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[Column] Heroes of the Storm: Heroes of the Storm Closed Beta Impressions
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
After roughly 10 months of alpha, Blizzard officially moved Heroes of the Storm into closed beta yesterday, and the update included a couple of new features and pieces of content among the expected round of tweaks and bug fixes. We spent some time with the beta version of the game and today we’re offering our first impressions of all the new goodies.
Read more of Michael Bitton's Heroes of the Storm Closed Beta Impressions.
Comments
Do want to try this out.
Hopefully the beta will be opened soon..
Been play it for a fairly long time now and...
It's the best on the market of it's kind for those who just want to have fun; it's hard to rage or get angry due to the quick matches (in addition to being unable to talk to the opposing team), and there are currently 9 maps with different objectives to play on (two of which aren't available to regular beta testers). It's a true team fight game where team fights can happen 10 seconds in -- and typically do -- with objectives to be done rather than just pushing lanes for 45 minutes. The abilities and talents in the game offer distinction between characters, with most characters being able to be DPS, Heals and Tanks if leveled up in specific ways, even if they're core is a specific one. It also sports very unique (or rarely used) class mechanics, such as the ability to play 3 characters at once or a character that stays mostly stationary and "infests" allies / minions to give them buffs that is also omnipotent in that it can see the battlefield more thoroughly (or become copies of allies with their ultimate, having every attack and ultimate the ally has for big team fights).
Easy to learn, though definitely hard to master as it's a team fight game, has countless synergies and plenty of unique character builds (as opposed to -- in my opinion -- a poor system such as gold and items which detracts from gameplay / objectives / teamfights). Support classes can win the game if played well enough, but as a whole one person typically can't be the MVP as you all have to support one another and communicate.
This suits the Blizzard Fanbase greatly, as was likely their goal. Given that it will appear on the Blizzard Launcher as a free game, it's likely that it will rival League in players; unlikely that it will have as large of presence on twitch, though.
This game is a far better game than any other MOBAs I have tried.
The maps are made for teamfights. Unlike LoL and other MOBAs you dont farm the lane 50% of the time in a boring lane-harass play. Here, teamfights happen all the time and they are unique each time.
The champions have way more customization and depth than in other games as well. I overall think this is the best option for a MOBA-like game.
The only problem is the fact that it is made from Blizzard. They charge 10 Euro for a skin... its like 200% of other games prices.
Glad you like it, but I think you may be exaggerating things a bit.
For starters the 'boring farming' in other MOBAs is part of the strategy involved in the game, and is indeed one factor that separates the good from the bad players. If you aren't big on farming those games all have characters that excel at fighting early and getting kills early, instead of farming. However, most players never bother to learn how that aspect of the game works.
The customization you praise HotS for having is there in other MOBAs, if not even more so. All they did in HotS is remove all the items, to remove most of the learning curve for their game. Instead they give you easily digested choices, made for you. You leveled up! would you like choice A or B? With one of those choices usually being clearly superior to the other. In other games you actually have to think a lot about what you're doing. There are way more than 2 choices to consider when advancing your character. There's also a lot more pacing involved.
The constant team fighting in HotS is indeed fun, but other MOBAs have that as well with specialized game modes. And that's what this game tends to lack. It does a really good job of setting up quick, mindless teamfight games. The maps are even well designed. But there isn't much else there. Heck sometimes it feels like you're playing a 3-lane ARAM. And while ARAM is fun, It's also good to have more strategic / competitive game modes.
Maybe in the future they'll add something like that, we'll see.
Well to be fair the exclusion of public chat put this one miles above LoL.
And that is karma in some ways seeing how "BNet kiddies" (whom many probaly have kids of their own by now) was one of the original toxic communities.
This have been a good conversation
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
You have to play it to understand the learning curve. While last hitting and denying are no longer important in HOTS like they are in other MOBAS, there are still many other important factors in the game.
Just like in League and Dota, the most competent players will know the abilities of all the heroes in the game, the damage and cooldown of said abilities, how those abilities damage and cooldown scale through the levels, what talents the players chose and how they effect those abilities, and how the player's own hero can withstand those abilities (to win when they both trade damage).
On top of knowing about each hero, the most competent players will know about the various objectives on each map, when those objectives pop, prioritizing and taking each objective, and synergizing those objectives with pushing the enemy's towers and forts and defending your own towers and forts.
Because there is no longer individual levels, but rather team levels, you cannot 'carry' your team like you can in other MOBAS. You either succeed as a team or lose as a team.
I'm not going to lie and say the game is perfect, but it is pretty fun and a nice break from other MOBAS. Just like many other Blizzard games, I would say HOTS is easy to learn but hard to master.
With that being said, my two favorite things about this latest patch are the implementation of draft mode and resurgence no longer being in the game.
It isn't punishing in any way, if that's what you're getting at. The only real punishing aspects it has are located around objectives and mercenary camps. If you are carrying coins around to turn into the pirate to bomb your enemy's base, they can kill you and take those coins to turn the tables around (as an example).
It focuses on the fun aspects of similar games, throwing away the time consuming portions and adding it's own flare. In addition to being released with a dozen or so maps right off the bat.
Learning curve depends on the heroes, as they all are unique in their own way. Though the concept is easy to understand. Every level or so you are given four skills or talent to choose from that change your starting skills -- or give you more -- in a fundamental way. You don't have to go to a store or purchase items, as that will draw the game out and mean you are away from the action when it's all about team fights and objectives. Some characters can have a dozen or so skills to use by the time they're level 20 or so.
I'd say it is definitely ultra casual as even a loss is incredibly fun for a lot of people. Face roll depends on who you are against and what character you're playing as. This is also true for twitch and skill shots. There is a different type of strategy as a whole than lane fighting games of the same type (which this is not a lane fighting one, it is a team fighting to win / gain levels). Some incredible synergies and hero countering; each hero is able to be built in a variety of different ways. Even if they're a healer or tank at their core, they could be spec'd into assassins easily if they wanted (if they knew their character inside and out and how to construct it after each level).
In rated games, only one class can be played, period. If the opposing team picks it, it is locked out for the other. Team A gets to pick one, two B gets to pick two, Team A 2, Team B 2, Team A 1, Team B 1. The idea there is to see what type of hero synergies / team fight tactics they might go for and to counter it with heroes that are good with that.
There is no "I" in this game; it's team battles, team objectives, team experience shares. No kill stealing. It's about working together more than anything. Think of it as a single player game versus a MMO where 20 people all have to work together. Which is more difficult to pull off? MVPs don't really exist, save for maybe exceedingly good support and leadership (with everyone listening).
Half a dozen. Right now there are 6 maps. Still good variety though.
Seven at the moment. Nine internally. Sixteen tested / thought of. I heard twelve will be the release number from across the vine.
Ok! Black Desert is already out on www.UltimaOnline.com too!
Focus on combat from the start, team play from the start, as well as games not taking 45 minutes AT LEAST to play a game (as well as about 30 minutes before you actually start to fight) are all things that make the game was enjoyable.
Sure, you don't buy items (ya know, you buy the same exact items for each build of a character in other games anyways..So TONS of variety there...) but HotS does allow for different skills/affects. So it's pretty similar in regards to items.
It's much more casual and easy to learn, no doubt. But I am sure they will still make a ton of money in a week that all of us here wish we could hit in a couple life times! :P
The fact I've played almost 300 games in little under a month when I got an Alpha invite in december shows how much I think this game rocks.
It might be cus' I did not play LoL or DoTA for more than a few games but I don't rate last hitting, denying or item buying as complex mechanics, the absence of these mechanics in Heroes does not automatically make Heroes a dumb down MOBA, Heroes just has different mechanics and meta with the Talent system, team leveling, mounts, the way merc camps work and map objectives, these are not in LoL or DoTA so does that mean they're dumbed down when looking at it from the other side?
I enjoy the almost immediate team fights in Heroes, speak to most LoL and DoTA players how many of them enjoy the first 20 mins of a game sitting in lane last hitting while being told how good my mom is in bed by the opposing team for the entire match.
Heroes is not a threat to LoL or DoTA, it's another option for the more casual player and that's a good thing, right?
But the shop prices... come on Blizz!
I wouldn't compare it to LoL/DOTA that much, as the focus is less on lane farm but on map mechanics. And some maps are SUPER FUN!
I like the game from certain points of view (focus on clear mechanics rather than on character development). I don't think they've nailed the talents yet, not for all heroes. Also, there is A LOT of work to be done on balance, quite a few overpowered / underwhelming heroes in their line-up.
The pricing is a bit iffy in my view, the cost is huge I'd say. I do hope they add a few more bundles and even lower their overall prices by 15-30%.
Though the skins are over priced no hero is locked behind a forced pay wall and you cant pay for power it's all cosmetic, for a F2P game I see no issue with that. LoL does the same and Dota2 makes their money from cosmetic hats and fluff the community creates and sells. If anything Dota2 milks more as Valve creates very little yet reap a percentage of any item sold.
Heroes might not be locked behind a paywall but they are damn expensive. I get 30 gold for a win and a hero is between 2k (the cheapest 2).7k and 10k. 200-300 games for 1 hero seems a bit much imho
you are inducing ppl that dont play into thinking that they will have a hard time buying heroes. you forgot to mention they get daily quests that give the minimum of 200 gold not mentioning that the first lvls they are rewarded with a lot of gold
Rehgar isn't a generic WC3 shaman, he's the retired arena champion in the comics who manages a 3s team with Broll, Valeera(the iconic rogue in Hearthstone) and Lo'Gosh(Stormwind's King Varian Wrynn with amnesia). He's got the lightning shield and potentially Bloodlust as an ultimate choice, with WC3's Shadow Hunter spell Chain Heal. The earthbind totem and spirirt wolf form are lifted from WoW shamans mechanically.
His basic skin might look like the unit, but it's clear the author's memory of Warcraft 3 is fuzzy if he even played at all.
Still wish Blizzard went with a more MMORPG style combat and viewpoint ... similar to Smite.
Instead of point and click ... yuck!