Heroes Of The Storm Open Beta Starts Today

If you never got a beta key for Heroes of the Storm, it doesn't matter anymore. Blizzard plans to launch the open beta for the MOBA today.

With the launch of the open beta, you'll no longer need to hunt for beta key giveaways or spend money on Founder's Packs. You can just download the game through Battle.net and start playing right away.

In Heroes of the Storm, teams of five compete with each other in objective-based battles. While the ultimate goal is always to destroy the enemy team's base, the secondary goals vary from map to map. For example, in Dragon Shire, you need to capture and hold two points at the top and bottom of the map. This allows one of your teammates to then activate the shrine in the middle and become a giant Dragon Knight for a short period of time.

Players can choose between characters from various Blizzard games including World of Warcraft, Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2. Each character has a unique set of abilities to help their team excel. Blizzard is continually adding new characters over time as well. For example, the most recent patch introduced fire mage Kael'thas from Warcraft.

Heroes of the Storm should be very familiar to you in many ways if you've played competing MOBAs like Dota 2 or League of Legends. However, Blizzard did make some changes to the genre's usual formula that you might love or hate. For example, players level up as a team rather than individually. There are no items to buy as progression is limited to choosing different talents with each experience level. The pace of the game is much faster as well, with matches generally lasting only 20 minutes.

Anyway, I'd recommend giving the game a whirl if you've got any interest in the genre. The game is free to download and play, even after it officially launches on June 2nd. You'll only need cash for optional purchases like additional heroes, skins, or XP boosts. You can earn heroes even without spending money, though.

While the game will launch next month, it's not going to be "done." Blizzard says that they'll continue to add new maps and other features to the game over time. For example, they plan to introduce Diablo 3's Crusader soon.