Yesterday, I wrote about what Wrath of Heroes is. Today I thought I'd write about my impressions of Wrath from my experiences playing, specifically the Heroes. In early July, myself and other bloggers were invited down to Mythic to check this out. I think we played at least 6 games of Wrath of Heroes.
Note: These impressions are of the game as it was in early July.
Note: Check out Bax Dreadtoof
Let's start from the beginning and my favorite aspect of Wrath of Heroes, the Heroes. Instead of creating a character, you choose from a set of pre-made ones. I don't recall exactly how many there were, but I'd say at least 7 and this was just an early test. There was a wide variety which included: an Engineer (yay!), an Ironbreaker and Black Orc tank, a melee Vampire Count, a Troll, an Ogre and more.
Each had 5 abilities appropriate to their theme and role. These were mostly brand new, but some of the visual effects were brought over from WAR Live. Morale abilities were not present in Wrath when we played. Instead, players can create pre-made tactic layouts that they can swap depending on which type of character they are using.
Another aspect of Heroes which I enjoyed was that you were not tied to one for an entire match. Much like Team Fortress 2 and other FPS's, you are able to change your class (or in this case, hero) when you die. During our time playing, I found that our team could use some more healing. So I swapped to the Shaman healer the next time I spawned.
Games such as League of Legends use a similar system for Champions, although you cannot change during a match. This is actually one of the things I do not enjoy about the game. There are a ton of Champions to play and collect, but finding the time to use them all is difficult. Since Wrath allows you to change during the match, I think I will get more use out of my stable of Heroes.
If you look at the Warhammer universe, there is a ton of potential for new Heroes. Just think of how many different kinds they could make just using WAR Live careers as inspiration. I could see at least 3 Engineer Heroes: Rifle, Grenade and Tinkerer. I'm not sure they have plans on doing all of those, but the possibility is there.
I'm really hoping to see some Tomb King Heroes and more Ogres too. Just looking through the Warhammer Armies brings up a lot of ideas and I'm not even that knowledgeable about the lore. One of the things I do like about League of Legends is that they have a new set of free Champions (Heroes) every week. I hope Mythic follows suit, as I find trying out the new Champs to be a lot of fun and it keeps things fresh.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Wrath of Heroes: The Heroes
