Since I made a post about this in beta i figure id jump on here and dish out my review.

The Short Story

3/5 smileys

Pros:
-Somewhat simplistic to jump in and play, though hard to master
-plenty of dynamics to learn
-very lenient system requirements
-addictive gameplay.
-automatching that is actually very good.

Cons:
-in reality a game mainstreamed from a, at best, broken WC3 game.
- still a very "dont die" enviroment
-tear your hair out by the handfuls frustrating at times
-does not have as many heroes as its DOTA counterpart.
-does not have a single player mode

The Good
I'm not going to go into a whole skinny about what this game is, google the name or check my post in general to get the basic idea. Basicly, there are two computerized armies battling it out, trying to destroy a castle. Your job, and the job of your team is to kill the other army and kill the other teams heroes, as you defend your own castle. The good about this game are the definite improvements to the simple layout over the original DOTA. for one, the screen is very open, allowing you to see a very nice range of things without much difficulty. the controls and layout are streamlined, confining your abilities to the top four keys, q,w,e, and r with d and f as summoner powers like healing, and teleporting, another improvement on a old model. Along with a talent tree and runes that apply to any hero you desire to use, there is some customization offered to at least make things interesting. there are upwards of 20 heroes for you to choose from at the beginning of any given game, most of which are balanced with the rest. The map has been reconstructed, giving players things like stealth options for all heroes and not just gankers, all in a pleasantly cartoon look that doesn't overtax your system in the least, making lag a very rare thing. The cherry on this milkshake is that no match is really hugely one sided, they went to a lot of trouble to make sure all the players are at least matched in a even battle right from the start. Your a newbie? youll face newbies, while experts will face experts and everything between those extremes are accounted for. Most important, every player kill you make, really makes you feel like you earned it, even in the lucky situations

The Bad
Really the game hasn't changed nearly at all, your still running around killing mobs or trying to kill heroes, with some success or none at all. The minor gameplay changes add a new element, but you can play essentially the same game for free with WC3 and a internet connection. the models are a bit disappointing detail wise and some of the voice acting on the heroes is really just horrid, and since you have to listen to them talk whenever you tell them to do something, it can get old very quick. The lag that does happen is game changing, and when its not your fault it get frustrating faster, and no matter what, at the twilight parts of the game you feel like you have either been dominating or unable to kill anything, adding to the frustration level quick if your on the latter. It has much less heroes then DOTA, and I find just the same amount of unbalanced ones...which is really strange. It also has no single player mode/offline mode.

The Ugly
In truth, its friendlier, revamped DOTA. People who have played this type of game before might just grow to like it more then its free counterpart, those of you who haven't played either Warcraft 3, and DOTA in extension, will find this game frustrating beyond normal. Its really sad in a way that this game was released as its own retail, since really it doesn't have the depth to really sink a whole day into, though saying that, sticking a shortcut to this on your desktop and enjoying a game on your lunch hour is a possibility. In the end its get a 3 out of 5, because though it has all the elements and it works, its flaws and lack of original thought really knock it down two pegs when your dropping 60 dubloons on it.