When Blizzard first revealed ‘Blizzard DotA’ to the public along with StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, it had been more to show off the StarCraft 2 Map Editor. However, the crowd at that year’s BlizzCon, which is where the concept video aired, really loved the idea. The guys behind the concept must’ve thought “Why not?” in response to the crowd’s reaction.
After a few more BlizzCons and some franchise disputes with Valve for the name of ‘DotA’, Blizzard revealed that the proper name of this idea will bear the title: Heroes of the Storm (HotS). This all took place on and before 17 October 2013. In this review, I’ll be giving you all a sneak peek of the game and what one can expect.
WELCOME TO THE NEXUS
When I logged in for the first time, I found an intuitive interface with most things visible at a glance. There’s my ‘Level’ and gold reserves, a basic game menu, the chat bar, and the usual series of tabs along the bottom. Clicking on Play brings me to the ‘prep’ screen, where I can select from one out of five game modes, choose my hero, see who’s on my party, and the usual whatnots that players now expect to see.
How about basic gameplay? It’s essentially a ‘Massive Online Battle Arena (MOBA), so the concept isn’t all too different. Once in-game, my objectives are pretty standard: destroy the enemy’s Core while combating waves of enemy minions and the opposing team of ‘Heroes’. Of course, the folks at Blizzard don’t want us to think of this game as a simple MOBA. Rather, they want to get us gamers to refer to their concept as a ‘Hero Brawler’. This brings me to my next point: Heroes.
HI JIM, ZERATUL, AND DIAB- WHAT?
If you are new to HotS, don’t be surprised by the mishmash of characters from different worlds. This game is set in The Nexus, a battle arena for Blizzard’s finest Heroes (and villains) from Azeroth, Sanctuary, and the Koprolu Sector. Right now, the pool of Heroes number at 32, with three more announced at BlizzCon 2014. From that, seven are made available on rotation every week so that newbies can start playing with them immediately. Do note that if you are starting off, you can only choose from a total of five Heroes.
Do you like being the damage dealer? Pick an Assassin like Jim Raynor or Illidan. If you like soaking up the damage on the front lines, then go with Pandaren Brewmaster Chen. There is also the Specialist class that are well… specialised, such as in taking down buildings. Me? I play Support mostly - the class that stays back to heal teammates or throw out buffs/de-buffs for the team. With the trusty Razer Blade 2013 in hand, I go forth to do battle.
HEROES, LET US DO BATTLE!
For newbies, there’s an easy to follow tutorial that stars Jim Raynor in all his sarcastic humour. “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” Then go ahead and try playing against the AI in either Practice or Cooperative. I gave all modes a go just to see how they worked before joining a few friends for some Versus games. My take is really straightforward and so here is the short of it: HotS is really easy to get into.
TALENT ME THIS
There’s no item system here and gaming experience is shared. This might tempt some to accuse Blizzard of making a game that lacks depth. But wait… haven’t most of you whined about needing strategy in games. The biggest contributor to strategy in this game is the Talents system, an idea borrowed from World of Warcraft (WoW). Talents can alter the attributes of a Hero’s skills, like increasing damage or adding special effects. As you level up during a match, you have to pick the Talents that bests suit your current game and team composition. While it’s not as comprehensive as other MOBA games by any means, I’m certainly one of the many that hopes Blizzard will continue to add more new elements to the game as part of its efforts in increasing the game’s depth. Of course, all this has to happen while keeping the game unique.
AHOY LANDLUBBERS, BRING ME ‘MA DOUBLOONS!
In essence, HotS differentiates itself by making you complete objectives, such as collecting tributes or activating a dragon statue. These goals can be crucial to the endgame as it could swing a match in your favour. Thus, it encourages team battles as both sides scramble to secure targets for their respective teams. Currently, there are five maps in HotS, each with its own unique objective to complete. Personally, the one I really hate is the Haunted Mines. In one game, my party got team wiped before entering the mines, so the other team managed to secure a fully powered Grave Golem as a result. The game didn’t last long after that...
DAY OF QUESTS
Unlocking Heroes for permanent use is similar to League of Legends (LoL) - you farm for ‘gold’ to purchase the Heroes. But how do you go about that? Why, with the Daily Quests that the game offers to all players, of course.
Using another idea from WoW, HotS gives you daily quests once your account hits Level 6. By completing them, you’d get more gold. Farm up enough and you can purchase your favourite Heroes! As for me, I’m saving up 10k gold for Jaina Proudmoore. Ice ice baby!
‘UNDER CONSTRUCTION, PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER’
Since HotS (at the time of this review) is still in Technical Alpha, there are obviously some things that are not added yet, like a spectator feature. Ranked matches aren’t available yet either so there’s no league table system to rate you against your friends or rivals. Besides those, Blizzard has servers only in the US, Europe and Korea, meaning us Southeast Asia-based players will be dealing with some latency; my average is - surprisingly - rated at around 30ms. You also can’t chat with anyone from the opposing team. I’m not sure if this is something Blizzard will unlock eventually or if it’s some measure to eliminate the trash talking and toxic behaviour that plagues LoL and DotA 2.
THE STORM BEGINS
So when are they releasing HotS? Normally, I’d say “Hey, it’s Blizzard so don’t hold your breath, okay?” But by the time you read this, the game will be in Closed Beta - a mode that you can opt-in to join using your Battle.net account. Perhaps, the fight in The Nexus will arrive sooner than anyone thinks. by Matthew Yap