In MOBAs, you can quickly lose touch. That’s why Cortyn loves the game Heroes of the Storm, which has been almost dead for years.
Almost 3 years have passed since Blizzard announced at the end of 2018 that not much would happen in its own MOBA Heroes of the Storm. Although they refused to call the game “dead,” development was drastically scaled back, eSports tournaments were discontinued, and the team was downsized. For many players, it was clear: HotS is dead, nothing more will happen.
However, the fact that Heroes of the Storm has hardly changed makes the game perfect for me.
I can only play MOBAs like SMITE or League of Legends in phases. When there is a lull in World of Warcraft or Dead by Daylight, I like to switch to another game for a week or two and play it intensively. In the past, it was often SMITE.
But I just can’t do it anymore. The games change so quickly that I can only stay in touch if I made these MOBAs my main game. I can’t and don’t want to do that, as MOBAs only intrigue me every few months for a few weeks.
This is where Heroes of the Storm has a huge advantage. Even after 6 months, it’s still the game I left half a year ago. The last hero, Hogger, is now over 7 months old. While there is a small balance patch every month, it usually changes so few details that it hardly affects my understanding of the game.
I believe the last major change I noticed was the renaming of the “Brawl” mode to “ARAM” because that’s what everyone was already calling it.
What many long-term players see as a weakness, wanting more content, new heroes, maps, and skins, is precisely its strength for me.
When I log into SMITE today, I am completely overwhelmed. So many gods and mythological figures have been added that I would have to click through the menus for hours just to get a rough idea of what all the newcomers can do, so I don’t run into their abilities like a fool.
In other words: To really enjoy the games, I would have to invest a lot of time to get back into the game. Not a very enticing thought.
Because Heroes of the Storm only gets absolutely necessary patches now, I never have to relearn the game. Even after 6 months, I know which hero works well against which other hero, how the basic gameplay flows, which talents are sensible in which mode, and what my opponents can throw at me.
To be completely honest: I’ve missed that. I miss games that don’t change much anymore. I miss the old Super Smash Bros. from the Nintendo 64, multiplayer matches in the first Halo games, or versus rounds in Left4Dead2. Those were games that were simply “finished”. Games where I could start again after years, knowing exactly how everything works.
Of course, this isn’t good or sensible for all game genres. An MMORPG like World of Warcraft would eventually lose its appeal without new content. But especially in the area of MOBAs, I would wish for a conclusion, where developers would say: “Hey, we now have a ton of champions/heroes/gods, I think that’s enough now.”
Of course, that’s not possible because new characters draw more attention to the game and also boost sales – I know that. But I’m still allowed to dream a little.
I wish more competitive games were like Heroes of the Storm and reached a state where they are largely “finished”. Because even though this was not a voluntary decision of the developers or players, it has – from my very personal perspective – benefited the game immensely.
That’s why I can still play it for a few rounds every few weeks.
What do you think? Do you still occasionally play Heroes of the Storm? Or have you not touched the MOBA in years?
