Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard Entertainment’s response to the very popular MOBA games (e.g. League of Legends and Dota 2). Initially, the game was being developed as a mod for the studio’s popular RTS game - StarCraft 2, but in the end Blizzard has decided to create a completely independent title.

The action of the game takes place in the world of Nexus, where the Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft universes collide. As per the genre’s principles, Heroes of the Storm focuses on battles between two teams, each of them consisting of several players. Your goal as a team, is to break through the enemy defenses and capture their base, whilst making sure that the same doesn’t happen to you.

The hero pool in the game includes many renowned characters from all three of the universes, such as, Jim Raynor, Tyrael, Kerrigan, Nova, Diablo, Arthas, Tychus Findlay, Anub’arak, Illidan Stormrage, Lady Sylvanas Windrunner and Chen Stormstout. The heroes are divided into four classes :

• Assassins - specializing in devastating attacks but vulnerable to those of the enemy,

• Warriors - distinguished by their great endurance and stamina,

• Supports - who heal and buff allies,

• Specialists - e.g. siege experts and battle commanders.

Every hero also has their own, unique abilities at their disposal, which they gain upon leveling up. The battles last approximately 20 minutes and take place on various arenas. Every battle field also features its own mechanics, when certain conditions are met (e.g. when a certain amount of totems is gathered or enough treasure is donated) you will gain a significant advantage over the enemy team. Most of the elements marked on the game’s minimap are of some strategic relevance and controlling them could be the key to victory.

The developers of Heroes of the Storm have put a lot of effort into making the mechanics and controls as simple as possible, which is a courtesy to those less experienced in playing MOBAs. At the same time the team at Blizzard Entertainment has made sure to keep the strategy and cooperation between the team’s members complex and varied.

Heroes of the Storm is similar to World of Warcraft when it comes to its graphical design. The developers redesigned all of the character models and highlighted their characteristics to make them easily recognizable. There is also a lot of personal customization options in the game.

The game’s business model is free-to-play, with optional micro-transactions, which means that you can play Heroes of the Storm for free, but you will be charged real money for some of the items and skins.

Last updated on August 14, 2015