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For well over a decade, Valve’s Steam Engine has dominated the PC video game scene. Lately, Epic games has been trying to cut into Valve’s PC dominance. Epic Games put on its boxing gloves by announcing that they will be taking a 12% cut from games sold on their platform. This is significant because the average that other services take from the sale of each game is 30% which is what Steam also charges. This is a great incentive for developers to go to Epic Games and could be a game changer in the long run. As for us Linux gamers, Epic still has a very, very long way to go; especially when compared to Valve’s Steam Video Game Engine which has done more for Linux gaming than anyone else in history. Especially recently, with the addition of ProtonPlay on Steam which makes most Steam games compatible on Linux even though the game might have been made only for Windows.
Putting that aside, there is another powerful rumbling going on that’s directly setting the stage for the ultimate Valve vs. Epic Games fight: a chess video game. The game stuck in the middle of the Valve v Epic fight is called Dota Auto Chess; which oddly enough is neither one of the three things it directly mentions: • Dota? – Aside from the characters, the game is not exactly Dota; it’s more chess than Dota. • Auto??? what do the game developers mean by putting this word in the title? The game is not about auto car racing. However, the game is a sort of automatic Dota game (if that’s how you wish to look at it). But even then, does this word need to be mentioned in the title? • Chess? – It’s definitely not a chess game, in fact it’s more of a Dota game than a chess game.
Origins of Auto Chess
Auto Chess was originally given birth through the Arcade section of Dota 2. A group of developers calling themselves DrodoStudios came up with this new game that was introduced as part of Dota 2’s Arcade. Dota Auto Chess was introduced as a Dota 2 Mod but having gained such popularity in so little time, it seems that the game is now being split into two separate games. This is where the Epic vs Valve fight comes in. So, after negotiating for a while without coming to some sort of agreement, Valve & DrodoStudios have decided to amicably split the game into two. One version of the game will be released by Valve and it will be called Dota Underlords; the beta opens in late June 2019 exclusively to Battle Pass owners. In early July, the game should become available for free on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android & iOS. To find out more about Dota Underlords you can read this article by Kotaku: https://kotaku.com/valve-is-making-its-own-version-of-dota-auto-chess-1834934135 The other version of the game, which is where DrodoStudios will be migrating, will be released by Epic Games. The Epic Games version will simply be called Auto Chess and as of now, this is what the Epic Games Store has about the game on their website: https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/auto-chess/home
Dota Auto Chess
We will begin by trying to explain how the game works but keep in mind that this review is based on the Mod available through the Dota 2 Arcade which may no longer be available once the other two games are officially released. So, perhaps in an upcoming issue, there may be a more in-depth review of one of the newer games but for now we will focus on the most basic of basics. As with most games that are in pre-Beta, which is basically what Dota Auto Chess is, there are few guides on how to play the game and none that I’ve found to be a great starting guide. Most guides available assume that you already know a little about the game but if you’re a new player these guides may seem a bit too vague. However, it is worth pointing out a couple that I found to be useful. One of the better guides I found can be found at: https://www.metabomb.net/dota2/gameplay-guides/auto-chess-guide-5 if you’re more of a video person, you can check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=542&v=s3WpwnXbaCM
If you want to play Dota Auto Chess, you’ll need to install Steam and then through Steam install Dota 2 which will have a section called Arcade from which you can install Dota Auto Chess. It’s quite a process if you don’t already have Steam, but believe me when I say that it’s worth it, even if you hate Dota 2. Like I said before, this is NOT at all like a Dota 2 game, nor is it like a chess game. To begin with, Dota 2 is a team sport whereas Auto Chess is described in the dotaautochess.gamepedia as “an 8-player PvP game mode in Dota 2”. While you do play on an 8×8 chess board, you do not play with chess pieces. Instead of chess pieces, you play with Dota heroes. During the first three rounds you play against AI Creeps while you build your team. Before the first round begins you have to buy a hero and place it on the board. Then, you buy a second hero, then a third and so on until you’ve reached maximum capacity. From here on, you are strategically trying to build a winning team so that by the time you get to the fourth round and start to battle against other players, you’re better positioned to put in a good winning run. As you progress, there are opportunities to level up your players but there’s also a synergy factor to consider when deciding which players you will pair together. Players with good synergy will do better against your opponent but remember that there are other elements at play which will make learning the correct strategy a true delight which can only be solved by playing the game. One important thing to consider is that you only get 30 seconds to make all of your decisions in between rounds. I’ve come to find that a good strategy is to use the time during the actual round to do the planning needed for when the round ends. From the second the round begins, there are a few things you can do, but not very many so this is the ideal time to plan your strategy for the following round at this point. Also, it’s possible that you hover over to other chess boards where the other six players are playing so you can spy and carefully deploy the best strategy against them.
While the game is definitely fun to play, for those of you who may be looking for a short game that you can pick up and put down whenever you want, this is not for you. If, however, you’re looking for a good Real-Time-Strategy, 8-Player PvP Board game and you don’t mind sitting down for half hour at a time, then this is for you. Each match has the potential to last anywhere from 25 minutes to beyond an hour (I don’t know how long the longest game has been). On the other hand, if you don’t like Chess and you don’t like Dota, then this game might still be for you. Prior knowledge of either chess or Dota is not a requirement. As I’ve said before, Auto Chess is nothing like either Dota or Chess, and that’s a good thing.
In an upcoming issue, we’ll take a look at Dota Underlord, which by the time of this publishing should be released to the public through Steam. Also, but only if it’s possible, we may take a look at the Epic Games version of the game, AutoChess.
Another publication I used as a source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/16/18334865/epic-games-store-versus-steam-valve-pc-gaming-console-war-reimagined