Heroes of The Storm

This April, Tracer joins the cast of Heroes of the Storm as the first Overwatch character, adding a new franchise to the motley assortment of heroes heralding from the Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo franchises.

Like the crazy two-player-controlled Cho’gall and behind-the-scenes Abathur, Tracer comes with unique mechanics that make her a character all her own, and as accurate as possible to her speedy, shooty Overwatch counterpart. In true FPS fashion, Tracer can attack while moving, does away with the mana bar for an ammo/reload mechanic, and brings all of her cool abilities from Overwatch to a different play environment.

Tracer is a mobile, ranged assassin that can be built out with her talents to become a glass cannon, persistent poker, or crowd control specialist. Tracer’s talents allow players to build her in a variety of ways with things like leeching rounds or a focus on melee punishment, but any way you play you’re going to be reliving some of those epic Overwatch moments where Tracer can triple-blink into an engagement, drop off a devastating pulse bomb and fire off some rounds, and then recall through time back to safety before the opponents can even react.

Tracer comes with an almost identical kit from her Overwatch self, with a fast-firing gun-and-go playstyle that can triple-blink around the field, a time-recall that ports her three seconds back in the past, and a melee attack for close engagements.

It wouldn’t be Tracer without her signature pulse-bomb attack, and that’s included as her ultimate ability. Unlike other characters, Tracer can start using her ultimate at level one, and instead of acquiring an ultimate at level 10, she gains the ability to refine her pulse bomb with increased radius and a slow effect, a boost in single-target damage at the cost of area-of-effect, or extended range and easier charging.

As new heroes continually roll out to the Nexus with their unique kits, Blizzard will also be bringing Arena mode online sometime this year, where players can enjoy more relaxed, fun-oriented game modes. Arena mode was shown briefly at BlizzCon last year. The game mode is extremely fast-paced with a single objective and almost instant respawn times, with games only lasting a few minutes.

The concept behind the mode moving forward is something akin to Hearthstone’s Tavern Brawl — a potential testing ground for all kinds of crazy game modes and off-the-wall playstyles that can sit side by side with the standard competitive matches.

Heroes of the Storm is getting not one but two of Warcraft’s iconic figures soon, as shown off at BlizzCon 2016. Varian, who you may remember from his not-so-majestic death at the beginning of Legion, comes to the battle as a hero who can be built out in several different ways, from a colossus-smashing warrior tank to an assassination-oriented rogue. This gives players a way to actually craft a different character in each game played, allowing more response to enemy playstyles and strategies. Varian’s versatility in this regard makes for more diverse gameplay decisions and gives players more choices than simply going through the motions as they pick the same talents every game.

While Varian is a classic character, he falls in the shadow of the other character coming – literally. One of World of Warcraft’s most legendary raid bosses, Ragnaros, will be bringing all of his fury to Heroes of the Storm. As with other creative characters that the HotS team has brought to the game, such as the two-player controlled Cho’gall or command-from-across-the-battlefield Abathur, Ragnaros has his actual raid presence come alive inside the game. Ragnaros can actually take over allied forts or destroyed forts with his Molten Core ability, becoming larger than life and gaining health and new powerful abilities. You’ll feel like an actual raid boss, crushing enemies with Sulfuras, dropping meteors, and even letting loose a lava wave that travels down an entire lane, leveling anything in its path. In true raid fashion, players get a warning before the devastation comes to get out of the way, but everything in its path takes serious damage or is slain outright.

In addition to the two legends of Warcraft coming to the fray, a new Brawl (formerly known as Arena) called Blackheart’s Revenge was showcased during BlizzCon 2016, where two teams try to defend and sink battleships, clashing over cannonballs and cannons.

Heroes of the Storm is a game that I was really late to the party on. Had heard of it, but until there was Overwatch stuff in the game that I got interested and man I was missing out.

Avengers Assemble

Ok, so not the Avengers, but Heroes of the Story is Blizzard's version of a huge team-up event. It features some cool characters and characters from some of their biggest franchises. Overwatch, Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft and The Lost Vikings are all represented here. Not just the characters from these respective franchises, but levels, music and much more. Heroes of the Storm is a game that goes over the top with the fanservice and that is awesome.

Easy To Get Into

Heroes of the Storm is a MOBA game and this is a genre I have dabbled in and I can hand on heart say that for me, Heroes of the Storm is the easiest MOBA I have played. I do not mean easy in that the battles are easy. But easy in that it is so easy to get into and learn the basics of the game. Blizzard has streamlined the whole MOBA process in Heroes of the Storm so much so that I think you will either really like it as I do or if you are a seasoned MOBA game veteran you might find it a little simplistic.

Battles Are Fun

I think that the battles in Heroes of the Storm have a lot in common with Overwatch. You will have to kill what feels like a never ending run of enemies, but you also have objectives that you have to do as well. The battles are 5 vs 5 battles and your team will have to work together to try and stay alive and also complete objectives. These objectives will differ from map to map. For example, Tomb of the Spider Queen is my favorite map and in this one, you need to collect gems and use them to get spiders to come down to the map. There is a lot of variety to the maps and I think this is a huge part of what helps keep the battles fun. Another thing I like about the battle is how you can leave your lane to help out a teammate in need and not really have to worry about it. Also, XP is shared and that is something I think makes this a more user friendly game too. The way that Heroes of the Storm wants you to work as a team is something that I really do enjoy.

Great Progression

The progression system of Heroes of the Storm is something that I had no trouble getting to grips with. Each character has a set of three skills that they can make use of. As you level up (every few levels) you can change up your abilities so that you can change the way you play. This is very interesting and I play mainly as D.Va and it took me a while to figure out the best way for me to play as her so that I could support my team. Some people hate how some parts of the progression is locked to loot boxes, but at this point in a free to play game that is just the way things are and I actually think the progression is fair and so far I have not been tempted to spend any real money on the game.

Now, granted I am not what you would call a MOBA connoisseur, but I can tell you that I have had a blast playing Heroes of the Storm. It is a free to play game and it may be tempting for you to spend money, but I have sunk quite a few hours into the game and never once felt the need to spend money. It is the Blizzard charm that makes Hero of the Storm so much fun. You have all these franchises smashed together and it is all wrapped up in battles that are genuinely a lot of fun to play. As this is a free to play game, I highly recommend that you give it a try.

8/10

Pros:

• Makes great use of various Blizzard franchises
• Is nice and easy to get into
• The battles are a lot of fun
• Puts a real emphasis on teamwork
• It is free to play!

Cons:

• Loot boxes!
• Might be a bit simplistic for hardcore MOBA fans