Skip to main content

‘Dota 2’ is hopping on the battle royale train in its own unique way

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Dota 2‘s 2018 International Battle Pass is on sale now and one of the perks of purchasing it is a new game mode that sounds an awful lot like a spin on the battle royale variant.

Called “The Underhollow,” the new Dota 2 game mode turns the MOBA into a last-team-standing dungeon crawler.

Recommended Videos

The mode’s description reads: “Battle through a labyrinth filled with monsters, marvels, and many other three-player enemy squads as you search for Roshan’s rarest cheese and work to be the last team standing. You’ll need to navigate carefully to earn the XP and Gold needed to destroy your opponents.”

You could draw parallels from finding Roshan’s cheese and winning a chicken dinner in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. And earning XP and acquiring gold can be connected to acquiring gear in both Fortnite and PUBG.

If you’re not convinced yet, though, The Underhollow even has its own version of the encroaching blue wall/storm that shrinks the playing field in PUBG and Fortnite. As Roshan gets more and more excited about cheese, the walls in the dungeon start to erode and cave in, shrinking the playing field until nothing but the center remains.

It’s unclear how many players each match will hold, but the “many” descriptor signals it will be as chaotic and unpredictable as a match of PUBG and Fortnite, essentially the opposite of a traditional Dota 2 match.

The Underhollow isn’t available quite yet, but it’s “coming soon.” Although it’s not super surprising to see a popular game like Dota 2 jump on the battle royale bandwagon, we’re curious how it will work once it is live.

In addition to the intriguing battle royale-style mode, Battle Pass owners gain access to Cavern Crawl, which sounds like a horde mode. As you win more Dota 2 matches, you can explore deeper into the cavern for a chance to earn exclusive items and a rare Jade Baby Roshan. Also, a new unranked game mode called Mutation implements a random assortment of gameplay modifiers. The modifiers will change on a daily basis.

The 2018 Battle Pass starts at $10 and grants players access to the three new game modes and a slew of other features.

Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
World of Goo 2 might just be the Nintendo Switch’s next must-own co-op game
A built structure in World of Goo 2.

When I sat down to demo World of Goo 2 at this year’s GDC, I noted to the developers on hand how surprising it was to see a sequel after so long. “It’s been, what? Ten years?” I said. I was very far off the mark: They noted that the original World of Goo launched in 2008. After playing a few levels (and having an existential crisis over time’s rapid passing), I’d find myself wondering how such an obvious slam dunk didn’t come sooner.

Like its predecessor, World of Goo 2 is a physics-based puzzle game where players craft structures from little, gooey critters. It presents a series of engineering challenges, as poorly built structures will topple under the weight of all those jiggly little pals. Rather than reinventing that concept entirely, World of Goo 2 adds some wild new ideas onto that stable structure that opens up its puzzle potential. The result is a chaotic co-op game that’s a perfect fit for the Nintendo Switch.

Read more
Helldivers 2 servers at capacity? Play its predecessor instead
Key art for the original Helldivers.

Helldivers 2 has been the surprise hit of February, but it has also been surprisingly hard to get into the game. Server issues are frequent, and while Arrowhead Game Studios is actively working to resolve these issues, Helldivers 2’s online experience is far from perfect. If you’re frustrated at not being able to play Helldivers 2, but want to play something similar, there’s another fantastic option.

I’m not referencing the similar titles on Xbox Game Pass. I’m referring to the original Helldivers. First released on PC, PlayStation 4, and PS Vita in 2015, Helldivers is a game that I did not think much of before this month, as I only put about 15 minutes into it after getting the game as a monthly PS Plus title in 2016. Returning to it in the wake of my enjoyment of Helldivers 2, I found much of the charm of the sequel is present in its predecessor, albeit in isometric shooter form.

Read more
WWE 2K24 makes one small change that goes a very long way
Cody Rhodes stands on a ramp in WWE 2K24.

(Editor's Note: The night before our WWE 2K24 preview event, WWE co-founder Vince McMahon resigned from his executive chairman role at TKO amid sex trafficking allegations. Ahead of the event, Digital Trends reached out to 2K Games to ask if references to Vince McMahon and any other parties implicated in the lawsuit would be removed from the game. We were directed to WWE's PR team, which has yet to respond.

The WWE 2K series has been living out a comeback story for the past two years. After hitting rock bottom in 2019, 2K Games took the time and effort to rehabilitate the series instead of rushing into another entry with injuries. That paid off in its 2022 and 2023 installments, reestablishing the series as the king of the ring – especially after fighting off competition from the middling AEW: Fight Forever.

Read more