MyMMO demon Cortyn plays a MOBA that has been dead for years. Yet for a dead game, it still offers fantastic entertainment.
When games “die” and development is halted, it often leads to mourning. Especially after spending many years in a game, it can be quite frustrating to know that there will be no more updates, the player base is slowly dwindling, and the golden years are over.
However, what is a nuisance for many is encouraging my circle of friends and me to play Heroes of the Storm more than ever. Because Blizzard’s MOBA gives us exactly what we miss in other MOBAs: consistency.
One of the last heroes developed for Heroes of the Storm:
But to define “Dead” at Heroes of the Storm:
- In 2018, Blizzard drastically shrank the Heroes of the Storm team. Only a few heroes were released, and patches became less frequent.
- In 2022, this team was more or less disbanded. Since then, there have only been maintenance patches. There is no new content.
- Even now, in 2024, Heroes of the Storm is still playable. The servers are still online.
One might wonder: Cortyn, why do you play Heroes of the Storm when other MOBAs are more modern and receive more content?
The answer is simple: Exactly because of that.
Consistency Helps – Because There Are Always More Active Games
The number of games I actively play has significantly increased over the past few years. Alongside the long-standing World of Warcraft, there are Overwatch, Dead by Daylight, occasional Hearthstone, or even single-player games with great scope, like Baldur’s Gate 3 or maybe a Stellar Blade.
This means there are months when I don’t really engage with a MOBA. When I return, everything is different: the “meta” has shifted, heroes have changed, there are new maps, and somehow what I once knew as “good” has become quite different.
This is precisely what doesn’t happen in Heroes of the Storm. The game is exactly how my friends and I like it. It doesn’t change anymore. It stays the same, and we don’t have to learn anything new. What we once know stays with us.
Additionally, all the things that Heroes of the Storm has done well from the beginning and that set it apart from other MOBAs:
- The team spirit. The entire team shares experience points; everyone levels up together. There are no “last hits”, or “you stole my kill and XP”. The team always benefits together.
- Talents instead of items. There is no shop where you have to spend gold to stock up on items. Instead, every hero has 2-4 talents to choose from every few levels that change abilities or grant new ones, so you can customize each hero according to the match without needing to memorize dozens or hundreds of items.
- Objectives that force action. Every map has additional objectives that inevitably force both teams into team fights. This prevents boredom or a “never-ending back and forth on a lane” where you are just waiting for a micro mistake or for a jungler to secure the kill.
Although Heroes of the Storm has been “dead” for several years and is only in “maintenance mode”, there are virtually no waiting times. Whether we play ARAM or quick matches – usually a match is found within seconds. I can’t judge if this is also true in the early morning hours – but from afternoon to night, you can basically complete match after match. Apparently, there are still enough people playing so that waiting times do not occur.
In a world where games need to reinvent themselves every few years, where every update must bring an overhaul, I love a game that is essentially dead. Because Heroes of the Storm no longer changes, it is the perfect MOBA for me to which I can always return. A game where I immediately feel at home again and instantly know which character has which abilities.
That is something that no “living” MOBA can achieve.
