Heroes of the Storm’s weekly Heroes’ Brawl launched today, bringing a regular rotation of entertaining game variants to Blizzard’s MOBA. I played several rounds of the Punisher Arena mode earlier today, and while I’m not any better than last time I played, I didn’t care nearly as much.
Punisher Arena, available for the next week and change, pits two teams of five players each against each other in an arena where two massive Punisher creatures are duking it out. It’s a best of three round game, with the first team to reach 100 points two times out of three winning.
Players kills are worth four points, Punisher kills worth 10. The big creatures alternate between attacking each other and attacking players, so it’s up to each team to know when to push and when to fall back. Rounds are fast, and a great deal of fun, even if you’re a level 7 in a game comprised almost completely of level 40 players.
While skill does come into play, there’s also a random element. Each round players get to select one of three Heroes from a list of three. One round your team is two Specialists, two Support and one Assassin. Then it’s two Warriors, two Assassins and one Support. There’s a chance you’ll get a character you’re familiar with every time, but then there’s the chance you won’t.
The randomness combined with the fast pace and simple objectives (kill everything that’s not you) make it quite an enjoyable game variant for folks with slightly less hardcore MOBA leanings.
I’m looking forward to seeing what other sorts of games Blizzard has in store for Heroes of the Storm’s Weekly Brawl. Who knows, if I play enough I might not drag a team of perfectly competent players down with me every game.