After months and months in beta, Heroes of the Storm finally arrives, the MOBA with which Blizzard tries to gain a foothold in a genre dominated by two giants as well as returning to one of their games at the top of the panorama of e-Sports Will he get it?
Four years, four long years, that's all the time it has taken since Blizzard announced at Blizzcon in 2011 his promising free-to-play MOBA , Blizzard DOTA , also known (for legal issues) as Blizzard All-Stars to start calling, just in time for Blizzcon 2013 and already definitively, Heroes of the Storm .
Precisely, in that same Blizzcon were opened the inscriptions for the closed beta of the game, which would start shortly after and that would last almost a year and a half with a multitude of changes both visually and at the playable level to become, just a few weeks ago, an open beta accessible to all users that has been working almost as if it were a definitive game (in a very similar way to HearthStonein this sense) until Tuesday, June 2, at which time the final version of the title that we can enjoy on our computers was launched. But, all this long time of tests, feedback collection by players, changes and their first steps at the competitive level of e-Sports ... have served to Heroes of the Storm can sneak between two Giants like League of Legends or DOTA 2?
From very early, Blizzard wanted to make clear one thing, and that is that his MOBA was not going to try to replace LOL or DOTA , but was going to try to complement it, with a closer approach to the casual user, but without abandoning the "core" of the players of the genre who can see how the title can become a real alternative.
But let's go in parts, first, for the newcomers in this type of games, we will explain in a few sentences the basic mechanics of a MOBA, a game in which two teams of 5 players that control different characters with about specific roles such as support, tank or DPS / killer and different skills that must eliminate a gigantic building, stone, statue or construction in the center of the rival base. For this they must, together with the help of creatures controlled by the AI, usually called minions, destroy all the buildings, watchtowers and enemies that are on their way in the three different streets where the maps are usually divided,
As we said few lines ago, one of the pillars that Blizzard seeks with Heroes of the Storm is to reach a more casual audience and, for this, has decided to opt, in our opinion, for two fundamental points at playable level, the duration of the games and the complete elimination of the objects to equip the heroes with whom they count other titles of the sort and that usually take to confusion to the player.
If we focus on the time of the games, in our journey through the Nexus we have found some extremely short, lasting about 12 minutes and with longer ones, which in no case have gone much beyond the 25 minutes of duration, with an average that we can establish from 18 to 22 minutes . This allows a fairly wide range of players to venture into the game to play a short and fun game, ideal to fight downtime and how well it has worked in HearthStone, the famous card game.
The other of the main points that we indicated was that of the total and absolute elimination of all the objects that can go so far as to complicate the life of all those who are not experts in the MOBA, but who in turn like them so much. more demanding users. To compensate, Blizzard has opted for talents for the heroes whose mechanics we explain next.
Each time we start a game, regardless of the chosen hero, we will be given the possibility to choose a first talent, which will serve to enhance or modify some of the basic skills of the hero (which we will use with the classic Q, W, E keys already , R and D in cases in which the hero in question has 5 basic skills), to win certain offensive or defensive bonuses that act passively (without the need to press any key) and even acquire new skills that will add to the basic ones and that we will use with the numeric keys of our keyboard. These talents are obtained when the hero reaches, within each game, the levels 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 20 and they restart in each game and give a good range of possibilities when using our characterdepending on our partners, how each game is developing or our own style of play, selecting in each case those that suit us. In addition these peculiar talents allow us to vary between two different R skills for each character, choosing it at level 10 within the Nexus.
In addition, something that must be taken into account at the time of the level rise is that the group experience is shared, which means that in many situations it is convenient for the 5 players to be distributed in a balanced way in all the lines or to achieve, All in all, the greatest number of possible objectives to climb the level faster and be able to access those talents so beneficial and that can get to unbalance the game if the opposing team has not done their job well and is some levels below the level.
It should be noted how well taken to this peculiar battlefield are each and every one of the Blizzard characters , regardless of whether they are heroes of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft or Vikings . Both the style of the game and the different abilities will make the players believe, truly, that they are controlling the most epic characters of each game in question, even "doubting" if they are playing HotSor the WoW or Devil himself. This, added to the charisma thanks to the background of them with all their lore, in addition to all the hearth in the Blizzard universe that can have a good part of the players of this new MOBA, is another point in favor of Heroes, since it does not it is the same to control any character of, for example, DOTA 2, to take the stores of that damned Devil that you had to defeat not so long ago (or much if you are one of those who stayed in Diablo or Diablo 2 ) , or that Arthas that cost you so much to kill in ICC in your World of Warcraft raids.
But that is not the end of the different heroes, since each of them has an external level to the games, which reflects our "knowledge" or use with the character and that we will go up as we play with that hero. These levels will allow us to unlock some of these talents (up to level 4) and from that moment focus on more striking aspects such as the ability to choose between different aspects or frames or change our profile image in the game for one of the hero in question.
These two points are not alone in the Blizzard MOBA, which has some other unique characteristics, among which the diversity in the maps stand out , not only in appearance, size and distribution, but also in specific objectives that will be quite easy to understand for the newcomers but that will also give a lot of game, at the level of strategy for the most experienced players, since these objectives or missions of each map can give us an important advantageat the time of giving a serious punishment to the enemy team. For example, in one of the maps we will have to collect a certain amount of coins to pay a pirate so that, from his ship, he can launch a salvo of cannon shots against the enemy's structures, possibly destroying a good part of the enemy's defenses. every hit In another map we find a lower level, some mines that we must invade every certain time to kill the zombies inside and collect a kind of skulls. The more of these we have, the stronger the golem that we can summon after our little adventure and the more damage we can cause to our enemy and so on, for each and every one of the different maps included so far in the game and more that are to come, like the one inspired byDevil 3 that will be added soon.
One of the peculiarities that we usually find in other MOBAs is the rigidity with which each champion is "forced" to be in a street, be it TOP, MID or BOT as well as in the "jungle". This is not so in HotS and, in fact, many times we will see how players exchange their positions something that is also favored by two other peculiarities, the size of the maps, which is not excessively large, and the possibility of having a mount that we can call at any time and that will allow us to move quite quickly throughout the field of play, which also favors teamfightsor fights between all the members of the two teams at some point on the map, something really common in Heroes of the Storm. Within the jungle we will find several enemy camps controlled by the AI, which we will be able to assault to defeat and add those assets to our ranks. These camps have different ranges of difficulty depending on the power of the monsters. The most powerful have even their own particular mechanics in the style of the heads of the dungeons of WoW, saving the differences, of course.
It should also be added that all of this we have told you, as a whole, causes that the games are tremendously matched from the first moment, being very important the collaboration of the whole team to win the games. Unlike other MOBA, in Heroes of the Storm there is no possibility of a single player to walk and win the game alone. In fact, teamwork is so important that if one of our teammates decides not to collaborate with the group, it can spoil the whole result and make us fall defeated in the Nexus.
To these particularities within the Nexus (the name given to the battlefield in Heroes of the Storm) we could also add other details such as health sources that we will use to recover life without having to return to our base and which are spread over several points. of the map, the towers of vision or other aspects that continue adding up so that the MOBA of Blizzard has its own particularities, but that if we all reunite in a same point they would make this text extend us to infinity.
But we still have a good number of issues to address before ending this analysis, such as player levels , which will allow us to obtain rewardsas we go up and that will allow us to get gold, power-ups, or other features, in addition to access to the already classic games ranked both players and teams. One of the crucial points in our level rise as a user is to reach the sixth level, at which time we will unlock the daily missions, which will allow us to obtain coins if we meet certain requirements that can range from playing with a hero of a specific saga. to have to use one with a specific role, among other issues. This in addition to allowing us to add those coveted coins, also encourages players to try as many heroes and roles as possible,
As for the different game modes, we will have a training mode , games against the AI, fast games that will be the most used way to level up, the League of Heroes , games divided by the skill range of the players who can access to this League both alone and in groups of any number from level 30, the League of Teams , also ranked and for which users will need a complete team of players, in addition to level 40, and custom games that will allow us face other friends and even add spectators to the game.
Speaking of the spectators, precisely, it will be necessary to see how the game evolves within the panorama of electronic sports . A priori Blizzard is offering a lot of support for his new title , organizing championships, such as the next one that will take place at the Blizzcon 2015 and in which a whopping half a million dollars will be at stake. It is necessary to know the evolution that the community will have over time and if the title will be as attractive to the eye as their rivals or other types of e-Sports can be. Focused on action or fight such as CS: GO or Street Fighter. A priori, with the objectives of each map and the continuous teamfights, together with the short-term games, it has wicker so as to be able to catch the public. All this added to a tremendously useful tool that counts the game, which is none other than automatically save if we want, all the repetitions of our games to record and select memorable moments in our journeys in the Nexus, something that, in order to expand its popularity in forums or on YouTube,it can sit pretty well with the Blizzard game. In this sense and being a modern MOBA could have been asked for a proprietary streaming tool as already incorporated by some MMO, included in the game's own client, but it is true that in the current scenario most players have at their fingertips very simple external tools to be able to retransmit their own games.
So far we find the positive parts of the game, but it would not be fair to conclude the analysis without mentioning a couple of moles that we found and that Blizzard should review to take a step further with HotS. The first is the failures creating groups for the games. The tool of balance in matchmaking is not yet completely polished and can cause that, sometimes, we find ourselves with two teams that are quite unbalanced or with players within our own quintet, which have a lower level than ours, causing our game to be go to hell by the fast track.
The other is the performance of the game . Heroes of the Storm could work much better both at the level of lag, with some problems (although not serious) during the course of our games, as well as at the technical level, with some frame slumps or strange stops in our case in a title that, a priori, they can move quite simple computers for the times that they run, all this added to the seconds of loading and black screen and the desynchronization of the game with the server when we decided to tabulate the desk at some point of the game taking advantage of the time that passes until our hero comes back to life when we fall victim to the enemy.
Finally we can not stop talking about the business model of the game. As you could read at the beginning of the analysis, Heroes of the Storm is a free-to-play MOBA or, what is the same, free access with the possibility of making micro-payments to acquire different heroes, skins or power-ups for the game that we They will allow you to climb level faster or earn gold (the HotS currency) more easily. It should be noted that the really important thing, which are each and every one of the heroes that make up the cast of the Blizzard title, can be achieved with these gold coins, although they are difficult to obtain and it will take us a generous number of games to reach the amount needed to get the most expensive characters. However, if we decide to use our real money to buy certain advantages or mounts that can only be purchased through this method, we find prices a bit expensive, with an average of around 10 euros per hero, skin or saddle, passing through the almost 117 euros that costs the El Nexo Pack composed of different heroes or skins. In fact, one of the best options at payment levels is the Initiation Pack that sells in physical format a well-known chain of exclusive stores and that, for € 19.95, allows us to acquire 5 heroes (Zeratul, Li Li, Jaina, Zagara and Sonya), the Zeratul Ronin look and the golden tiger mount.
conclusion
Blizzard has done it again. After many months of changes thanks to the feedback of the different users and professional players in beta, Heroes of the Storm has arrived, a game that has all the wicks not to unseat the Giants DOTA 2 or LoL, but to rise as an alternative solid that will please both users that until now had not been seduced by the MOBA as a good part of the experts in the genre.
The American studio has opted to give a return to the genre and go their own way, offering fast and fun games, with a good number of maps in which we will have at our disposal different objectives that, without a doubt, give a touch of fresh air to each and every one of our visits to the Nexus.
In addition, despite the frenzy of these games and the total elimination of objects, so common in other references of the MOBA, Heroes of the Storm has more closet bottom than seems thanks, precisely, to the strategies that teams can adopt the time to face the specific objectives of each map and the talents of the heroes, which allow us to make a good number of combinations and adapt our characters depending on our teammates or the course of the battle.
Another point that has in its favor, precisely, are that, his heroes, taken from the most iconic sagas such as Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft and to a lesser extent Lost of Vikings, and adapted to perfection in both their abilities and in his style of play, for his trips to the Nexus.
Heroes of the Storm therefore is going to be a game to keep in mind, a title that also, being free-to-play, all fans of other Blizzard sagas should try, not to mention already the millions and millions of fans of the MOBAs that are scattered all over the world that will surely have a great time with the fresh and somewhat casual style of the title.
The best
- Fast and frenetic games
- The specific objectives of each map
- The brilliant adaptation of the most emblematic heroes of Blizzard to the Nexus
- The talents of the heroes and all the possibilities offered by their different combinations in the games
- Blizzard style: easy to play, difficult to master
Worst
- The match making has to be polished
- In terms of performance the game can be improved
- Heroes, skins and other objects are a bit expensive if paid with real money.
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