Dota 2 Reborn Beta

So I am probably a bit late to the party, but the DoTA 2 Reborn Beta recently came out, bringing with it large changes to the game's user interface and functions. It took me a while, but I finally managed to download the huge 7GB update that is DoTA 2 Reborn. It may be similar to most of the other update news on various game sites across the Internet, but I would like to show all of you what's new with the game.

Old DoTA 2 User Interface

New DoTA 2 Reborn User Interface

The first thing we see upon starting the game is obviously the new, more sleek and modern looking main menu design. Dota news appear to be displayed as boxes rather than on a scroll-able newsletter. This makes it easier to navigate and see all the newest updates and information about the game without having to scroll through a large number of updates first. 

There is a new section in the main menu under your profile called friend feed which appears to provide much more information about your friends' activities than what the friend list in the older interface displayed. I didn't show mine for the privacy of my friends, of course, but some of the stuff I saw included friends opening gifts and occurrences in-game, such as a friend obtaining the Aegis of the Immortal in his current game. I think this is a very interesting change and makes the DoTA experience much more interesting as you can really see what your friends are up to.

The next tab that you can check out is the heroes tab. This appears to be where you can check new items as well as what items your heroes have equipped. There are three different ways of viewing this page, it seems, the first being a full body view of 3 selected sets, which on the left, belong to Templar Assassin, Drow Ranger and Shadow Fiend.

The second display interface is reminiscent of the alternate hero selection screen where each and every hero's portrait is shown and classified by its main attribute. The various hero roles are shown at the bottom of the screen and selecting them will blur out all heroes that don't fit the criteria. This is very different from the old library tab, and there are certain improvements as selecting hero roles no longer requires the use of a drop-down list.

The new armory interface

The third display interface is a life-size display of the selected hero. All of the sets you own for that hero and every other set available is displayed in the bottom left. The hero's information like skills, lore, attributes and so on which used to be shown after selecting a hero on the library tab are also displayed on this screen. I feel this is a very sleek design as they have combined part of the armory with the library and I think it makes navigation much simpler.

For those who are wondering if there is still an armory tab, yes there is, with considerable changes. All your items are now classified and separated by hero and placed in alphabetical order. Rather than the old design which had all your items placed in the order you received them, this new system allows you to find items belonging to a specific hero very easily and makes searching through your inventory a much simpler chore.

The new Learn tab

DoTA stated that it wanted to make learning the game more friendly more new players and this new tab seems to prove that. There is now a significant tab in the game meant purely for training and learning the game. I think this is an interesting change as it means that more people would be able to learn the game easier and maybe overcome the problem DoTA always had, which was a lack of a gradual learning curve. I don't really know if this will really make a difference, but it's nice to see the people behind the game try to attract more players to an older game.

CUSTOM GAMESSSSSSSS

This is most likely the most significant change DoTA 2 Reborn is bringing to the plate. In the old design, custom games had an undeveloped and unfriendly interface, which has obviously been changed in Reborn as there is a new tab purely for custom games with just as much effort put into its design as the rest of the interface. It is now easier than ever for people to find and try out new custom games and there is a matchmaking system, meaning that there is no longer a need to find friends or create custom lobbies to play a community created gamemode. This shows that Valve does seem to care about their community (as if that wasn't obvious) and has shown support for the community's creations. I look forward to really trying this out, as anyone would eventually get bored of playing the same gamemode over and over.

There are noticeable differences when the game starts as well, but those seem to be more discrete and thus are a bit difficult to truly show and explain here. I suggest you try downloading the Reborn update and trying it out for yourself. It is still in beta, so there is some lag, but it seems fairly stable otherwise. Comment below on what you think of these new changes and if you play DoTA 2 as well, add me :D

IGN : Sdafhaa

(Obligatory disclaimer : None of the images above belong to me and are the product of the hard work and effort of Valve. Thanks guys ! :D )