Free to Play - Movie Review
2"Free to Play" (2014) directed by the Valve Corporation is a high stakes video game documentary which is quite tense and dramatic. You must be a Dota 2 player or at least a fan of competitive gaming to be able to appreciate it fully.
We follow three professional video game players trying to win a million dollars in the first annual Dota 2 International tournament. The first player is from Singapore and his named Benedict Lim also known as "hyhy," who tries to juggle his Dota career with his studies, and is also struggling with his breakup with his girlfriend, as well as his newly acquired cigarette addiction. The second player is Clinton Loomis also known as Fear, who was one of the few widely respected, skilled, and noteworthy professional American Dota players. The third player is Danil Ishutin also known as Dendi, a Ukrainian dancer with a talent for piano and keyboard actions per minute.
Free to Play is an emotionally charged documentary which captivates you every step of the way. I appreciated that it was far more focused and interested in the player's lives rather than the game itself. You will find yourself rooting for each of these individuals success regardless of where they come from or what team they represent. While making China the bad guy is a bit stereotypical, I have to admit making EHOME the adversary was a great decision storytelling wise.
As a big Dota 2 player (It's my fourth most played game of all time), I did feel a bit patronized sometimes. Since it's a documentary and everything is being dialed up to eleven for dramatic purposes, sometimes I found myself rolling my eyes when listening to non-gamers describe gaming or even actual gamers describing it sometimes. One female professional player (According to the annotations, I kind of suspect she's not actually a professional) towards the beginning of the film describes playing Dota as the "ultimate fantasy where you get to become someone else and feel empowered by their abilities," or something like this, and that right there is a cringe statement that not a single Dota player would agree with, Dota is a hyper sweat game where nobody cares about roleplaying or lore whatsoever, and is played exclusively for competitive reasons; Dota is one of the least casual games in existence so I just thought it was odd, but perhaps she and all the other "fake gamers" were asked by the interviewer to use those words or something to drive up the drama and try to get non-gamers to relate to what they were watching more . . . Rant over. The only other issue I spotted was when Dendi was said to have one major weakness as a Dota player: his impatience, but then later on in the film he is said to be a very patient person and it was one of his virtues when going fishing with his father.
Free to Play is very good but Dota has become a little niche nowadays so it may not be for everyone. The best parts of it were getting to see non-actors just be themselves and learn about the everyday struggles of professional Esports players.
Video by Rainy Nights.
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