Unless you’ve just dropped from planet Mars, you’ve probably heard about Blizzard’s plan to build a MOBA based on the most popular heroes from all their franchises. Yes, it’s actually as cool as it sounds. Heroes of the Storm will feature champions and heroes from all major Blizzard franchises, including Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft. If you wanted to pump Diablo full of buck-shots as Jim Raynor, your fantasy will be coming true. Blizzard has been relatively silent about the project for awhile, but some leaked screenshots reveal that they have actually been progressing rather nicely. So nicely, that the game is currently in an Alpha state, and might be closing in on Beta soon enough.
The screenshots come as a courtesy of Aidcraft.net, and show off the various menus and options of the game. In addition, the playable characters of Heroes of the StormĀ are also revealed, and while this list may be extended in the future, it currently looks like this:
Abathur, Raynor, Witch Doctor, Gazlowe, Tassadar, Tyrande, Uther, Tychus, Illidan, Falstad, Kerrigan, Barbarian, Nova, Demon Hunter, Malfurion, Sgt. Hammer, Zeratul, Tyrael, E.T.C., Diablo, Muradin, Stitches and Arthas (phew, long list). That’s 23 heroes, each with a unique skillset and attributes. Not too shabby for an alpha, I might add. Almost everyone you’d expect to be featured actually is, and while I miss names like Thrall or would like to see Imperius get a rematch against Diablo, the list is quite extensive, and will most likely continue to grow.
The screenshots also suggest some interesting video settings, promising quite a visual upgrade in the MOBA genre. Heroes of the Storm will most likely be free to play, but will feature an in-game shop. It will also most likely require a Battle.net account for access, so in this regard, it might follow Blizzard’s marketing strategy seen in Hearthstone. In any case, these screenshots come as a sort of a reassurance that we’ll be seeing a beta for Heroes of the Storm soon enough (probably somewhere during the summer). And of course, take a look below to check out the more than epic cinematic trailer for the game, as well as a trailer showing off the gameplay elements:
