Score: 8/10
Pros:
Great Cast of Characters
Hero Brawler
Great entry point into MOBA genre
Cons:
Necessity of purchasing characters
Limited competitive scope
Developed by Blizzard
PC, Mac
Heroes of the Storm is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, or a MOBA, that brings all of the characters of developer Blizzard’s franchises together into one experience.
It is only natural that Blizzard should finally create their own MOBA, considering that the genre was first conceived and popularised through mods for their games. Since then, the MOBA genre has become one of the most dominant in the world with millions of people flocking to games such as League of Legends and DOTA 2.
The concept of a MOBA is simple, two teams spawn on opposite ends of a map and must attempt to weaken their enemies’ defenses and vanquish their opponents in an attempt to destroy the others base. The challenge is in the strategy of players and their teams and how they distribute and present force to the opposing teams defenses, as well as how skillfully they battle.
As with many competitive endeavors, the concept maybe simple, but the execution can be very difficult. The depth and skill required for success in most MOBA’s is very high.
This is where Heroes of the Storm stands out, as Blizzard’s new MOBA has easily the lowest barrier for entry of any game in the genre. Although the game has the key mechanics of a MOBA, Blizzard refers to the game as a sub-genre they call “a hero brawler”. The key difference between their hero brawler and pure MOBA’s is that though teamwork helps your team dramatically, there is a much heavier emphasis placed on an individuals efforts in fighting, rather than a whole teams.
By allowing players to contribute without conceiving elaborate strategies within your team, Blizzard has created a game that is far easier to jump into than any other MOBA. The downside of this however, is that it may yet damage Heroes of the Storms potential for professional competitive status.
Heroes of the Storm has an impressive roster of characters from their Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo franchises that demonstrate a range and mixture of classes and play styles.
The game is free-to-play, so it costs nothing to download, but there are options in game to buy characters and aesthetic upgrades. You have a pick of five different free characters every week, and can purchase additional ones with in game or real world money. The trouble is that upper level competitive modes are blocked by how many characters you have, so purchasing them becomes difficult to avoid.
If you have never played a MOBA before, or have found the barrier for entry too high, then Heroes of the Storm with its fun and player-focused gameplay is a great place to jump in.
Review by Baz Macdonald aka @kaabazmac
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