Zechnophobe

Join Date 04/2009

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Demigod vs Heroes of Newerth

Right up until the point when the game starts, HoN blows Demigod out of the water. But once in game, there are very few redeeming qualities to it.

	Demigod	Heroes of Newerth
Models	Very detailed, easy to tell apart from one another	A lot of them are very similar in look, and all are low detail
Animations	Very good, as has been shown in slow motion videos, and gameplay	Fairly Decent, however often not obvious what an animation is communicating
Camera Control	Good when you want to follow a DG and great if you want to zoom out	No Zoom control, small field of view. However, does have a 'go to last event' button which is very good.
Unit Control	Better since release, cannot assign hotkeys to unit groups, but all possible variations pre exist and are bindable	Has the strong 'tab between unit groups' effect, and location based hotkeys, hard to select units not on screen unless a hotkey is bound
Character Development	8 different skills, and a pace that generally allows you to get only about half means that	4 Different skills, + stat boosts make builds very similar, skill wise, after 12 levels of play (which is halfway to level cap). However, increased diferences in item choices makes up for this to a certain extent.
Magnitude	While Demigod has a lot of maps, only 2 or 3 are commonly played. Demigod's item selection is comparatively limited, as is the number of different DG's to choose from.	The clear winner if you want a game with a lot of variety, somewhat limited info though as there may be more maps than listed in the beta. As it is, character/item combinations are vast, while maps are very small without even a chance at variety
Balance	Good 'external' balance. That is, each Demigod is pretty well balanced with the others. Only one in 8 stands out as weak. Internally though, item vs item balance is pretty poor, as are many skill choices.	Not enough information to go by, but it seems a lot of Heroes are played only very rarely.
Game Pace	80% Awesome on most maps. Citadel upgrades, flags, and warscore give the game a very solid rhythm that is easy to follow. Games can feel like they end 'suddenly' at war rank 8 if you are not used to this beat however.	Lacks in rhythm pretty significantly in two areas. First the general progress of the game plods along without much interaction. Secondly, hero vs hero combat can last less than 5 seconds before someone is killed. Imagine DG but with only AA Regulus'
Match Making	Very poor, pantheon is poorly populated, and custom games have very bare bones lobby system working in it.	Extremely good, stats for players easily viewable, projected victory chance, 'points' at stake in a match, options to limit or alter game settings that are meaningful (No dup hero's, no respawn timer, etc) Replay options, remake options, and well integrated consequences for quitting a game early. This is the reason you play HoN.
Learning Curve	Demigod adds new concepts to the idea of a 'dota' game, in flags and citadel upgrades, and warscore. In addition to learning the ins and outs of abilities and items, you must also learn these 'meta' skills on how to help your team as a whole. The in game UI however is fairly poor at communicating information at times however, and surely doesn't go out of its way to help you.	On the other hand, HoN has less new things to learn, but significantly more possible game scenarios to be in. With 40 hero's having 4 skills each, you need to know how to play against 160 different skills. The deep amount of items, and recipes (Some recipe's require other recipes) also will put you up against the wall. All that said, however, the in game UI is very well geared to give you all the info you want. You can see an opponents items, and allies to help you learn, and recipe's allow you to purchase items for it from the ingredient list

Match making and game Magnitude are definitely the domain of HoN, but I'd say that DG is at least on par or better everywhere else. Just my little analysis.

demigod

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Butterchin
pacov
CosMoe

Nice writeup, thx.

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You could add in a category for learning curve. That's an important difference between the two.

I've tried HoN. I like its features, but I like Demigod's gameplay far better.

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Gonna write up a counter argument, but some of your conclusions having played both games for roughly the same time (talking 60+ hours), I feel your commentary is not entirely true.

Quick comments

Models - DG definately suffers from a huge amount of clutter later in the game and at duels when creeps are involved.

HoN models are lower quality, but they are all different. I am sorry but only inexperience would lead you to confuse two chars, for the amount of heroes they are all significantly different.

Character Development - DG still suffers from a lot of useless skills in trees (QoT, Sedna). Choosing the buildup of your skills in HoN can make a big difference. However, HoN is about choosing the char you want to play at char selection that is true.

Balance - For the heroes involved HoN is well balanced. It is no different to DG in that high DG play would see Erebus, Sedna and UB pretty much chosen everytime.

Game Pace - Sorry but HoN wins hands down here, the game is constantly moving and every action counts. You think it drifts along, then were you playing EM?

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Balanced/Neutral comparison. Nice

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HoN models are lower quality, but they are all different.

some of the agility heroes look strikingly similar imo

(bloodhunter, dark lady, venomancer etc... concerning their basic models, not their textures)

you should add "rejoin game in progress" to your matchmaking-category Zech

along with autobalance + locking.

i prefer hon until occulus and my friend the demon assassin come along^^

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Oh, learning curve, I completely meant to write about that actually. Hmm. I'll edit it in.

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so, I didnt read what you wrote because it was a wall of text, but heres all you need to know about it. Its dota with new graphics. (DoTA was a warcraft 3 mod tha pioneered the MOBA genre of games). it is literealy the same game, same heroes, same items, same mechanics. it also has the absolute worst comunity in any game ever. the big issue involving comunity for demigod is premades vs pugs. in HoN the biggest issue is that you will probably be booted from the lobby as soon as the host realizes you are new to the game.

not to sound like an ad bot, but if you are looking for more games to add to your MOBA catalouge, check out league of legends(in beta atm, release at the end of the month, and its free) or blood line champions(not even in beta yet, but still worth looking at)

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Thanks for this, Zechno. A lot of good info. I'm a big fan of DG and will continue to be as long as it gets support and more content. However, I wouldn't mind trying the HoN beta, though I have heard many times about the crude community. I was utterly turned off by LoL after one game. I just can't go back to Warcraft 3 graphics after playing DG.

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This thread put a smile on my face.

How can you compare the 2? HoN is so much better. And the models are really nice! Have you tried zooming in? There are so many more features in HoN than there are in Demigod.

And HoN wins simply because:

HoN is still beta. And I will pre-purchase it while it's in beta. And believe me, I don't buy games very often.

Demigod has been released for several months. And I won't buy it (at least not until 2 new demi's are in and Demigod: Clan Wars comes out).

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in HoN the biggest issue is that you will probably be booted from the lobby as soon as the host realizes you are new to the game.

au contraire, i thin HoN is much more Noob-Friendly, there are 3 different Tiers for matchmaking:Noobs Only (can join only up to level 5),

Noobs Allowed, and Pros Only (where you need a certain minimum level)

THe HoN Forum is full of explanatory threads dealing with the hon/dota basics, gameplay-mechanics and guides to each hero...

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au contraire, i thin HoN is much more Noob-Friendly, there are 3 different Tiers for matchmaking:Noobs Only (can join only up to level 5),

Its not noob friendly. The community is extremely harsh with noobs and the game has an extremely high barrier of entry.

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yah I think of the three games (DG, LoL, HoN), HoN definitely is the least noob friendly and most hardcore. I played quite a bit of LoL and most people were pretty nice there - same as for Demigod. HoN caters to the hardcore community the most, so that is to be expected and not a bad thing if you are a seasoned dota players, but for all others I'd recommend Demigod and League of Legends over it.

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OP: Just curious, how many games of HoN have you played?

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I have found the community to be not that bad.

Maybe I have just been lucky, however, I took as much abuse in DG games as I have in HoN games. The forums are a bit wild west, however, the forums here were pretty much the same when the game was busy.

That said, you do need a thick skin. HoN is definately more daunting and I think for a new player to the whole genre I would recommend Demigod as a good introduction. My only real quibble about DG is that the depth is not there. I think if they had at least double the DGs and stability for 5v5 it would be a serious contender in the genre.

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While Demigod has better gameplay I would have to say HoN wins due to better support. There's new patches all the time, new heroes, and the game's interface is great. The HoN beta feels better than DG ever did. That said I wish I could combine DG's graphics and gameplay with HoN's number of heroes, reliability, and level of updates/support.

I'm still waiting for new DG demigods meanwhile there's two new heroes for HoN...

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Nice summ up. But you missed a "few" things

But first:

At balance: "Not enough information to go by, but it seems a lot of Heroes are played only very rarely."

My question is, why do you compare the balance part, if you´re lacking of information about balance in HoN?

If this is your HoN account, it explains most of the rest of your "critic" (hm, I´m missing the "inser link" button currently, don´t know why):

http://hon.slawed.net/view.php?nick=Zechnophobe&View+Stats=View+Stats!

If I´m mistaken, sorry.

Models:

The graphics of Demigod are really great (if you have a good machine). HoN offers some neat effects for lower hardware, too. But in high settings, Demigod is really nice

But I don´t see the factor of mistakes.

For magnitude i have just a short comment:

HoN offers a very powerfull map editor right from the beginning, you´re even able to create first person shooter stuff with it (confirmed by developers in forums etc.)

Technique:

Demigod is peer to peer. HoN is client<->server. The result: People got kicked in Demigod if they got a ping higher than maybe 350ms. In addition to that you need a high upload speed in order to get all those tiny packets to your game mates.

In HoN, you only communicate with the server (if you´re playing CS or something like that, just imagine you´re playing CS ). So your latency will be near 0 (compared to WC3 and Demigod), your ping is not as high as in Demigod and you don´t need this amount of upload speed. A nice feature of HoN: You´re able to rejoin games which are in progress.

There have been dozens of discussions about: "Demigod vs. HoN/LoL/DotA/Pacman".

You´ll like HoN if you want DotA 2.0

You can´t really compare Demigod with HoN or Dota or anything else because Demigod is only based on the idea of DotA (and a few other games). Stardock and GPG are doing a very good job in getting the community involved into the development of the game.

I mean, I don´t compare Quake with Battlefield too

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http://hon.slawed.net/view.php?nick=Zechnophobe&View+Stats=View+Stats

If that's his stats he really doesn't know anything about the game yet other than what it looks like. :/

I'll put it simply like this: If you want a fun game to play, then enjoy demigod. If you want a game with a lot of depth to it (and competition to go with it) then play HoN.

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So, the only thing I compared that has any requirement for significant experience is game balance, where I correctly didn't attempt to insinuate anything on HoN. I think that is as fair as is reasonable. Will the models look better after I've played for a few more weeks?

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"Game Pace - Sorry but HoN wins hands down here, the game is constantly moving and every action counts. You think it drifts along, then were you playing EM?"

LOL! you are deluded by your love for HoN.

Quoting Somaz,

reply 9

This thread put a smile on my face.

How can you compare the 2? HoN is so much better. And the models are really nice! Have you tried zooming in? There are so many more features in HoN than there are in Demigod.

And HoN wins simply because:

HoN is still beta. And I will pre-purchase it while it's in beta. And believe me, I don't buy games very often.

Demigod has been released for several months. And I won't buy it (at least not until 2 new demi's are in and Demigod: Clan Wars comes out).

LOL again.. clearly biased...

Threads like these get so stupid when you got ppl like this...

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I played demigod for a bit but as soon as I got a hon beta I was hooked.

Hon game play is more fast paced and has much more of a team feel. It also has faster response time to your clicks which demigod is missing. Although demigod has more complex characters, hon has far more of them and the items make up for the lack of strategy in skill choosing.

I do miss demigods cam and graphics though.

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"Game Pace - Sorry but HoN wins hands down here, the game is constantly moving and every action counts. You think it drifts along, then were you playing EM?"

LOL! you are deluded by your love for HoN.

dude. he owned at this game. http://forums.demigodthegame.com/358508 and http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/search/player/rapierx

he quit this game coz its too easy, dont you see?

Animations:

Demigod-Very good, as has been shown in slow motion videos, and gameplay

HoN-Fairly Decent, however often not obvious what an animation is communicating

this is 100% biased. did u know what every single graphic did in your first game of Demigod? NO.

Lacks in rhythm pretty significantly in two areas. First the general progress of the game plods along without much interaction. Secondly, hero vs hero combat can last less than 5 seconds before someone is killed. Imagine DG but with only AA Regulus'

this is also 100% biased. its a created assumption after 4 games.

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When posts start becoming like this they get a bit pointless. The gameplay is absolutely different in both games - its all a matter of opinion on which you like more. For example, I like Demigod - but I hate HoN/DotA. No one can convince me other wise - its just a matter of opinion and which I happen to like more.

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Quoting gkrit,

reply 19

LOL! you are deluded by your love for HoN.

LOL again.. clearly biased...

Threads like these get so stupid when you got ppl like this...

I will now sum up what you have said and how much did you contribute to the thread:

LOL

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EVERYTHING IS BIASED BECAUSE

"snip" its all a matter of opinion on which you like more.

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I'm sure HoN/LoL have done a lot of things better than DG, but I find being unable to zoom out and see what in the hell is going on extremely tedious and can't enjoy those two.

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