Dota Underlords (2019)

2022 Edit: After a couple years, I do not recommend playing this game anymore as it's barely been updated in ages, and has definitely been surpassed by the constantly-updated Teamfight Tactics. That is just overall a much more interesting and fun take on this formula. However, I stand by my positive review for the game due to the great experience I had at its peak.

Days before the game’s second rank reset and a big late-season refresher update with Season 2 approaching the horizon, it seems like a great time to reflect on the state of Valve’s free autobattler. I just hit 200 matches played this season, and like in Season 0, I am stuck in the high “Big Boss” III-V ranks, the highest rank category before entering the “Lords of White Spire” top tier. It’s become like a treadmill at this point so I’m giving up on the rank grind, lol...

At first glance, especially at low ranks, this game may appear like a lottery. There is a large element of random chance at play as you pay precious gold to refresh the shop with a new semi-random set of 5 units to draft to your ever-evolving little army. Completing bonus-granting synergies between the 1-10 units you may place on your board, and upgrading those units by combining duplicates is tough, and even the best players are not immune to bad RNG.

But the breadth of knowledge required about all of the game’s elements, and the ability to adapt on the fly to those random odds and the behavior of the other players in the lobby is where it becomes clear that this is no mere game of luck. Although Underlords functions well as a mobile game, offering bite-sized single player content and accelerated match modes, the meat lies in the 30-35 minute 8-player Standard mode matches. This mode offers many complex layers, that when combined with unpredictable opponents, creates a highly engaging strategy experience.

For example, issues such as when to spend money vs. accrue interest; how to maintain a win streak (or deliberately maintain a loss streak)) to maximize bonus money and tradeoff between HP, XP, and cash for your particular build; when units fall off in effectiveness and need to be replaced with new ones only available at a higher player level; what synergies and unit positioning you need to counter your opponents’ compositions; how to pick from dozens of items and distribute them effectively—all these and much more are constantly on your mind at high ranks. Juggling these ideas while doing all your actions in a limited time is frantic, exciting, deep, and challenging—and each win feels deeply rewarding for it. I particularly love high-risk strategies that dominate when their key units are uncontested, like the Demon composition that starts out ok and becomes nearly unstoppable when one of the game’s humble lowest-tier units gets fully upgraded with his best ability.

A game like this lives and dies on its dev support / balancing and community sentiment on the meta. Right now, I feel that with the right execution and read of the room, there are many viable strategies and counters in this game, but as of late, not a ton has been changing in the meta besides a few new abilities for lower tier units. At low ranks and in casual play, this isn’t as big of a deal, but at high ranks the game runs some risk of becoming stale. Luckily, memeworthy builds can still work, and the game offers plenty of diversion content now to keep it interesting.

No one can ever say they didn’t try a lot of crazy ideas or make needed changes, as the game has changed massively, and compared to the start of this season, practically every change is for the better. Particularly in presentation, the game has made big leaps with characters designs and voices that really pop. I think that overall, the game is as good as ever right now, and I encourage anyone interested in an adaptive multiplayer strategy game to give its fast-paced “Knockout” mode a try! If you spend some time reading up on it and learning from your opponents, in no time you might be addicted like me...

Having the most fun I’ve had with this game since I spent a couple hundred hours with it in early access.

The game changed a lot in the lead-up and aftermath of its official 1.0 release, particularly with the introduction of its differentiating gimmick from other auto-battler games, the Underlords, special characters who fight alongside your army and offer unique abilities. It’s no secret that the initial implementation of this feature was poor, rushed, just too complicated for the little depth it added to an already complex game. With that, along with many other big mechanical and aesthetic changes, increasingly bloated matches (50, even 60+ minutes for a good player in high ranks) and an unfortunately timed rank reset right before I entered the top tier, I quit the game.

But now everything is really streamlined and snappy, the game is as fun and exciting as ever, looks and runs great, and is really scratching my itch for its particular kind of multi-layered strategy. Too bad all the YouTubers / streamers I used to watch have moved on, but I’m glad to be back in for now.