Heroes of Newerth is an authorized port of DoTA to a stand-alone platform. Utilizing the Savage 2 engine, S2 Games takes the base gameplay of DoTA, ports plenty of heroes (more in the works), adds features, fixes existing problems seen in the Warcraft 3 engine and twists everything in their own way. Keep in mind the game is currently in Beta and will probably be so for several months to come, so features, heroes and other such things are probably going to fluctuate.

The addition of features addresses many concerns for DoTA on the Warcraft 3 platform. The first big issue addressed is the ability to rejoin a game. If you crash, or leave by accident (or on purpose) you have 5 minutes to rejoin without getting a leaver count and then being unable to rejoin that particular session. This was previously impossible in the Warcraft 3 engine without saving and rehosting the game, whereas the ability to rejoin allows the game to continue without skipping a beat.

The list of additional features added over the Warcraft 3 version of DoTA is quite vast. The game browser allows you to filter games based on your parameters (both for a feature, against, or neutral). In game VoIP works fluidly and is about as easy as it gets. The ability to vote on remaking a game, kicking a player or having a team concede greatly eliminate unfortunate situations. As well as an improved inventory system, browsable anywhere on the map with most things purchasable anywhere on the map. The improvements to the netcode address command latency, as well as making the game nearly lag free around the world between players.

The list of heroes is vast. S2 has evaluated every hero and either left them as is, or changed something which they felt was slightly overpowered or underpowered and adjusted it how they feel is appropriate. Furthermore they have made all brand new models, sound bytes and animated art for all aspects of the game. Each hero as they bring them into HoN is evaluated for balance, artistic design and sound bytes.

Despite this game still being in Beta it still plays as if it were a retail game already. The game flows smoothly, part due to the user interface being designed from the ground up with the DoTA gameplay design in mind. You will find yourself going from game to game without missing a beat. Many more heroes and features are coming, but nothing is final just yet as it is still Beta. Furthermore, S2 is keeping with their past games, releasing and patching the game simultaneously for Windows, OS X and Linux.