deny other players their desired strategy by purchasing and selling towers they would require. This is widely considered frustrating for all participants.
This game is only fun, if youre playing with bad players unfortunately.
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PC
