In July 2022, Heroes of the Storm officially entered maintenance mode , formally discontinuing any new content from being added to the game. Since then, Blizzard has periodically updated Heroes of the Storm in the form of balance patches, bug fixes, and other similar twe

There are many superficial similarities between Overwatch and Battleborn , Gearbox’s character-based shooter released just a few weeks before Blizzard’s: both feature large rosters of cartoonish, over-the-top characters, and both are multiplayer-focused games with an emphasis on teamwork and roles. But there are significant differences between the two games that actually make the comparisons a little unfair. For starters, Battleborn does have some single-player offerings, but its main differentiator is in its inspiration. From the structure of its maps to the low-ranked AI units serving as cannon fodder to the way players slowly level up over the course of a match, Battleborn is clearly trying to blend first-person gameplay with frantic MOBA elements perfected in games like League of Legends . Overwatch is far more similar to Valve’s legendary class-based shooter Team Fortress 2 . It takes that game’s concepts (learning a class, wildly differing roles based on attacking, defending, and support, and Overwatchtactics.com changing roles constantly to adapt to new situations) and cranks them up to eleven, as more characters means more slight tweaks on the same central id

Overwatch does its best to avoid the pitfalls of other multiplayer-only games, mainly content. Overwatch’s 21 characters provide plenty of variety and the 12 uniquely designed maps will keep players interested for matches on end. Where Overwatch’s content falls flat is in its game modes. There are only four and one of them is merely a hybrid of two other modes. Assault tasks attackers with capturing two consecutive points on the map, Escort is about leading a package through a set number of checkpoints to a final delivery point and Control is King-of-the-Hill. Assault/Escort is a blend of the first two modes where attackers capture a point and then escort a payload. The game modes are perfectly fine, but they can get tiresome after a while. Why there couldn’t be a Team Deathmatch or Domination/Conquest mode is curious. While Blizzard has said they will be adding more heroes and maps post-launch, they have no confirmed if there will be any new game modes outside of Competitive Play mode. New maps and characters are nice, but it’s the lack of game modes that is Overwatch’s big variety problem right now.

Microsoft completed its takeover of Blizzard in October 2023 – right around when these Heroes of the Storm updates began again. While there has been no solid evidence proving a correlation between these two events, fans of the game still hope it could be some indication that Microsoft has plans to revive Heroes of the Storm . While doing so would be a popular and timely decision among the community, players shouldn’t get their hopes up unless Blizzard makes an official announcement about such a development. In the meantime, it seems like fans can take solace in the fact that Heroes of the Storm isn’t truly going away any time s

No, Jeff Goodman had a big hand in designing Tracer. He's our lead hero designer, and she was the first hero that we designed on the project. There's just something about her abilities that just worked together, and how different she feels when you're playing as her compared to a lot of other games. When we implemented her, and got her into our first map (which we were developing at the same time), we started getting guarded enthusiasm about the game. With one hero and one map, we were having a ton of fun.

We've had a few metas develop on the tournament side. One of them was the Dual-Tracer/Dual-Zenyatta meta. We took a look at it, and found that it was a bit too strong, so we made some changes to Zenyatta. Now, it hasn't entirely disappeared, but it's no longer the dominant meta for tournament play. If we could, we'd like there to be ten to twenty really strong team compositions out there that you're kind of picking between based on the players on your team, the other team or the map you're on.

Many Heroes of the Storm fans were delighted to see the retired MOBA get a new update. After the game went into maintenance mode, Heroes of the Storm didn’t receive updates for over a year . However, since the first one in November 2023, Heroes of the Storm has gotten regular patches roughly once every three months, with this latest one being the fourth. Hopefully, the cult classic MOBA continues to get updates at a similar inter

It's really that feeling of working as part of a team, mastering the characters and controlling the map that makes Overwatch such a joy to play, even without getting the content you want for your favorite character. In one match, my team and I made a last defense on a capture map. Our Bastion entered turret mode to spray one entry point, and Reinhardt held up his shield at another with Zarya close behind, supplying him with a personal shield. Soldier 76 sprinted to the front to deal heavy damage with Mercy flying behind providing a damage boose. All the while, a Widowmaker hid at the very back, ready to snipe enemies that somehow made it past our defenses. In a world filled with so many "go-it-alone" multiplayer shooters, having a game like Overwatch that offers so many unique ways to play as a team is refreshing and fun.