Original auto battler Auto Chess is still plugging along, and now its developer is looking to get fans to try out its upcoming MOBA. Unsurprisingly, the game looks a lot like Dota 2.
More than a year since the initial announcement of an Auto Chess MOBA based on the characters used in Drodo Studio’s auto-battler, an official trailer for the game has dropped. Though it largely looks the part of a standard MOBA, fans were taken aback by just how much it looks like Dota 2.
It’s not just the characters, either. Elements of Dota 2’s map, hero abilities, and more all seem to be ripped directly from Valve’s title. Check it out here:
Having a three-laned map is standard in MOBAs at this point, but the Auto Chess MOBA doesn’t stop there. It has asymmetrical lanes, with the bottom lane being longer for the bottom team and the top lane being longer for the top team. It has trees that are key in avoiding detection by enemies, a day-night cycle, and more features that are seemingly lifted directly from Dota 2.
On top of this, the purple archer has a Multi-Shot ability almost identical to Drow Ranger. Later on, a massive AOE stun is shown that has very similar aesthetics to Tidehunter’s Ravage.
It isn’t completely the same, though. Warding will seemingly work differently and there are two Roshan-like objectives along the river. There are also a number of gameplay differences set to differentiate the Auto Chess MOBA from competitors.
Ultimately, Dota 2 fans can’t complain too much. While the game is its own entity at this point, Dota 2 itself has a lot of its aesthetics tied to the WarCraft series. The original Defense of the Ancients was a custom game mode for WarCraft 3, and while Dota 2 has evolved much since then, many of those same roots remain.
What happened to Dota Auto Chess?
Dota Auto Chess faded in popularity after creator Drodo Studio began work on a standalone mobile version of the game.
Dota Auto Chess prompted a boom in the popularity of Valve’s MOBA, but its popularity fizzled out as quickly as it rose. Creator Drodo Studio rejected an offer from Valve to create a standalone version of the game. Instead, Drodo Studio began work on a mobile lookalike that maintained the look and feel of Dota Auto Chess but was without Dota 2’s characters and branding.
This prompted a rush to create auto battlers, with Drodo Studio eventually creating Auto Chess, Valve making Dota Underlords, Riot Games making Teamfight Tactics, and many other imitators also being introduced. Not all of those new titles have held up over time, however.
Dota Underlords was abandoned by Valve almost immediately after its launch, while Riot’s Teamfight Tactics has become the top auto battler in the west. Auto Chess does enjoy some relevance thanks to its availability on PlayStation consoles, but its visibility has greatly waned. It is still actively supported by its developers however, and receives frequent updates.
