Last night I was frantically running around the house squealing because I got Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha access. After taking some deep breaths I then sat at my desk watching the download progress as slowly but surely Heroes was arriving at my command centre. I promptly decided tonight was not the night I was going to go flex raiding on my healer as previously planned.
Unfortunately I don’t have the internet speeds which allow me to stream effectively (yes my beady eye is on you Sky) so I have no broadcast to show you and I was so caught up in actually playing.
The introduction to the game casts you as Raynor with Uther tagging along to guide you through the basics of movement and combat. The tutorial places you in your first match against the AI. Once you have finished these you will have ranked up and unlocked practice mode. At this point I jumped in to practice mode as Raynor…Victory! I decided to try Gazlowe but didn’t enjoy the play style as much as I had Raynor, though we (the AI and I) still won. I opted to try Tyrael after that who I really enjoyed playing as. Raynor just seemed to flow better with me than Gazlowe did. By the time you finish a practice game or two you will have ranked up some more and unlocked Co-Op mode and maybe even Versus mode.
I decided I was ready, ready to play with real people. It turns out as someone who isn’t brave enough to tank in World of Warcraft I sure have trouble staying behind the minions on Heroes. I just want to get out there and beat the crap out of the enemy. Another victory, and this time I was rewarded with some gold. Shiny shiny gold.
I did take a quick browse through the shop, though I didn’t earn enough to buy any Heroes that weren’t already available for me to play in this weeks Hero rotation. I definitely want to try the other Heroes currently available before spending my well deserved gold. The weekly Hero rotation is a nice idea as it lets you try out different Heroes for free, and it’s a good variety each time. If you find you miss a specific Hero then they are gone then you can unlock them permanently. I can only assume this is the same for League and DOTA.
I don’t have a great deal of history playing League of Legends and I’ve never touched DOTA. The last time I played League was a very long time ago. I always found having to craft items during the game confusing, never really sure what I should be making for the character I’ve chosen, always having to resort to Google to help me out there. The same with the glyphs/runes/whateveryoucallthem that you could apply to your character. Heroes has none of this and it’s very refreshing.
During a match you will level up, when it’s time to pick a new skill your options are discreetly placed to the side. The abilities name, icon and description are all there for you to glance at and pick at your leisure. Everything you need is right there in front of you and that is what I really liked.
I think by the end of my first hour I had played each battleground at least once. Blackheart’s Bay was my favourite map, but they are all really great with their own objectives which really make each one stand out on it’s own. I can’t wait to see what future battlegrounds Blizzard may bring us.
Hand on heart this was the only semi-negative thought I had: I was disappointed at how short Uther the Lightbringer was. I always expected him to be taller. That’s it. Call me a Blizzard fangirl if you must, but Heroes is something special and all I need to do now is suffer the next nine hours of work and commuting before I can delve into the Nexus again and unleash my inner badass.