Recent reviews by Counter

This is the best game ever created. It's also horrible. Allow me to explain.

There is no game in the world where you matter more than in Dota 2. For a 30-40 minutes at a time, every single decision you make, every single click of your mouse, impacts how the game moves forward. An extra last hit here, a missed opportunity for harass there, everything changes the subtle balance of power between heroes. You have to keep in mind not only your levels and your farm, but also your timings, your builds, your positioning, your rotations, and measure the flow of the game differently in every match. Dota 2 is a game of pure skill and strategy, and nothing feels so good as looking through the funny lights, understanding the game state, making a call and having it work out brilliantly.

The problem is us. We're all trying to do that. If you make a mistake, that isn't just a mistake that affects you, it's a mistake that affects your entire team. Some people are better at handling that than others. And unfortunately for those of us who try to enjoy this game, the angry people seem to make up the majority. They'll scream and curse and call you every name under the sun for any slight, real or perceived, and generally do what they can to sour what would otherwise be the greatest gaming experience available to anyone anywhere.

So should you play Dota? It depends. If you have the time to invest into learning a game that challenges you at every step and rewards your knowledge and creativity with incredibly satisfying results, then by all means dive in. But be quick to mute aggressive enemies and teammates for the sake of your own sanity and try not to lose yourself down the hole of blaming your team: Dota is a game where there is always more than you can do to turn a situation around, even if other people are messing up around you. Don't be that guy.

On the other hand, if you want something a bit more relaxing, a way to wind down in the evenings after a hard day of work that doesn't demand too much from you and is guaranteed to leave you feeling better than when you started playing, then maybe this wouldn't be the right choice. Get what you need from another game; don't let this be the measure of your tranquility. Or maybe check out some of the myriad custom games in the arcade. Did I mention those? There's loads of them and they're good fun to play with much lower stakes.

Dota is stressful, unforgiving, fast-paced, brutal juggernaut of a game. And ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if it isn't worth it. 6000 hours in and here's to 6000 more.