Heroes of the Storm

This article is about the Blizzard Entertainment video game. For the Finnish role-playing game formerly titled Heroes of the Storm, see Age of the Tempest.
Heroes of the Storm
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Composer(s) Glenn Stafford
Jason Hayes
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, OS X
Release date(s) June 2, 2015
Genre(s) Multiplayer online battle arena
Mode(s) Multiplayer

Heroes of the Storm (HotS) is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows and OS X. The game features heroes from Blizzard's franchises including Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, The Lost Vikings, and Overwatch. The game uses both free-to-play and freemium models and is supported by micropayments, which can be used to purchase heroes, visual alterations for the heroes in the game, and mounts.[1][2] Blizzard does not call the game a "multiplayer online battle arena" or an "action real-time strategy" because they feel it is something different with a broader playstyle; they refer to it as an online "hero brawler".[3]

The game was released on June 2, 2015.[4]

Gameplay

Heroes of the Storm revolves around online 5-versus-5 matches, operated through Blizzard's online gaming service Battle.net. Players can choose from three game modes, which include playing with/against computer-controlled heroes or other players. When players first start the game, they may play 6 heroes provided by the free hero rotation, a methodically selected list that changes weekly, but by using gold coins, the in-game source of wealth, or through microtransactions, they can gain permanent access to a hero. Four additional heroes are available to players who have reached level 15. As of February 2016, there are currently 49 heroes in the game divided into 4 separate roles.[5] Of the currently released maps, 8 of the 10 have the standard 3 main lanes where players can fight, while the others have only two main lanes, but a separate objective-based area.[6] Killing computer-controlled enemy/neutral units and the opposing side's heroes grants experience points, which are shared with the entire team. When a certain experience point threshold is reached for a team, each hero on that team levels up, acquiring slightly amplified powers and gaining a talent point upon reaching levels 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, and 20. Talent points allow players to customize and empower their hero's abilities and generally result in large increase in use, especially for levels 10, 15, and 20. This leveling system emphasizes the importance of teamwork and planning, since a player's action can affect the whole team. Players can also mount different animals, such as horses, lizards, or unicorns, to increase their movement speed, automatically dismounting when dealing/receiving damage or using an ability. Minions at neutral camps can be defeated to gain experience points, and mercenaries that fight for the player. Each map has a different side-objective that will help either team and deal significant damage to the other.

Game modes

In non-draft modes, players choose their heroes in a party before entering the game or knowing what map they are playing. In draft modes, teams cannot play the same heroes as the opposing team. However, they can base their decision around the map that is announced during the draft period.

Since the launch of the game, both Hero and Team league have been in a test phase called preseason. The start of the first official season has yet to be announced.[8]

Matchmaking

As players win or lose their fights while playing Heroes of the Storm a hidden formula, called Matchmaking Rating (MMR), is applied so that the players will always be matched with other players of equal skill. MMR uses the Elo formula with proprietary adjustments.

Development

As a part of the arcade feature for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a custom map called "Blizzard DOTA" was announced alongside several other mods of Blizzard Entertainment at BlizzCon 2010.[9] At that time, the map was developed to showcase the modding abilities that were to be added to StarCraft II.[10] In 2011, however, development of Blizzard DOTA was rebooted and demoed at BlizzCon 2011.[11][12] In comparison to the previous iteration previewed at BlizzCon 2010, the gameplay was described as "fast" and "streamlined."[13][14]

Following the announcement of Dota 2 by Valve Corporation, Rob Pardo, the executive vice president of Blizzard Entertainment, expressed concern at Valve using and trademarking a name that originated from within the Warcraft III community. Following a failed trademark injunction on the part of Riot Games, Blizzard acquired Riot's subsidiary, DotA-Allstars, LLC., the original company that represented the servicing of Defense of the Ancients. Subsequently, Blizzard filed an opposition against Valve for claiming the DotA trademark.[15] On May 11, 2012, Blizzard and Valve announced that the dispute had been settled, with Valve retaining the commercial franchising rights to the term "Dota", while Blizzard would change the name of Blizzard DOTA to Blizzard All-Stars.[16]

In June 2012, Dustin Browder, the director of StarCraft II, stated that Blizzard All-Stars did not have a release date, but that it would definitely be after the release of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.[2] In an interview in January 2013, he noted that parts of the game were "starting to feel really good", with "a really tight multiplayer experience", but that there was no way to project a timeline on it, since it was not complete enough to run a company-wide internal alpha test.[17] In February 2013, the Activision Blizzard fourth quarter 2012 earnings report listed Blizzard All-Stars as one of the areas of continued investment for Blizzard throughout 2013.[18] Dustin Browder commented in March 2013 that a few artists had transitioned from the StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm team, to work on Blizzard All-Stars for the time being along with the few designers on the team.[19]

In August 2013, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime said that the game had reached a significant internal testing milestone, and was going into wider internal testing. Describing it as an "action real-time strategy" game, he said that Blizzard was looking to put their own spin on the genre and challenge some of the existing design paradigms. The Blizzard All-Stars team was expanded in May 2013, from some of the resources who were reallocated when Blizzard's Titan project was rebooted and the team downsized.[20] On October 17, 2013, the name of the game was changed to Heroes of the Storm.[21]

Heroes of the Storm entered a technical alpha testing phase on March 13, 2014,[22] which went offline on September 22, 2014.[23] The technical alpha went back online on October 7, 2014 for North America, Latin America, South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. The servers for Europe, Korea, China and Taiwan went online in the following weeks.[24] The technical alpha continued until the beginning of the closed beta. Closed beta testing started on January 13, 2015.[25] As of February 2015, over 9 million players had signed up for eligibility to receive an invite to beta testing.[26] The open beta of the game began on May 19, 2015, and the full version of the game was released on June 2, 2015.[4]

Promotions

While the game was in Alpha testing, Blizzard ran a promotion as part of the pre-order for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, which unlocked Valla as a free hero.[27] To mark the release of Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard had crossovers implemented between Blizzard games. Players who reached account level 12 in Heroes of the Storm received the Heroes of the Storm themed card back in Hearthstone and after winning 100 play mode matches in Hearthstone received the Hearthstone Card mount in Heroes of the Storm.[28] Players who reached account level 20 in Heroes of the Storm received a Grave Golem battle pet in World of Warcraft and after reaching level 100 in World of Warcraft received an Ironside Dire Wolf mount in Heroes of the Storm.[29] After the Diablo hero patch, any player that purchased Diablo III was given the Diablo hero free for a limited time; players who reach level 12 in Heroes of the Storm will receive a unique pennant and portrait frame in Diablo III and reaching level 70 Season 4 and beyond receive Malthael's Phantom mount in Heroes of the Storm.[30] Players who purchase the StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void deluxe or collector's editions receive a Void Seeker mount in Heroes of the Storm and purchasing any edition of Legacy of the Void unlocks the Artanis hero.[31] Players who purchase the Origins Edition of Overwatch will unlock Tracer as a free hero.[32]

Reception

Critical response

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic86/100[33]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Destructoid9.5/10[34]
Game Revolution[35]
GamesRadar[36]
IGN6.5/10[37]
PC Gamer (US)84/100[38]
Polygon7.5/10[39]
The Escapist[40]

Heroes of the Storm received generally favorable reviews upon release. Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating in the 0–100 range, calculated an average score of 88 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on 20 reviews.[33]

GameSpot awarded it 9.0 out of 10, summarizing "A fantastic casual-competitive game that offers untold hours of enjoyment."[41] IGN awarded it 6.5 out of 10, saying "Heroes of the Storm is a flawed, varied MOBA with terrific team fighting and poor objectives."[37]

References

  1. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (January 22, 2013). "Blizzard "actively working" on Blizzard All-Stars, so what's the hold up?". Eurogamer.net. Archived from the original on May 6, 2013.
  2. 1 2 Browder, Dustin (June 15, 2012). Dustin Browder Interview - MLG Anaheim 2012. Interview with StarCraft: Legacy - KDraconis. Archived from the original on October 13, 2012.
  3. ↑ Gaston, Martin (November 9, 2013). "Blizzard explains why it doesn't call Heroes of the Dorm a MOBA". GameSpot. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Blizzard’s Worlds Collide When Heroes of the Dorm Launches June 2 - Everyone’s invited to join the battle for the Nexus when open beta testing begins on May 19". April 20, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Heroes". Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Battlegrounds". Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Party Size Changes for Hero League". Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Ranked Play According to Blizzard". Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  9. ↑ Funk, John (October 22, 2010). "BlizzCon 2010: Hands-On Blizzard DotA, Left 2 Die, Starjeweled". The Escapist Magazine. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Blizzard DotA - BlizzCon 2010 - Matt Gotcher, StarCraft II Level Designer". YouTube.com. October 23, 2010. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  11. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (August 22, 2011). "Blizzard DOTA "completely rebooted"". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  12. ↑ "StarCraft II – Blizzard All Stars & Mod Tools Panel". Blizzard Entertainment. October 22, 2011. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  13. ↑ McCurley, Mathew (October 21, 2011). "Hands-on with Blizzard DOTA: Tweaking the genre it created". Joystiq.com. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  14. ↑ Johnson, Leif (October 23, 2011). "BlizzCon 2011: Blizzard DOTA Impressions". GameSpy. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  15. ↑ Plunkett, Luke (February 10, 2012). "Blizzard and Valve go to War Over DOTA Name". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 4, 2012.
  16. ↑ Reilly, Jim (May 11, 2012). "Valve, Blizzard Reach DOTA Trademark Agreement". Game Informer. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012.
  17. ↑ "January 17 Dustin Browder Interview". Starcraft Legacy. January 17, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  18. ↑ Bramblet, Matthew (February 7, 2013). "Activision Blizzard Q4 2012 Earnings Report". diablo.somepage.com. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  19. ↑ "Reddit AMA Full Transcript - Dustin Browder, Alan Dabiri, David Kim". Blizzard Entertainment. March 6, 2013. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
  20. ↑ Bramblet, Matthew (August 1, 2013). "Diablo III Announcement Coming at Gamescon - Activision Blizzard Q2 2013 earnings report details the Blizzard All-Star progress and 'Project Titan' revamp". Diablo Somepage. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
  21. ↑ Narcisse, Evan (October 17, 2013). "Blizzard’s Diablo/Starcraft/WoW Crossover Has a New Name". Kotaku.
  22. ↑ "The Heroes of the Dorm Technical Alpha is Now LIVE!". Blizzard Entertainment. March 13, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
  23. ↑ "Final Phase of Technical Alpha Coming". Blizzard Entertainment. September 9, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Technical Alpha is Back Online!". Blizzard Entertainment. October 7, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  25. ↑ "Heroes Closed Beta Announced at BlizzCon 2014". Blizzard Entertainment. November 11, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  26. ↑ "Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Earnings Report: Q4 2014 Conference Call Transcript". TheStreet.com. February 6, 2015. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
  27. ↑ "REAPER OF SOULS—PRE-ORDER LOOT REVEALED". Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  28. ↑ "New Heroes of the StormThemed Card Back, Hearthstone Mount in Heroes of the Storm". Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  29. ↑ "Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes". June 2, 2015. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  30. ↑ Play Diablo III And Reap The Benefits In The Nexus! August 7, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2015
  31. ↑ "PRE-PURCHASE STARCRAFT II: LEGACY OF THE VOID AND PLAY THE "WHISPERS OF OBLIVION" PROLOGUE TODAY". Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  32. ↑ Dyer, Mitch. "BLIZZCON 2015: OVERWATCH: ORIGINS EDITION RELEASE DATE SET FOR SPRING 2016". IGN. IGN. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  33. 1 2 "Heroes of the Storm". Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  34. ↑ Carter, Chris (June 2, 2015). "Review: Heroes of the Storm". Destructoid. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  35. ↑ Leack, Jonathan (June 2, 2015). "Heroes of the Storm Review". Game Revolution. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  36. ↑ Sullivan, Lucas (June 3, 2015). "Heroes of the Storm Review". GamesRadar. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  37. 1 2 Dyer, Mitch (June 2, 2015). "Heroes of the Storm Review". IGN. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  38. ↑ Thursten, Chris (June 3, 2015). "Heroes of the Storm". PC Gamer. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  39. ↑ Gies, Arthur (June 2, 2015). "Heroes of the Storm Review: Into The Breach". Polygon. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  40. ↑ Miozzi, CJ (June 2, 2015). "Heroes of the Dorm Review - Totally Not A MOBA". The Escapist. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  41. ↑

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 24, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.