^Totalbiscuit's discerning thoughts
My first thought: "Oh no.... another MOBA, as if there isn't enough of that already..."
After watching the video, my thought is "Hmm! This actually looks promising, I'll definitely give it a try!"
Noting that, due to creating Temple Siege, I have been very stubborn when it comes to game design in MOBAs, this is quite an interesting thought. Here's why.
Intersting Things
- NO ITEMS
no way, no f*cking way. The one HUGE design flaw that causes me to dislike ALL mobas before.. is not here. YES!
Making TS, I strongly believe items are a huge pain in the ass and purely fluff that detracts from hero vs. hero interactions. Heroes of the Storm takes away items and goes for Level by level Special Upgrades called "Talents" - TALENTS
Every few levels you gain a talent. It is unclear as of now how the talent tree plays out.. whether or not picking one talent forces you to that branch, or if the talents are randomized. But importantly, the talents give specific upgrades to certain things that leans the hero to a certain playstyle. This is exactly the same model as the shop upgrades in TS2. For example, you can upgrade Siege Mode Range, and Hover Siege Mode later on to become an annoying ranged tank... Or go pure armor.. Or get ability upgrades. Of course, there's also boring passives like "increased damage".. but at least there's a very solid, well defined choice.
Note: Talents is the *only* progression system in the game. - INTERESTING HEROES
I swear, the zeratul hero is the exact same as the assassin in TS2. It's got a blink spell, a cloak spell, and an AoE sword spell that stuns... wtf eh? Anyway, Heroes like Zeratul and Kerrigan who cloaks when mounting, or the Siege Tank, or a Zerg Unit that summon drones to attack (just like TS...) have extremely different playstyles in even the most basic things. That is good.
All heroes also start with the first 3 abilities, with the ultimate coming in @ a certain level. This is cool, as giving abilities levels, and leveling each ability one by one, to me, seems tedious. Ultimate abilities are Ultimate. Having to put levels to get passive buffs to the abilities makes them boring. (special talents that improve the abilities in a certain way, like increased range/stun, is not) - MAP-SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Big one. Each map has their own specific objectives. One map has you capturing tributes around the map. 3 tributes will curse the enemy's team, making their creeps and towers much weaker. Another map has you collecting doubloons, and giving it to the pirate king in the middle of the map. You can kill heroes holding doubloons so they will drop them. Once enough doubloons are given, the pirate king will barrage the enemy's towers and lower their HP.
This is an EXTREMELY interesting way to force players out of the paths and instigate battles away from paths and creeps. - TOWERS HAVE AMMO-REGEN
This is a stroke of genius. A problem the TS team and I always faced was balancing the photon cannons. Here, the towers have limited ammo, and need time to regenerate them. There are also walls around the towers that you can destroy so you can bypass the towers entirely (and let creep surround them). What happens is that, even early game, you can pressure the towers by forcing them to use all their ammo, then you have free reign to attack them without taking damage. Excellent mechanic, excellent design! - JUNGLING HAS VERY SPECIFIC FUNCTION
Killing a jungle camp rewards you with the exact units you just killed. It helps you push. That's it. Nice and focused! (also gives exp i think?)
Not-So-Good Things
- HEROES ARE ALL SLOW, BUMBLING UNITS
Ugh. So big, so slow. Pretty unexciting. Even tho it seems the rest of the game is focused on hero vs. hero interactions, the heroes themselves are far too big and slow for any twitch plays. They are seriously the size of carriers.. with comparable speeds. You'd think with such different heroes, they'd throw in some with faster speed. - MICROTRANSACTIONS
$20 rainbow unicorn mount.... $20?! ..
MTs are fine, but the prices atm are bloated.
Things that are Meh
- MOUNTS
You get a mount that increases your movement speed. You can activate it anywhere in a few seconds. You still get a "b" button to recall back to your base. It's interesting, but I don't see any particular pros or cons about it - TEAM-WIDE LEVELS
There are no individual levels. Your entire team shares the same level. Again, there are good and bad to this.
So, what do you think? A part of me feel a tinge of jealousy as they took two things that I felt differentiate TS from other hero battles. Nonetheless, I'm really glad the makers of the Heroes of the Storms have set themselves apart from other dota-style games.
None.