It’s that time! Heroes of the Storm is finally about to be released, though for all intents and purposes it has kind of been “out” for a while now. What do you think? Review it for your fellow Kotakuers.
Yes, the open beta has been in effect for a while, and Blizzard has certainly been taking your money for even longer, and I kind of count that as being “out”.
I’ve put so many hours into this game, I actually spent money on it because I felt guilty. We’ll be putting up some video tips later in the week to see what you guys think of the format.
Throughout my time in the alpha and beta, I’ve had connection issues. About 1-2 times per match, I’ll drop, and it’s just a matter of luck if I come back dead or alive. It also has an odd way of dealing with lag, preferring to just pause the whole game, which has led people to complain about stuttering. But that’s fairer, competitively speaking, than having an AI predict your movements every time a packet is lost.
All around though, I’m loving it. I’m not into MOBA games, but I love the quick, 20-25 minute matches. I love that there’s no gear, no gold, no last-hitting. I’ve always hated last-hitting as a mechanic to base a game around anyway. Not my cup o’.
It is certainly MOBA Lite, but that’s cool with me. In other areas, I think it pushes MOBA forward in much-needed ways. Different maps, different objectives, and some crazy hero ideas are all what the genre needs. I absolutely love the crazy heroes. They’re a great talking point when telling other people about the game.
Murky, who lays an egg on the map and respawns from the egg. Abathur, who never goes into a lane but psychically projects himself onto allied heroes to support them. And The Lost Vikings, who can be controlled as a group or individually (theoretically soaking XP from all three lanes as one player). The list goes on. Sylvanas can disable towers and forts. Falstad can swoop down anywhere. ETC and Illidan can ult themselves all the way across the map.
It took me a while to find my preferred playstyle, but I’ve settled on Zeratul. He’s my homie. Of course I’ll take whatever the team needs in draft, if we’re down a tank, healer, etc, but the assassin playstyle is my favourite. Roaming between the lanes, tagging enemies, diving intelligently — it’s a rush. Then later, splitting teams with a great Void Prison is heaps of fun.
The combos of ultimate abilities are so brutal that initiation is paramount. But if you mess a fight up, comebacks are always possible later. You can lose almost every team fight and still win, if you push the core at the right time. Some might take issue with that. But MOBA is an interesting beast, as a sport, in that it makes life harder for the losing side. It’s like if a football field tilted one degree downwards after you scored a goal.
As a great example of some ultimate combos and teams going down different paths to victory, I suggest watching this pro match. It’s a nail-biter.
What do you think of the game? Are you interested? What future do you see in it as an eSport? Are the Blizzard heroes enough to make you jump to a new MOBA? Are the comeback mechanics too strong? Do you prefer a MOBA that’s trying out wacky ideas?
Comments
13 responses to “Community Review: Heroes Of The Storm”
Absolutely loving it. by far spending more time with Nazeebo than any other hero. And so far its actually rare (but not unseen) to run into a toxic player, obviously that will get worse over time as more people start playing though. god i hate people 🙂
You get the toxicity a bit in ranked but still less than I’ve found in other MOBAs.
Oh man, I’m getting a few in Hero League. It’s the part of the game I like the least. Still better than Counter-Strike though.
Sort of wish there was no pregame lobby in the ranked mode either, just Team League perhaps. That’s where the angst starts. At least you can turn team chat off now if you’ve got a rowdy jerk ruining your buzz.
I know right… It’s a shame that such a feature is necessary but I’ve definitely had days when I just want to mute everyone I come across.
Haven’t played it myself but a few friends have who are hardcore LoL fans have. Apparently they found it a little too dumbed down to stay interested. If this is the case (might not be) toxicity like other Moba’s may not be a problem.
Ive been playing on and off since the Alpha. Although I enjoy it, some heroes I just suck at :).
I have only come across a few toxic players, more so when there were less players available for matches, so you would get the same players in your team.
Im interested to see how the game changes over time to balance the new players and styles
Loving it, loving it so much, need to get back into it actually
It’s a good game at it’s core, but if you stick with it enough to actually get decent at it and learn the characters, your teammates, intentionally or not, will start to ruin the experience. I’ve found this to be a more common occurence in this game than in others. I haven’t played in ranked yet, as the requirements are bloody ridiculous (I’ve been on lvl 40 for a while, but I’m still two heroes short of the 10 hero req) so maybe that issue is solved there.
It has been a trade-off for me. Hero League has more players who know what they’re doing, and with my own play for example, as soon as I pop Void Prison the Gazlowe will know what to do for the wombo combo. But there’s also a lot more toxicity and banter :/
You’ve had Gazlowes in your teams? Every time I go to choose him I get ragged out “PLEASE NO GAZ!!!”. I love Gazlowe because hes fun to push towers and camps with, but apparently he’s in the lowest tier of effectiveness in the game, all on his own, with the worst overall win loss ratio.
Honestly I wouldn’t pay any attention to people who say that. Tell them to deal with it. More often they’ll lose because of their attitude than team comp. Obviously pay attention to team comp in draft, but yeah, everyone is viable I think. Even Murky/Aba. There’s no proper metagame yet and and even pro commentators are still just trying to sound smart while they figure this whole thing out.
IMHO, Gazlowe’s bomb combo with VP is one of the best team fight initiations in the game. And Gaz is great on maps like Sky Temple or Dragon Shrine for holding those points for long periods.
TLDR go for your life, they don’t know what they’re on about 🙂
I actually enjoyed the game all through closed alpha and beta and probably tossed in a two to three hundred bucks into the game since I got in a year or so ago? However since open beta it’s been impossible to play in the American servers and it seems Blizzard have nothing in place to move your progress or your in game purchases or even refund your cash if you want to move to a server close to home now that the game is close to release.
Probably the nail in the coffin for this game for me.