Time to try Heroes of the Storm

Despite having provided the medium for the classic MOBA model as codified in DotA, Blizzard has elected to shy away from imitating this template. The result had been a MOBA unlike anything else that came before, utterly dropping a lot of the genre's key elements and mixing in whole new ones. Blizzard has been accused of imitation before, but they are nothing if masters at distilling what makes an idea work and refining it into a new, polished product.

    The process of refinement has produced in Heroes of the Storm a MOBA that is probably the most accessible of the mainstream. When it was launched in 2015, it was under the stigma of being the easiest MOBA and lacking depth; however we are now on the other side of the launch of Overwatch, which has reminded how revolutionary and engaging Blizzard can be while apparently simplifying established products. The success of Overwatch bodes well for the success of Heroes, which Blizzard is capitalizing on by adding cross-product promotion events and aggressively adding Overwatch heroes as playable MOBA characters.

    With the addition of Overwatch-style loot chests to Heroes, with sprays and voice taunts and other collectibles, Blizzard has launched Heroes of the Storm 2.0. This is very much the time to jump in (if you haven't already to get your Overwatch rewards.) For a limited time all players who log in will even be rewarded with enough in-game currency to purchase discounted bundles of 20 heroes, a feat of generosity that Riot Games is unlikely to ever conceived of.

    And it's not just the cross-product promotion, the opening up of the cosmetic market and the freebie heroes. Those are reasons to start playing, but it's the gameplay that'll keep you in. If you bounced off of HotS in 2015 you might be pleasantly surprised. The game has had two years to add a ton of interesting content that really fixes the initial monotony of launch. Many more maps and objectives to fight over and heroes to choose from. HotS has always had its objective-oriented, teamfight-favouring style down and the variety is quite simply unmatched. If you are disinterested in hour-long matches in League and Dota 2 and perfecting your understanding of the same map, if you don't like long laning phases and would prefer to just get stuck in, this is the game for you to try.

    A beginner should definitely pick some of the more forgiving and generally useful heroes to learn – characters such as Tassadar, Valla, Nazeebo and Arthas are straightforward and with very few real weaknesses. These will ease your journey into the game and give you that endorphin rush of victory more frequently. However you should definitely make it a point to try out some of HotS' more inventive hero designs, because this is also an area that the game pushes the envelope that its predecessors never attempted. Abathur is definitely the poster child in this regard, being able to influence the entire battlefield from afar, never engaging in direct combat. The unique experience and objective mechanics are built into the designs of Murky and The Lost Vikings. And for a truly unique experience, why not pick the hero Cho'gall, who requires two individual players to control?

    There has never been a better time to try out the most inventive mainstream MOBA, and if recent activity is anything to go by the game will only improve.

Zoheb Mashiur is a prematurely balding man with bad facial hair and so does his best to avoid people. Ruin his efforts by writing to zoheb.mashiur@gmail.com