Have you ever played DotA? You know, Defense of the Ancients? Essentially, it was a map for Warcraft III and its expansions. However, it had its own set of rules and goals that were unique. The goal was to destroy the enemies Ancient which was the main structure. Players control heroes that have rpg elements. The hero would level as it flights. This would allow new skills to be utilized to help in the battle. You could also purchase various items to further increase the stats of the hero. Than, there were creeps which were AI controlled minions that would spawn and go off and attack the nearest enemy unit or structure. 

I was first introduced to DotA while I attended Full Sail. I actually had never played Warcraft III before than either. However, my friends started lan'ing the game and I decided to join in. Needless to say I was hooked. 

Now, Rise of Immortals is a DotA like game without the need of Warcraft III installation. There is a desktop client for the game. Even better, the game is free. Well, there are things that you can pay for but there are no startup costs and no need to buy anything if you don't want to.

Rise of Immortals is in open Beta right now. So, knowing that fact please take what I say with a grain of salt. Some things may not be improved upon when the game reaches stable release.

For me, Rise of Immortals sucks. I love these types of games and I just can't get into it. I was really disappointed.

First, the mouse controls just don't seem right. There is nothing wrong with the setup of the keys and such. Just during the game, using the mouse just seems to not hit the correct level of responsiveness. I found my self constantly moving to spots that I didn't want to and as result faced something bad. Usually, it was my character's death. Actually, if it wasn't for this the game would be alright. For instance, I am trying to run away before I die. I move my mouse and I go to a part of the map out of the way from my healing area. I am struggling to get it back on track while also trying to click so I don't die. Bam! I am dead. I learned to get around this a bit though by just clicking on the minimap in the bottom right to get my camera where I want it. However, this isn't the ideal scenario for everything. 

Second, I found that the skills were a little under thought/developed. In these style games, your skills are a huge part of how you do battle. The mouse problem mentioned above actually hinders some of the spell use. Anyways, you get 4 skills that you can unlock and upgrade. Which is fine but there really is no skill tree and seems more like a cheap thrill. It is fine to upgrade your skills but you are stuck with the same skills with no other options. Also, by the time I reached level 20, which seems to be the max level, you have all your skills unlocked and fully upgraded. Just seems to be not very intuitive. 

The final thing I am going to point is the training map. I probably shouldn't be bringing it up as it is just to get you familiar with the game. However, there are some flaws. First, there really is no training. You just face a NPC and battle it out. You still have to figure out the controls and the workings by yourself. 

But, my biggest complaint is how it seems to be very unbalanced. Every time I manage to lose. This could be just that I suck with the Immortal I use or just suck in general. However, every time the enemy immortal seems to have all the equipment he can have and it is all fully upgraded. This could be that he actually gets more gold. However, I have more creep kills than him and more or the same hero kills as him. I can barely afford to fully upgrade three items if that. In my eyes, that is just unbalanced gameplay. 

Now, this is a beta and my experience is somewhat limited but I have already been turned off. There are some things that I do like about Rise of Immortals though. For instance, the items upgrades are setup pretty well in my opinion. The game seems to run fairly smooth otherwise as well. It really is a shame because this could be a pretty fun and entertaining game. But alas, it is Beta and I won't be able to make my final conclusions until the game becomes stable.