Heroes of the Storm - First Impressions

I've been fortunate enough to get hold of a beta key of the new Blizzard game, Heroes of the Storm.

Blizzard calls it a "raucous team brawler".  I don't really know what one of those is, but I can tell you that Heroes is good.  For me it's a bit like a real-time strategy, like C&C, but instead of doing all the management bit (the bit that you don't like), you get to control one of the super powerful army units you produce (which is fun!)

The aim of each map is to go and destroy the enemy energy core, which is defended by variouswalls, fortresses, gun towers, all that sort of thing, which are generally hard as nails to kill.  But you're not by yourself.

You are in a team of 5 heroes lined up, and your base also spits out groups of minions periodically, who don't do a huge amount but are quite useful as cannon fodder - many's the time that I was near death, and saved myself by running and hiding behind a pack of minions.

Currently I'm only up to Level 4, and all of my experience has been with Raynor, a "Ranged Assassin" who basically stands at the back and shoots stuff.  And he's very good at it, as a matter of fact.

Each battle is on one of a number of different maps, each of which brings with it its own intricacies.  For example, the Dragon Shire map requires you to control a pair of shrines in order to turn your hero into a ultra-hard dragon with a massive axe to smash apart enemy defenses.

The game is fun, not overly complex, engaging and combines a lot of the best bits of other games.  In some ways it reminds me a little bit of WoW when it was first around.  If you get the opportunity to give the game a try I'd strongly recommend it.

Here I am about to fight.  Beam me up Scotty.

Here's quite a boring screenshot of my team getting ready to kick ass.

And after a lot of fighting, we won.  Go us.