Heroes of Newerth: Reborn brings back the MOBA legend

Heroes of Newerth is coming back as free-to-play game Heroes of Newerth: Reborn — one of the most influential standalone successors of the original Defense of the Ancients (DotA) custom map in WarCraft 3, HoN was released by S2 Games in 2010 before ceasing operations in 2022. Originally held in higher regard by genre fans than League of Legends, which was being worked on at the same time, HoN made one mistake that led to Riot Games’ title gaining the upper hand: S2 Games released its offering as a full-price game, whereas Riot went free-to-play. When Dota 2 entered the picture as another free-to-play alternative — and with the obvious draw of being the “true” successor to DotA — HoN had very little breathing room left, being consigned to a niche existence for the next decade. Aside from being known for choosing the wrong business model at the wrong time, HoN was infamous for the toxicity of its community — something that, ironically, League of Legends is synonymous with now. Really, though, this probably com