Choose your hero (or villain) in Heroes of the Storm

MANILA, Philippines – Have you ever wished you could play as the titular characters or villains from a number of games? If you haven’t heard of Blizzard Entertainment’s new Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA), Heroes of the Storm, you may be missing out on the chance to do just that.

Heroes of the Storm is a MOBA with the famous characters from the Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft franchises battling for supremacy in a world known as The Nexxus.

Since this is Blizzard’s entry to the MOBA genre alongside other games like Dota 2, League of Legends (LOL) and Smite, it is nice to see the original Blizzard heroes with their respective names and skills available for your use.

The MOBA was made famous by the Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) custom game in real-time strategy (RTS) game Warcraft 3. As such MOBAs are an offshoot of the RTS genre of gaming, featuring more action and marginally less micromanagement than an RTS.

Starting back in July 1, Blizzard sent out limited invites to international players for the game’s Alpha release – the early development phase of the game. The words “Alpha in Development” will greet you in the game’s menus more often than not. This means that some functions or menu tabs are still disabled at this point and are merely there as placeholders for future development. One thing however you can count on is how easily you can start playing when the game launches.

Starting off

You start off with the game’s introductory video that features StarCraft’s main protagonist, Jim Raynor. Blizzard legends like Nova of Starcraft and Tyriel of the Diablo series join the fight and face off with villains like Diablo, Kerrigan, and Arthas the Lich King.

The game automatically throws you into an enjoyable Tutorial that teaches you the basics of the game. Afterwards, you are lead to a screen that let’s you choose the different ways you can play: Practice, Cooperative Play and Versus.

For MOBA veterans Versus will probably be the most used game mode. In Versus you will be playing 5-on-5 with other connected players. Practice and Cooperative play are there to help you gain achievements and level up your in-game progress.

Heroes of the Storm lets you earn experience points on every game you play. Be it against A.I. or online players. You are given tasks like Daily Quests for experience points and in-game gold.

Hero Quests are also available for extra experience and to help you gain points to customize your favorite Hero with their own respective costumes or outfits.

How it plays

Heroes of the Storm does not aim to please the traditional MOBA platform. Rather, it aims to achieve a more team-based approach.

The goal like any other MOBA game out there is to destroy a specific structure nestled deep within enemy territory. Pitting two teams of 5 against each other, each player with their respective character or Hero of their choice, runs through a gauntlet of creatures or “creeps” and enemy towers to reach the enemy base.

One thing to note is that the game does not reward players while in a match for individual kills or “take-downs” but treats each and every take-down as a team take-down. So, you will never see the game announcing your name if you are in any streak but streaks itself or consecutive take-downs are still announced.

Total take-downs or kills are tallied at the end of the game as part of end-game results. This maybe a let down for some MOBA superstar veterans but settings like these may change as the game continues development.

Unlike traditional MOBA games that use a single complicated map every session. Heroes of the Storm uses different maps or “battlegrounds” to change the strategy of how to achieve the end goal.

There are 5 maps in total so far: Blackheart’s Bay, Dragon Shire, Haunted Mines, Cursed Hollow and Garden of Terror. Each has its own unique way of giving advantages or challenges to players on either side.

Heroes of the Storm is quite smooth and well done in terms of gameplay. Considering the game is very early in it’s development, it plays as good as any MOBA out there.

One good thing to note about a Heroes of the Storm gaming session is that it is very short compared to traditional MOBAs. An average game could easily last between 15-45 minutes, which sounds pretty good if you are a casual gamer on a lunch break.

This is compared to traditional MOBAs which have an average of 30-90 minute games.

With more than a hundred hours on this game clocked in so far, my understanding is that the game emphasizes team play to make games end faster.

Heroes of the Storm’s technical alpha stage is more or less done, with players expecting some form of closed Beta development eventually. Blizzard still encourages sign-ups, however, so if you want to get in on the action, and provide feedback for development, head on to Beta Sign-up page to put your name in for a chance at the beta.

Maybe you’ll be able to test the game yourself see if you can become one of the aforementioned heroes of the storm. – Rappler.com