Heroes of the Storm (2015)

I've found myself returning HotS and I'm not proud of it.

Its accessibility and ease of muting team chat has kept me in an interactive pace. Being a healer class feels nice at the moment.

The clunk of my aged reaction time is spit across my win/loss ratio. It pairs with a similar amount of dust that now layers the title. Its easy to tell blizzard has moved on without looking at the patch notes. The matchmaking system routinely groups intimidating veterans with completely new players. While the sheer amount of characters and colour slaps the eyeballs.

In the end, I'm left feeling like I've bumped into old friend back home who never left our hometown. I just don't want to be rude and ask why they're still here.

This game seems dramatically easier to get a grip on than Dota 2 and League of Legends thanks to its substantially streamlined iteration on the DotA formula at all levels. So many of the mechanics I found overwhelming in League simply are not here or are dramatically reworked, which is definitely a big sacrifice in terms of depth. But in a "meta"-driven game, there were only ever a few items you are supposed to use anyway for example, and an amateur player certainly is not engaging in high-level decision making around those mechanics yet, so I lose pretty much nothing.

I really appreciate what they went for here, prioritizing action and shorter match times over dozens of micro-level decisions and excess farming time, while still maintaining the team coordination and some decision-making inherent to the MOBA genre.

One downside is that when compared to the kings of the genre, this game's overall personality and roster of characters is surprisingly dull. Yes, there are Overwatch characters here, though none really appeal to me in this context. Largely, the game is full of WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo characters, which have never really been my cup of tea. Oh well, at its core it's still fun to play, and I plan on playing this game a good amount on the side over the next few weeks.

Current Favorite Heroes: Malfurion, Fenix, Alexstrasza, Thrall

This game has come a long way from its release. It's a ton of fun to play with friends, and the learning curve isn't as insane as other MOBAs. That doesn't mean it's a "simple" game, there's plenty of nuance and meta-gaming to be had. I just really like it, and I hope to see some awesome heroes in the future. Really want to see them do a take on C'Thun from World of Warcraft.