Heroes Of The Storm Review: Easy to get into and fun to play

[Jos]

“We’re closing the gap,” the Nova standing next to me shouted through her radio. “Keep your eyes on the prize!” It was only the character saying that. The person playing Nova had already accepted defeat. We all had. Except for the computer.

“It’s over,” one of my teammates typed after Nova tried to rouse our spirits. “Yup,” another responded. They didn’t want to keep fighting. But we couldn’t surrender, either. So instead we all just wandered idly around the map for a final few minutes, waiting for the enemy team to make one last push into our base.

Blizzard defines Heroes of the Storm as a “hero brawler.” But really, it’s a MOBA—an idiosyncratic and sparsely populated genre of games that mix together bits and pieces of real-time strategy and fighting games in fiercely competitive five-on-five matches. At face value, Heroes has a lot in common with its popular predecessors League of Legends and Dota 2. Most notably, the game pits two teams of fantastical creatures against each other to see who can destroy the other’s base first. One building specifically. In Heroes, it’s called the core.

Read the complete review.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Good review. I've been curious about this game...what made it different from League of Legends for example? And this review answered a lot of questions and gave a good explanation of how things work without throwing in too many opinions that might not be relevant to the reader.

 

[Arris]

Just to explain "casting LiLi's R" means pressing the "R" key to cast Jug O' 1000 cups. The control keys are Q, W, E an R. With Z summoning a mount and H using your heathstone to return to the starting area behind the core. Players often refer to builds with the keys used for abilities. For instance I often play Jim Raynor and go with a Q focused build.

Overall I'm enjoying this game. You have a sense of progress without getting sucked into something like World Of Warcraft's hardcore raiding. You can play 1 game for 25 minutes and then walk away, with the only thing enticing you to play more in one sitting are the quests that reward you with gold that can be used to purchase more characters. Some things can be bought with real money, and since the game is free to pay I don't feel that is greedy unlike games that you have to buy/subscribe to.

I agree with what has been said about the matchmaking. Unlike MMORPG style games which often feature group finders which always combine a warrior(tank), healer and damage dealers(dps) there doesn't seem to be the same set roles to be filled. And often having a team with no tank and no healer can make the team battles (5 vs 5 over objectives etc.) feel extremely one sided.

 

[Arris]

Good review. I've been curious about this game...what made it different from League of Legends for example? And this review answered a lot of questions and gave a good explanation of how things work without throwing in too many opinions that might not be relevant to the reader.

Because there is no individual experience and only team experience there is no emphasis on getting the last hit to kill minions for exp/money. I found this extremely tiresome in LoL and DOTA2. To me it feels like simplified Battlegrounds from World Of Warcraft. I sometimes miss having dozens of buttons and abilities to deal with and being given just Q, W, E, R, D, Z, H and G for pinging the map and sharing information with a popup menu.

Unlike WoW, you can't just select a target and keep mashing keys to attack it. Many abilities are "skillshots" as in you need to aim and predict movement to hit your opponent with them.

 

[Guest]

Interesting. While Moba's aren't usually my favorite games (steep learning curves) it was still an interesting read to see how it was different from League and Dota II. I think Disney could make a really awesome MOBA... with all the characters and properties they own

 

[AnonymousSurfer]

I agree that some of the maps are quite annoying, but overall I like this game much more than I do League of Legends. It could also be I've always played a lot of Blizzard games, and so now that they are all intertwining I just love it even more.

 

[gingerbill]

I played I for awhile in beta and got bored fairly quickly , I have no intention to play it any more and pay for heroes when I can just play DOTA instead. I didn't like the look of the game or the hero animation's , the skills as well didn't seem as impactful as DOTA. It just all seemed a bit bland and simple.

 

[Guest]

In regards to E.T.C., that stands for Elite Tauren Chieftain, which is a reference to the World of Warcraft in-game band called the Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftains. They are 5 Horde npcs that appear at regular times in various spots in WoW to play a song written by some of the Blizzard team called "The Power of the Horde," which is a WoW-themed metal song. That's why this guy has the guitar/axe and looks like a glam rocker.

 

[Guest]

I hate the cartoonish look of this and LoL, Dota 2 FTW!