Heroes 2.0 Recieves an Overwatch Themed Battleground, Hanamura!

With Overwatch heroes already in Heroes of the Storm, it only makes sense for an Overwatch themed battleground to emerge. Yes, the newest battleground entering Heroes 2.0 beta is Hanamura, a large two-lane battleground set within the sprawling grounds of Shirmada Castle. This battleground takes the form of Towers of Doom, in the sense that Heroes will not be able to directly assault the opposing core. Instead, Heroes will find victory through escorting Payloads, utilizing the map’s mercenaries, and taking down the Mega Enforcer boss.

These mercenaries aren't your standard “kill X to attack lane Y”, though. The new Support, Recon, and Fortification mercenary camps drop unique power-ups to help teammates and hinder foes. As for the Mega Enforcer, if you take the risk and it pays off, damage will be inflicted to the enemy core. Since Payloads are the key to victory on Hanamura, it would only make sense that there’s ways to power them up. To enhance the power of the Payloads, a team can destroy enemy Forts and Keeps, making Hanamura a balancing act of objectives.

Thanks to Blizzard flying me out to the Spring Heroes Summit, I was able to test out Hanamura. In the rounds I played, I found that the battleground has a decent sized learning curve compared to other battlegrounds. It’s not that it’s extremely difficult to learn per se – but considering most Overwatch players still struggle to escort Payloads – it wouldn't surprise me if that’s the case in Heroes of the Storm as well. Add in alternative objectives that have a direct impact on the difficulty of pushing said Payload, and it truly becomes a balancing act. That said, it’s a fun balancing act and out of all the current battlegrounds, Hanamura is my favorite and I’m interested to see how players adjust to it in Heroes 2.0 beta.

If you wish to test it out for yourself, the battleground has hit the Heroes 2.0 beta, which is downloadable via the Blizzard launcher.