Heroes of the Storm: Presentation of the Maps and Gameplay of the MOBA from Blizzard

General Points

The story of Blizzard and the MOBA/Dota is a complicated one. While the genre was really born from a mod of Warcraft III, Blizzard totally missed the train when it came to the genre that is now the most popular of multiplayer games. 

Heroes of the Storm: Cinematic Trailer

Holding a gold mine in its hands, Blizzard doesn't react and leaves Riot Games with League of Legends, Valve with Dota 2 and even S2 Games with Heroes of Newerth to overtake them and take the lead in a genre that was to oust the MMORPGs, League of Legends even pushing it as far as to overstep World of Warcraft as the most played online game in the world. 

So Blizzard had to react, the indignity of being outdone in their own field couldn't go unpunished, and in the midst of registering names that looked a little more like the legal squabble with Valve in terms of Dota, a Blizzard Dota was announced, reusing the format of the MOBA and featuring the iconic characters of the Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft licences. Blizzard promised us a release with Heart of the Swarm, the first expansion for Starcraft II.

In the end, Valve won the battle for the name Dota and Blizzard decided to put a bit more into their MOBA instead of making a simple mod of Starcraft II, and this is how Heroes of the Storm was born.

instead of opting for a clone of what is already being done, it's difficult to exist alongside League of Legends, Dota 2 and SMITE, Blizzard would use the recipe which had already worked wonders with World of Warcraft and Hearthstone: the simplification of the basic mechanics of the genre to attract a wider public.

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Gameplay

In short, Blizzard will take all criticism of the genre made by its critics and provide a counter arguement in a game, at the risk of incurring the wrath of fans of LoL or Dota 2.

The first comment made is often about the problems that people have with the length of matches in a MOBA. LoL matches last between 25 and 45 minutes on average and those in Dota 2 are generally a little longer. Blizzard cuts through this by offering matches closer in length to those from the Starcraft II period - fifteen minutes.

But the length of the games isn't the only mechanic that has been tackled by Blizzard. Arguing that the current system with the items, gold and last hits was not very clear, Heroes of the Storm fixes this problem by simply removing them from the game! Unlike all other games of this genre, progression through the game is not made with items and the minions give you no bonus to go shopping with if you deal them a fatal hit. Progression is only made, therefore, by levelling up your hero, but again Blizzard has given the usual recipe a new twist. 

The feeling that a member of your team who is in a bad position could cost you the game is also one of the criticisms made of MOBAs and without the gold, part of the problem with snowballing has already been removed, all that remains is that the levels in the game could play a role and put the hero low in points far behind their team. This won't be the case in Heroes of the Storm, since all the experience gained by a team is shared out between its members! Something that also allows Blizzard to develop some really unusual heroes like Abathur who almost never lanes.

The levelling has also been reviewed and modified by Blizzard and instead of earning your abilities little by little and choosing which ones to level up, you have all the basic abilities of your hero available to you from level 1 and you evolve through a talent tree similar to in World of Warcraft to improve the abilities of your heroes. These choices allow you to personalise the gameplay of the different heroes and choose how their role is orientated directly in the game. As such characters like Sergeant Hammer can take the role of the siege/pusher as well as the more usual choice of carry, depending on your style. 

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The Maps

Another complaint often cited is the lack of variety in the maps and their general lack of interaction. Despite the effort of maps like ARAM or Dominion on League of Legends, the Arena on SMITE and the customised maps arriving soon on Dota 2, the most played mode remains the usual three lanes, three rows of towers and some jungle. HotS attempts to do something different with all the maps offered in the beta.

The first thing that stands out with the "Team Brawler" maps, as Blizzard calls its creation, is their reduced size compared to those of its competitors. The desire to reduce the length of the matches can really be felt in the choice of the design, le disappearance of gold cancelling out the laning phase, and favouring constant teamfights and a map like Dragon Shire is a perfect example of this. 

Blizzard has also clearly put an emphasis on interactivity and the objectives with these maps. Between Dragon Shire and its control points that unlock access to the Dragon Knight and pillaging treasure in Blackheart's Bay, players can influence the map and objectives aren't simply summed up as gold advantages or buffs. The flip side of the coin is that these things are a little gimmicky or too central to the gameplay of the map at the expense of the confrontation between players. 

The maps are also more varied and Blizzard has gone all out with the level design, between the Blackheart's Bay map, the mines on several levels in Haunted Mines or a classic design like in Dragon Shire, the experience is likely not to be as broad and complexe as in its competitors' maps, the focus is on variety and Blizzard will have the length of its recently launched beta, following several months of closed alpha, to ensure the quality and balance of its maps. 

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Summary

Although Heroes of the Storm often raises a few eyebrows from the population of already avid fans of MOBAs, its casualisation and paired down gameplay offer a radically different experience to its competition. The absence of gold, the team levelling and the smaller maps lead to a style of gaming that favours constant combat, a game with objectives that have an interesting impact and much shorter matches. The fact that it also stars the leading characters from the biggest Blizzard licences is also important. 

Blizzard has clearly achieved its gamble to attract the crowds who don't yet have experience of MOBAs, it's up to the beta now to convince those who are already fans of the genre. But is Blizzard really looking to hook them? Nothing is sure.

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