Heroes of the Storm is a new MOBA game, multiplayer online battle arena, from Blizzard, creators of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, HearthStone and the MMORPG phenomenon called World of Warcraft.

If you are somewhat of a gamer you have definitely heard of the craze that has made eSports cool again – League of Legends, and Dota 2. But before we get started on what we see today, let’s take a ride on memory lane and remember where it all started.

Where did it all start?

In 1998 a fairly little company named Blizzard Entertainment released a real-time strategy game that sold over 11 million copies to date – Starcraft. Besides having a great campaign story-line, refreshing game mechanics, and addictive multiplayer, Starcraft was also bundled with a map editor. By giving the community the tools to create whatever they dreamed in their made-up world, Blizzard struck a chord, a gold-chord.

Fast-forward to 2002, with Blizzard realizing that they have the secret formula to engage their fans. Releasing another RTS – Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, accompanied of course with a better map editor, made the modding community go crazy. Eul, a modder that was also active in the Starcraft community, took the most popular map and converted it so it could be playable in Warcraft III – with some major tweaks here and there and improving substantially the quality of gameplay.

Defense of the Ancients, or short Dota, was immediately loved by newbies, and RTS veterans alike. The map pinned 2 teams, each formed of 5 champions,  against eachother – the end goal of the game was to destroy the enemy’s main building located in their base; going through 3 tiers of towers, on 3 separate lanes, or just snowballing on one side and rushing victory. 

But only with the release of the last Warcraft expansion, Frozen Throne, did it astound, and shocked players to gather around it and give it a try. Eul with Steve “Guinsoo” Feak, and IceFrog managed to garner 1 million fans for the War3 modded map and from there on it only got better.IceFrog went on and helped create Dota2 for Valve, and Steve ” Guinsoo” Feak brought us, with Riot Games, League of Legends – one of the most played and loved MOBA games in the past 5 years.

Can Heroes of the Storm manage to do something different?

Heroes of the Storm has some big shoes to fill. First off it needs to bring something new to the table, something refreshing – game mechanics that are easy to understand, but also hard to master; objectives that make the player experience the game differently, and not be just a copy of a copy of a modded map from ’98. Well Blizzard had the best idea – they united characters from their most loved games such as Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft, and also added some new ones, and they pinned them against each other in an arena that has a new view on how to achieve victory. Their new way is addictive and fun, and it feels like you are a part of a bigger plan. Let’s take a look at some unique battlegrounds:

Sky Temple

• Capture the Temples – Temples will periodically awaken. Stand within their grounds to capture their power!
• Hold the Temples – Remain firm and the temple will unleash a blistering onslaught on your enemy’s forts!
• Defend The Temples – Guardians will try to wrest control of their temples from your team. Hold them off to keep the temple’s power for yourselves!

Garden of Terror

• Fight the Shamblers – At night, Shamblers will rise from the Gardens!
• Collect Seeds – Kill the Shamblers and collect seeds for your team!
• Control Garden Terror – With 100 seeds, control a garden terror and destroy your enemies!

Black Heart’s Bay

• Collect Doubloons – Attack treasure chests, mercenaries, and skeletons to collect doubloons!
• Turn in Doubloons – Hand your doubloons over to BlackHeart or you will drop them all when you die!
• Bombard your enemies – After receiving enough doubloons from your team, BlackHeart will bombard your enemy’s forts!

Easy to understand, hard to master!

The beautiful thing about Heroes of the Storm is how anybody can try it and actually help out their team. You don’t need to read guides, or figure out what certain items your hero needs, you don’t even need to read the tooltips for your spells – although I highly recommend you to read them. Blizzard chose to forget about the traditional way you buy items by completely removing them from the game.

You don’t have items to buy, you just level up – your hero in-game levels up, and also your account levels up. By reaching a higher level you unlock different spells, and different skins for your heroes. For example you can dress Kerrigan up as a countess, or Thrall, the Warchief of the Horde as a demonic Orc from the Outland – HellHammer Thrall. A greenhorn can have tremendous fun in this game just by playing one game after another without worrying that he is a noob.

You have probably played a MOBA game once, and it felt lackluster not only because you had to stay put and read everything about items, and your spells, and your spell’s range, but also because of the toxic community that spews only cesspool when a new player wants to learn the game. Heroes of the Storm doesn’t have a chat bar, and it somehow alleviates the stress and fury of other players that will rage if you don’t react within a millisecond of what they were thinking. The chat bar only comes up at the end of the game where you only have time to write a ” GG”, or ” Nice playing with you!”.

Another ” hats down to you, dear sir!” to Blizzard for changing how the team scores its kills. If an ally of yours kills an enemy, the team scores; if you and an ally kill an enemy, the team scores; Their motto ” There is no I in teamwork!” stands clear to everyone that wishes to individualize this game, and doesn’t make others feel bad. Every single member is a part of the win, or loss.

But if you want to snowball and win gloriously on the battleground, if you want your name to be forever remembered in the hall of fame you will need to exercise your play-style, work out a strategy with your team members, know when and how to react to an enemy’s spell, and most importantly of all – map control.

Map awareness is constantly being aware of who is moving on the minimap, where is that hero going, and what could be the outcome – could he get ambushed by some enemies? could you ambush an enemy that is blindly moving towards his doom? Is the whole enemy team missing in action from the minimap? Well they must be planning a team fight and you’d better watch yourself!

 

Instead of a replica, we have something new and fun!

Kudos to Blizzard Entertainment for not jumping on the band-wagon and creating something more that stands out in the seas of replicas that we are accustomed to. At the current moment, Heroes of the Storm is in its beta stages – some things will mostly change, while others will remain the same. Their top priority is adding more content to the game – more heroes to choose from, more battlegrounds to play on, more spells to use against your enemies, and more pretty little dresses ( they are called skins and they only influence the game visually, and not how the mechanics work).

At this time we don’t have an official release date for Heroes of the Storm, but what we do have is a Founder’s Pack that can be bought directly from their website. Being in its beta stage means that it isn’t available unless you have an invite, or a key. Buying the Founder’s Pack, that costs 35 EUR will automatically give you entrance to this ethereal and amazing world – it consists of 2,500 gold pieces, permanently unlocking Diablo, Raynor, and Tyrande, three bonus skins for Lurkablo Diablo, Commander Raynor, and Blood Elf Tyrande, and also a golden cyber wolf mount.

If you are eager to find out how a match looks like you can watch one right here. Most LOL, or Dota2 are time wasters – you can have a match that goes on for 60 minutes, or others that are only 20 minutes long, but usually, the average playtime is 30 minutes. Heroes of the Storm doesn’t make it feel like a marathon, but instead it wishes to be short and sweet – 20 to 25 minutes long for your daily dose of fun!

If you’re a gamer let us know your take on Heroes of the Storm. Will it be the LOL killer? or will it be forgotten? I for one can’t wait to get my hands on it tonight!

 

Image Sources: 1,2,3,4,5,6