Infernal Shrines is a Diablo-themed map, with a new mechanic: Punishers, crushing bruisers that are summoned by the first team to activate a shrine and kill 30 of its guardians. The shrines themselves are themed like Diablo III enemies: arcane, mortar, and frozen.
It all adds up to a lot of damage on the map all at once.
“You’re going to feel like you’re playing Diablo,” Hagman said. “You’re playing Heroes and suddenly arcane enchanted lasers are flying all over the place and you’re like, ‘What the crap?’ and then frozen things are all over the place. It’s going to be awesome.”
The complexity and variety of it will pose new challenges for players, he said.
“It’s one of my favorite maps right now,” he said. “I think Cursed Hollow is always going to be my favorite, but this one … I need to play more before it dethrones Cursed Hollow in my head. I have a lot of attachment to that map in my head, because I made it, but this might dethrone it. It’s so cool.”
Above: It all looks so pretty. Not at all dangerous.
It’s a huge map, larger than Battlefield of Eternity, he said, with three lanes posing interesting splits and the mercenaries in a unique position. The shrines will add new danger and choices to the battles.
“We were actually talking about this at lunch today, and one of our designers was talking about the fact that this map doesn’t feel super-snowbally,” he said.
“What it is, is the collection mechanic, in terms of killing the guys, plus the fact that the Punishers don’t do a lot of siege damage. They don’t advance the game state too much, by themselves. It really requires the team to follow up with them. It causes the map to be naturally very rubber-bandy. You get a lot of close games on this map.”
But that doesn’t mean Punishers are wimpy. They may not do much to advance the win, but they’ll annihilate your heroes (or the enemy’s) if you ignore them, he said. They jump and stun in an area of effect, and they’re not restricted by line of sight — gates, for example.
“You’ll be hiding behind your gate while the Punisher’s meleeing the gate and you’re like, ‘OK, I’m going to start plinking away at this Punisher like it’s a Grave Golem,’ and suddenly it’s in your face, you’re stunned, their team is diving you and you’re dead, and you’re like ‘What happened? I don’t know what happened.’
“You’ve got to really respect the Punishers, and they’re going to hurt you,” Hagman said. “They’re going to punch you in the face, and you’re going to die, and you’re going to laugh, and you’re going to love it.”
Above: There’s a definite Heaven-and-Hell theme (appropriate for Diablo) going on here.
The Punishers themselves come in the same three flavors as the shrines. So the frozen ones can freeze you, the mortar ones lob bombs that do a ton of damage, and the arcane ones have long, rotating lines of lasers coming from their bodies and sweeping the map.
“The affixes are so much beautiful flavor. Having the frozen, the mortars, the arcane enchanteds, you have to engage with them on their own terms,” he said. “You have to respect the CC of the frozen, you have to respect the damage of the mortar and you have to respect playing the dance that is arcane enchanted.”
This is the map he most looks forward to seeing in the hands of high-end players, he said.
“I can’t wait to watch pro teams play on this map, and watch them struggle and die, and laugh at them as they die, like ‘Aaaaaaa, I thought you were so good! You died to the stuff!’ It’s gonna happen. And it’s gonna be great.”