Heroes of the Storm is a multiplayer online battle arena video game created and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was first announced at BlizzCon 2010 and released on June 2, 2015, for macOS and Windows computers. The game includes characters from Blizzard’s popular game series, such as Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch, as playable heroes. The game’s battlegrounds are based on the settings of these universes.

In each match, two teams of five players compete. The goal is to destroy the opposing team’s main structure, called the "Core." The first team to destroy the Core wins the match, which usually lasts about 20 minutes. Matches take place on different themed battlegrounds, each with unique designs and additional objectives that provide special advantages. Each player controls one hero, a character with unique abilities and play styles. Heroes gain strength during the match by earning experience points and unlocking "talents," which are special abilities or upgrades that help the team achieve its goals.

Heroes of the Storm was inspired by Defense of the Ancients, a mod for Warcraft III, another Blizzard game. The game is free to play and includes microtransactions, which allow players to buy heroes, visual customizations for heroes, mounts, and other decorative items. Blizzard initially called the game a "hero brawler" but later used the more common term for the genre: "multiplayer online battle arena" (MOBA).

As of July 2022, Blizzard reduced major development work on Heroes of the Storm. However, the game still receives regular updates, such as seasonal balance changes and bug fixes.

Gameplay

Heroes of the Storm is a game where five players on each team compete against each other on Battle.net, Blizzard's online gaming service. Each match lasts about 20 minutes, and the goal is to destroy the enemy team's main structure, called the "Core," before the enemy team does the same. To reach the Core, players must first destroy defensive structures like "forts" and "keeps" in specific lanes. Teams can get help from mercenary camps, powerful bosses, and groups of computer-controlled units called "minions." These minions move along set paths toward the enemy base and fight anyone in their way.

There are 15 different battlegrounds, each with its own unique rules and extra goals. Completing these goals gives teams advantages, such as controlling key areas or fighting enemies directly, which helps them attack the enemy base more effectively.

In all game modes, each player controls one of 90 available characters, called "heroes." Each hero has a unique design, strengths, and weaknesses. Heroes are grouped into six roles: tank, bruiser, ranged assassin, melee assassin, healer, and support. Players can buy heroes using in-game money called "Gold" or through purchases. Every week, a selection of heroes is free to use, allowing players to try new characters without cost.

Each hero has a set of abilities. These usually include three basic abilities that can be used from the start, a passive or active trait, and a powerful "heroic ability." At level 10, players choose one of two "heroic" abilities, which are strong but take time to recharge. A hero can only use one heroic ability per match. If a hero loses all health, they are removed from the game until a respawn timer ends. After respawning, they return to their team's base, called the "Hall of Storms." The Hall of Storms allows heroes to heal over time, provides protection from enemy attacks, and pushes enemy players away when they enter.

Experience points are earned by collecting experience globes from defeated minions and are shared with the entire team. This is different from most other games, where experience is tracked individually. Destroying enemy structures like towers, forts, and keeps also gives experience to the team. When a team reaches a certain experience total, all heroes on that team level up, gaining stronger abilities up to level 30. Every few levels, players can choose a "talent" that adds new abilities or improves existing ones. Two major power boosts happen at levels 10 and 20, where heroes gain special abilities called "heroic" and "storm talents." This system shows how teamwork and planning are important because one player's actions affect the whole team.

Players can use a "Hearthstone" ability to teleport back to their base from anywhere on the map after a short delay. They can also use mounts like animals, bikes, or clouds to move faster, but they automatically stop when attacking, taking damage, or using abilities.

Heroes of the Storm includes several game modes:

• Tutorials: Three guided lessons teach new players basic controls, movement, and ability use. The player controls Jim Raynor, who is helped by Uther the Lightbringer.
• Training: A practice mode where a player teams up with four AI allies to fight five AI opponents at an easy difficulty.
• Versus A.I.: Players face five AI opponents. They can choose to have human or AI allies and set the AI's difficulty.
• Quick Match: Players select heroes before being randomly matched with other players. Teams of five human-controlled heroes compete on a random battleground. Players can join solo or in groups, and teams are balanced based on past performance and hero roles.
• Unranked Draft: Before a match, teams take turns selecting heroes and banning others to build their team. This mode teaches strategic hero selection without affecting rankings.
• Storm League: A ranked mode where players are matched based on their skill level. Players are ranked in leagues from Bronze (lowest) to Grand Master (highest). Leagues below Master are divided into five divisions, with Division 1 being the highest. In Master league, rankings are based on MMR points. The top 100 players in Master who win at least 35 games are called Grand Masters. Blizzard updates a leaderboard nightly to show Grand Master players in each region. Players can compete individually or as part of a team.

Business model

Heroes of the Storm is a free-to-play game that uses a business model allowing players to access the game for free while offering optional purchases. The game uses three types of in-game currency: "Gems," "Gold," and "Shards." Gold can be earned by playing the game, completing daily, seasonal, or event quests, and leveling up. Gold can be used to purchase heroes, gold-only mounts, hero mastery rings, Loot Chests, and Shards. Gems can be earned through gameplay or purchased with real money. Shards are obtained by trading duplicate items from Loot Chests or by buying them with Gold. Players can use Gems or Shards to buy cosmetic items such as skins, mounts, banners, sprays, announcers, voice lines, emojis, and portraits. Heroes, the only category in the Collection that affects gameplay, can be purchased using either Gems or Gold.

Gem-only items in the Collection include "bundles," which are groups of game content, and "boosts" (previously called "stimpacks"), which increase the amount of Gold and account experience earned per match.

Development

As part of the arcade feature for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a custom map called "Blizzard DOTA" was announced at BlizzCon 2010 along with other StarCraft II mods. At that time, the map was created to show the new features that StarCraft II would allow for custom game development. In 2011, the development of Blizzard DOTA was restarted and shown again at BlizzCon 2011. Compared to the earlier version from 2010, the gameplay was described as "fast" and "streamlined."

After Valve announced Dota 2, Rob Pardo, an executive at Blizzard Entertainment, expressed concern about Valve using a name that came from the Warcraft III community. After a failed legal attempt by Riot Games to stop the use of the name, Blizzard bought Riot's company, DotA-Allstars, LLC., which had managed the Defense of the Ancients game. Blizzard then filed a legal challenge against Valve over the "DotA" trademark. On May 11, 2012, Blizzard and Valve agreed to settle the dispute. Valve kept the right to use the name "Dota" for commercial purposes, while Blizzard changed the name of their game from Blizzard DOTA to Blizzard All-Stars. Blizzard will still be allowed to use the name "DOTA" for non-commercial purposes, such as promoting community-made DOTA-style maps for Blizzard games.

In June 2012, Dustin Browder, the director of StarCraft II, said Blizzard All-Stars had no release date but would come out after StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. In February 2013, Blizzard listed Blizzard All-Stars as one of their key projects for 2013. In March 2013, some artists and designers from the Heart of the Swarm team moved to work on Blizzard All-Stars. A challenge for the art team was combining the different art styles from Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo into one unified style.

In August 2013, the game entered wider internal testing. Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard, called it Blizzard's version of an "action real-time strategy" game. The team grew in May 2013 after resources were reallocated when Blizzard's Titan project was scaled back. On October 17, 2013, the game was renamed Heroes of the Storm.

Heroes of the Storm started a technical alpha testing phase on March 13, 2014, which ended on September 22, 2014. Testing resumed on October 7, 2014, for regions like North America and Southeast Asia. Servers for Europe, Korea, and other regions launched later. The technical alpha continued until the closed beta began on January 13, 2015. By February 2015, over 9 million players had signed up for the beta. The open beta started on May 19, 2015, and the full game was released on June 2, 2015.

During alpha testing, Blizzard offered a free hero, Valla, to players who pre-ordered Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. To celebrate the game's release, Blizzard added crossovers between Heroes of the Storm and other Blizzard games. For example, players who reached level 12 in Heroes of the Storm received a themed card back in Hearthstone, and players who won 100 matches in Hearthstone got a Hearthstone card mount in Heroes of the Storm. Other crossovers included items in World of Warcraft and Diablo III.

During the Nexus Challenge event (November 15, 2016–January 4, 2017), players who completed 15 games with a friend received an Overwatch skin and a free hero in Heroes of the Storm. Completing 30 games unlocked additional heroes and items. During the For Azeroth! event (February 14–March 26, 2017), players who played with a friend earned mounts and items in Heroes of the Storm and World of Warcraft.

During the Nexus Challenge 2.0 event (April 24–May 22, 2017), players could unlock special bundles and receive Overwatch-themed rewards.

On March 29, 2017, game director Alan Dabiri announced Heroes of the Storm 2.0, which included changes to player and hero progression systems. Level limits were removed, and new items called "Loot Chests" were added, containing cosmetics like skins and mounts. A new in-game shop called "Collection" and new currencies, "Gems" and "Shards," were introduced. A new hero, Cassia from Diablo, was also announced.

Heroes of the Storm 2.0 entered beta testing on March 29, 2017, and was released on April 25, 2017.

On December 13, 2018, Blizzard announced that some Heroes of the Storm developers would move to other projects, and the game would enter a long-term support phase. Blizzard also canceled its esports tournaments, Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm. Some players were surprised by the announcement, as they had been told at BlizzCon 2018 that the tournaments would continue.

Setting and plot

The game Heroes of the Storm takes place in the Nexus, a special place where different universes meet. The Nexus is located in the middle of a huge storm that connects different dimensions. This storm has huge amounts of energy and can pull worlds into or out of existence. It can also make some worlds stable. Some important areas in the Nexus, such as Raven Court, King's Crest, and Luxoria, are examples of these stable places. Each Realm in the Nexus has a special object called a "Singularity." Only the person who conquers a Realm can become its Realm Lord. A Singularity grants its owner power similar to a demigod, but it does not give immortality. Many strong warriors from other worlds, such as Azeroth, Sanctuary, and the Koprulu sector, have been pulled into the Nexus. Some heroes arrive after dying in their original world. One hero, Qhira, entered the Nexus after her world, Iresia, and its Singularity were destroyed. She carried only a piece of the Singularity, which she called the "mother crystal."

Many worlds exist within the Nexus's multiverse and are called "realms." Some of these worlds are created by the Nexus, while others are similar to worlds from Blizzard's games. These realms may include alternate versions of heroes, shown in the game through special character designs called "skins."

Music

The playlist in Heroes of the Storm includes music created specifically for the game and music from other Blizzard games. The original music for Heroes of the Storm was written by Blizzard Entertainment's composers, Glenn Stafford and Jason Hayes. Other music in the game is used as background music or represents different worlds connected to the heroes in the game. The playlist also includes music from Starcraft, such as the Terran and Zerg Theme; music from World of Warcraft, such as Obsidian Sanctum from the game Wrath of the Lich King and The Wandering Isle from Mists of Pandaria; music from Diablo, such as Jungle from Diablo II (Act III) and Reaper of Souls from Diablo III; music from Overwatch, such as Overture and the Hanamura theme; and music from The Lost Vikings 2, such as Smugglers Cove.

The main theme of Heroes of the Storm is called The Battle Begins, composed by Glenn Stafford.

Reception

Heroes of the Storm received mostly positive reviews when it was first released. Metacritic gave the game an average score of 86 out of 100, which means "mostly positive reviews," based on 57 reviews.

GameSpot awarded it 9 out of 10, saying, "A fantastic casual-competitive game that offers untold hours of enjoyment." Many reviews praised the game's focus on objectives and its easier-to-learn style compared to similar games. Destructoid’s Chris Carter gave it a 9.5 out of 10, calling it "A hallmark of excellence." In a review for PC Gamer, Chris Thursten highlighted the game's accessibility, giving it a score of 84 out of 100 and stating, "The most any studio has done to open up a complex genre to a new audience. Inviting, entertaining, and deceptively deep."

The Escapist’s CJ Miozzi noted that the game’s improved accessibility might attract players who usually avoid the genre but could feel less appealing to experienced players. He gave it 4 out of 5 stars and said, "At the very least, it's a game that all gamers should try." Polygon’s Arthur Gies praised the game’s accessibility but said some elements felt incomplete, giving it a score of 7.5 out of 10.

When the game was first released, IGN’s Mitch Dyer gave it a mixed review, saying, "Heroes of the Storm is a flawed, varied MOBA with terrific team fighting and poor objectives," and awarded it a 6.5 out of 10. This review initially upset the game’s community, leading to online jokes about the score. Blizzard later acknowledged the meme in a humorous video for an update. In March 2018, IGN’s Ian Nowakowski re-reviewed the game, giving it 8 out of 10 and saying, "Packs a ton of variety and excellent characters. Some of this MOBA's modes work better than others, but it's a safe bet that it'll deliver a fun match."

At the 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences gave Heroes of the Storm the award for "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year." The game was also nominated for "Choice Video Game" at the 2017 Teen Choice Awards.