Maeltork

For context, I write in 2026, I have been playing Heroes of the storm since 2017, with more than 2000 hours on it, and let's be honest, the game has been in a slow dying state, with very few updates, since 2020. To me, HotS was the perfect addition to the very restricted MOBA world in 2015. While it would never grow to compete with LoL or Dota 2, the game added a fresh option to the genre. Focused on teamplay and accessibility, the game had very good ideas, which were clearly meant to mark a clear distinction between HotS and its main competitors. The first fundamental idea is the shared experience. In HotS, every experience gained push the team's level up, from 1 to 30. The experience in the only resource in this game, replacing what would be gold in LoL or Dota 2. Instead of items, you get access to talents that dramatically improve your power, at lvl 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 20, 10 and 20 concerning ultimates. Sometimes, the choices you make can change the gameplay of your character quite a lot. With these features, you get a game which feel accessible, since you just have to choose mostly between 3 talents for each threshold. However, it doesn't imply a lack of depth. And then, the shared experience make the game much more focused on team play, there is no such thing as feeding one specific player. The second huge difference from LoL or Dota 2, are the map mechanics, and the fact that there are several maps. This brings a whole lot of variety into the gameplay. Even though map mechanics all revolve around map pressure, some are so unique that they change the way to play the game. This feature and the shared experience allow, not only, a great variety of team compositions, but also some very unique heroes you couldn't see in LoL or Dota 2, like Cho'gall (2 players in 1 hero) and The lost vikings (1 player controlling 3 heroes). And it helps keeping boredom at bay. To me, those are the main additions of HotS to the MOBA genre. But there are quite a few other features that I find very good : no need to last hit the minions, mounts to go around the map faster, fountains at every keep, games are wildly shorter than LoL or Dota 2, and you spend much more time fighting with the enemies. And then, of course, you have the huge resource of lore and heroes from Blizzard games, coming with nice art design and iconic musics. Nowadays, the game lacks balance and modernity, however, it is still very fun to play and I love it. It should have been the perfect 3rd place of the MOBA podium. RIP.

I have played Overcooked! first in 2020, during the covid-19 period, with my two brothers. At the time, it had been quite a long time since we played together, and Overcooked! launched a new era in our brotherly gaming moments. The game has clearly been developed with cooperation in mind, even though you can play alone. The cooking environment makes a perfect subject for it. Mixed with arcade and cute design, you get a highly fun party game, giving you memorable moments with your friends or family. Even though this first shot lacked some fluidity, everything was already set in order to spawn many similar games afterwards. In order to get all the stars, you actually have to think about how to coordinate and communicate. With the arcade environment, you also have to be quite accurate with the controller. A savory mix in strategy, action and cooperation. I have played Overcooked! a second time recently, with a friend, and had another very good time, though we made short work of it. The second game came to be much more polished than the first.

Diablo have been acknowledged for a long time as a pioneer game of the action role-playing genre, and more precisely, the hack and slash subgenre. Of course, the game is now almost 30 years old. It can not compete against modern games. But when you see Diablo through the lenses of the 90's, you understand how it came to be seen as a revolution in the role playing genre. Everything is already here, at an infant state. While turn-based role-playing games were standard during the 90's, Diablo came with a whole new gameplay, focused on instantaneous action. After 30 years, the gameplay has become rigid and limited, but for that time, it brought a sense of fluidity that had never been seen before in the role-playing genre. Besides, the atmosphere, grim and frightening, put an emphasis to the thrill you get while exploring, and, to me, it has never been equaled in the series after the first opus. The game mechanics were very basic, with simple character stats and few ways to customize your build. While the three classes felt different, only the Sorcerer would get some variety in his gameplay. A real masterclass for its time, Diablo is still quite enjoyable to play in 2026.

Coming only one year after the first opus, Warcraft II: tides of darkness showed an insane amount of improvements, enough to make it one of the best RTS of its time. The gameplay is much more fluid than the previous installment, there are many quality of life upgrades: you can move units with a simple right click, control groups are bigger, you can place buildings anywhere... everything is already set for future RTS games by Blizzard. There is still some rigidity, but nothing like the first game, Warcraft II is still very playable 31 years later. The two races split away a bit from each other, with units, upgrades and spells being a bit more personalized, even though a lot of symmetries remain. The addition of flying and naval units brings more depth and fun to the gameplay. The campaigns follow the same parallel patterns as the first game, though some effort has been done to make them quite different. A few cinematics, horrifyingly ugly by today standards, paved the way to the famous Blizzard quality for those. Warcraft II was an insanely good game for its time. A precursor for the competitive RTS genre, very fast-paced, and terribly fun to play, it is still good today.

Strategy games were fashionable at the start of the 90's and were one of the main genres developed for PC gaming, while 3D had been making its first, very shy steps. However, many of these games had a slow gameplay, often turn-based. Warcraft came with the idea of a simple economy, based on two resources, limited variety in units and buildings and a fast-paced gameplay, the whole packed in a fantasy setting. Taking its inspiration from Dune II, the game showed features that would become standards in the RTS genre, and a will to have an enjoyable campaign, however it was lacking a lot. For instance, you could not move your units with a simple right click. The two factions, Humans and Orcs, were basically the same, except for the spell casters, and both campaigns, which told parallel chains of events, were a mirror to each other. In 2026, the game feels almost unplayable, and would ravish only the nostalgic RTS players in a retrogaming mood. I would recommend to play the remastered version, which is quite less clunky. Even at the time, the game was not that great, but marked the first step toward success for Blizzard entertainment.