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Heroes of the Storm beta impressions

Over the holiday season, I finally received a (long overdue, in my opinion) invitation to beta test Heroes of the Storm (HotS) – an upcoming Massive Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game by Blizzard Entertainment. Needless to say, there went my entire break. Besides playing countless hours, I was excited to sit down, read articles, and truly understand how the game worked. In summary, I found Heroes to be a promising and fresh title that brings excitement and novel ideas to an otherwise set-in-stone genre of gaming, and it is something both diehard fans of Blizzard’s universe and newcomers can enjoy.

Backed by Blizzard’s other great titles, Heroes is a mashup of characters and environments from all 3 of its universes combined into one game. Memorable characters like Thrall from Warcraft, Zeratul from Starcraft, Tyrael from Diablo‘s universe, and many more formed an epic lineup of heroes that players can choose from. Characters are separated into four classes: Warrior, Assassin, Support, and Specialist. Warrior class heroes generally have high health, high durability, and the capability to both endure and unleash punishments. Assassin class heroes can deal deadly blows and strike swiftly to gain the upperhand in fights. The support class can heal and buff allies and indirectly work against the enemy. Specialists are, well, very special in their functions and contributions to a team.

Every week, there is a rotation of “free-to-play” heroes. Players can earn gold by completing daily quests and playing games in general, and enough gold will allow a player to permanently unlock a hero. Other content can also be bought for real money, but it provides no real advantage in the game other than showing off — a tried-and-true moneymaking methodology adopted by many successful games nowadays. I personally feel that the economic model in-game is fair, except how the real money price of some content is absurdly expensive.

Like many other MOBA games, Heroes of the Storm puts players in teams of 5 in minion wave-spawning, structure-laden, symmetric maps with objectives to destroy the other team’s nexus. However, the similarities pretty much end there. Even playing the game as a “noob,” the first important fact I recognized is the diversity of maps and that this game is much more strategic and objective-based than others. Each map has a unique set of objectives for the competing teams to fight over for in order to gain a massive advantage. For example, in the “Sky Temple” map, in addition to skirmishes in the 3 preset lanes, teams will need to periodically occupy special temples, which will unleash devastating bombardments on your opponent’s structures, and is a must-have if you seek an advantage of any kind. In these matches, winning just the lanes through your skill and mechanics will not win you the game.

Another major difference between Heroes and many other MOBAs is how a hero is customized through gameplay. In most games, gold is rewarded to players killing “minions” and completing other objectives, and can be used to purchase items that boost one’s capabilities. In Heroes, the concept of “gold” or “items” is completely absent in the battles, and only experience is earned by players and is shared across the entire team. Sufficient experience will level up all players on a team at once, increase their statistics, and, on certain levels, give players options to select a talent. A hero can perform completely different roles based on the combination of talents selected, allowing you to change tactics in the middle of a game or react to the opponent’s strategy.

Overall, a Heroes of the Storm match is fast-paced and action-packed, with an average match time of about 15–25 minutes (compared to 30–45 minutes of other MOBAs). Massive fights can happen at any place, and tides of battle sometimes change instantly with a good combination of skills, opportune reinforcements, or a change of hands in key objectives.

While individual plays can still be important, the team’s performance level as a whole is more crucial in achieving victory and cannot be overlooked. Whether winning after a close game or being completely steamrolled, the quick cycles of the game push individual players to explore options and promotes cooperation with random people players meet. Overall, this encourages friendliness toward each other and diminishes toxic player behavior.

Although Blizzard isn’t completely new to strategy games, they are pretty late to be officially developing a MOBA game. With that said, I am still delighted with the efforts they put into Heroes of the Storm. As a game in development with its share of glitches and sometimes balancing problems, Heroes captivated diehard Blizzard fans and interested newcomers alike and performed well in vitalizing and diversifying a sometimes stale MOBA market.

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