With its refreshing visuals, modern engine and interface, and big name developers, the game seemingly offers something new to the plate, but could such a big and hyped project offer something new to the plate? No, it offers the same generic heroes as seen in the various DotA games of Warcraft 3, a 0.5 second input lag by default, the same generic moves with new animations, and a highly frustrating new general playerbase with worse gaming habits than that of LoL playerbase (in my experience). Not much change is to be expected in such a niche and new genre, so take my claims of mediocrity with a grain of salt (or respect the subjectivity)
Furthermore, both the LoL and DotA2 playerbases constantly attack each other, not realizing how different these games actually are. They have completely different player-experience, punishment, accessory, and monetary systems, not to even mention differences in gameplay. As much as I compare and contrast the playerbases of WC3, DotA2, LoL, and HoN (dead lol), I still understand that most of these games have very noticeable and drastic differences; I believe that these games are apples and oranges and should be compared as such.
Finally, This game has been advertized and bandwagoned to holy hell and back. the progress of DotA2 foreshadows the biggest cash cow I have ever (fore)seen:
1. It gets announced and builds up hype
2. It gets privately released with a small playerbase
3. Suddenly everybody on Steam is getting invites (I have five myself)
4. It essentially becomes a free beta.
5. (What I expect to happen) Access to DotA2 is revoked upon release, initially priced at $60 dollars, when most people will buy them
6. The price goes down to $30, then $20, immortalizing it as the the next TF2.
7. It becomes free to play much much later, as the next big multiplayer hit is in production
I don't mind paying for games, really. But I do mind cash cows. Be weary of what is to come. To summarize, it's nothing new in my opinion, too derivative.
I will still play if anyone asks me to play with them; I think I'm a decent MOBA player in my own right, as I have been there since WC3.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/endu2 Here be my friend I'm a totally cool guy.