14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Blizzard is starting to ramp up the promotional efforts for its Heroes of the Storm MOBA title and that means that, for the first time, the company is ready to talk about the characters that gamers will be able to use in the title.
The Multiplayer Online Battle Arena structure of the game means that hero selection is very important for success and that the studio needs to offer a wide variety of choices for the player community and give each a unique look and interesting special abilities.
Blizzard is for the moment focusing on Tychus Findlay, the Terran Marine that gamers first met in Starcraft 2 alongside Jim Raynor, who is designed to take on the role of Assassin.
Blizzard explains on the official Heroes of the Storm site that, “Tychus Findlay and Jim Raynor share what some might call a checkered past—the type filled with daring exploits and courageous fights doing not so courageous deeds. While no one can be sure where Tychus' loyalties lie, one thing is for certain. He's a fearsome combatant whose impact on the battlefield is anything but subtle. Tychus always goes big. Always.”
The character has three core abilities: Run and Gun, Frag Grenade and Overkill, which center on his ability to target either groups or individual enemies to deal extra damage.
Tychus Findlay uses a minigun in battle, which means that he can keep enemies under a constant stream of bullets, but has the downside of requiring a brief spin up interval before it can actually fire.
The special ability associated with the character is called Commander Odin and Blizzard explains, “Sometimes even Tychus needs a bigger gun. That's when he calls upon the power of the massive Odin mech. Offering additional protection as well as powerful cannons and missiles that create wide swaths of destruction, the Odin is a fearsome military vehicle.”
The video from the development team shows some of the core mechanics associated with Tychus Findlay in action.
The character and ability descriptions seem to suggest that Blizzard is working on a fairly standard implementation of the MOBA core principles, with some added lore taken from its biggest titles.
Heroes of the Storm does not currently have an official launch date, but Blizzard is expected to offer a solid beta before the end of the year.
The MOBA will have to compete with DOTA 2 from Valve, League of Legends from Riot Games and Infinite Crisis from Turbine.