FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Overwatch

So a couple of days ago I got invited by the nice folks from Blizzard to come on down and get my hands on the console version Overwatch, the first new franchise to come out of Blizzard in well over a decade. Now, full disclosure, I have played Blizzard games since I knew how to spit. I have the insignia of the Horde tattooed on my back and I’m currently battling a crippling Hearthstone addiction. Be advised that these opinions are coming from a self diagnosed Blizzard fanboy. If you were to tally up the amount of time and money I’ve sunk into Blizzards various franchises, you’d see stats comparable to the kind of resources it takes to mobilise the army of Poland, so bear in mind this play session was preaching to the already converted.

So what is Overwatch? The best way to describe it is a team based, hero shooter that combines the design principles of both Team Fortress 2 and Mobas like League of Legends or Dota. Teams of six players select from an array of colourful and varied ‘hero characters’ that come equipped with set of attributes, weapons and abilities specific to that character alone. The idea is for each hero to feel entirely distinctive from the other, whilst simultaneously having abilities that are at their most effective when working in concert with the other characters.

You start to see echoes of this principle from even in the character selection screen, where the range of 21 hero characters are divided into five sub categories – categories like ‘offence, defence or support’. The synergy of a team’s hero composition is normally the key to victory; Choose the right heroes to counter the other team and take advantage of the maps, you win the game. In theory, so long as you can land your skillshots. Christ.

We got a look at three distinct locations while I was there and Overwatch’s vibrant and caricatured art style and colour palette combined with some smart level design gave each map its own character. If memory serves, there’ll be at least 10 maps at time of release. There’s currently only three game modes (Assault, Escort and Control) which is a bit of a disappointment as none of these modes really reinvent the wheel.

Always room for improvement however, and Blizzard are the kings of that. I was delighted to hear at the event that all of the new content released for the game will be available to all players at no charge. I can only commend Blizzard for acknowledging that a new IP should develop a consistent following on its own merit and the only way to do that is to ensure as many people get to play through their content. I think it’d be easy to just assume that folk would fork out the cash for new content based purely on the Blizzard enjoys, in fact I’m not convinced they’d be wrong in that assumption, so I applaud them for making the smarter and more customer conscious decision to not exclude players from aspects of their new franchise if they want to build a successful new brand.

So the meat of the matter, what’s the game like to play? Playing Overwatch is like mainlining smiles – it’s frantic,colourful, breathless and instantly fun. The stars of the show are ultimately the heroes themselves, each one brimming with character and personality in both their visual design and their mechanics. I can honestly say that there is something to suit everyone’s playstyle in there; characters like Winston leap into the fray directly to harass the team up close, Roadhog here displaces heroes by throwing a hook and dragging them out of position, Bastion turns himself into turret to defend one area or create chokepoints. Snipers, builders, turrets, tanks, healers, teleports and fucking ninjas – they have you covered. Personally, I got a huge kick out of Farya, whose rocket launcher is reminiscent of the kind of rocket duelling you used to get back in the days of Quake and Doom. Big nostalgia trip. Each character has only one weapon with two firing modes, but that’s fine – because at any time in the spawning area you can switch your hero instantly.

This is where the complexity of each match’s meta comes into play – both teams are dynamically switching their hero comps on the fly to try and counter the opposing team in any given situation. Beyond trying to counter heroes directly, there’s other things to consider. For example; sure, there’s five defensive heroes, but some of those defensive heroes are better suited to holding certain map positions than others. Bastion commands corridors, but what about when verticality is introduced to the map? Stages with high rooftops and elevations? Then the Widow maker is the superior option. By the end of the play session, we were starting to get the hang of it and I had gotten the taste of how this easily accessible game could actually become thrillingly competitive at higher levels. Myself and our motley crew of noobs had barely scratched the surface of what this game could offer.

The modus operandi of Blizzard has always been to take a pre-existing idea, refining and iterating upon it before releasing a product that upends the market completely and ends up becoming the defining standard of that particular genre. Blizzard has an outstanding track record for this however, with successes like World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Hearthstone coming to be the comparative standard for each of their respective genres. The trick they have always employed is to utilise the design philosophy of ‘simple to learn, hard to master’. Overwatch is no exception, you can see the little touches here and there to ensure newer players can jump straight in – simple controls, familiar game modes, one weapon per hero etc. Particularly good is the character select screen that provides helpful tips to your team in how to better create a more balanced composition that dynamically reacts to its choices. A new player doesn’t necessarily know from the outset what hero does what and will struggle to appropriately fill the gaps in their team’s lineup, which limits their effectiveness and can create toxicity to new players. Blizzard shows that they are the kings of accessibility by creating such an elegant and easily understood solution to this problem that I haven’t seen before, at least not this well implemented.

If I had any concerns, it would be Overwatch’s replayability. Other genre entries on the market like TF2 and Battleborn use some form of progression or looting system to keep players playing the game. This has its own problems as, if poorly implemented, it gives veteran players an even greater edge over new players which will lead to less growth among the player base as newbies get their shit wrecked too many times in their first few hours and get discouraged. Overwatch has no such system, however the hands on did not show any sense of progression or accumulation when playing the game beyond some ‘career stats’ during the loading screens. The success of games like Left 4 Dead prove that a game doesn’t necessarily need to a reward system in places to keep players playing, however it would be a shame if playing and winning for winnings sake eventually wore thin and there wasn’t anything in place to keep players coming back to the game.

Overall though, when considering the stated objectives of the game, it feels like Blizzard have knocked it out the park. We got an hour and a half with the game and by the last round a room full of strangers were whooping, shouting, swearing and cheering like kids. Chris Metzen of Blizzard, when asked about the decision to not include a traditional deathmatch mode, said that ultimately it came down to whether “it’s even possible to build a shooter that doesn’t feel cynical, that doesn’t feel cruel, that doesn’t feel nasty? Can you build one that really promotes teamwork and relationship and having fun with your friends, and not getting killed with a thrown knife from halfway across the map as soon as you jump in?” It’s hard sell, but I can tell you, from all the smiles in the room, that Overwatch may have cracked it. If you’re tired of the grim cynicism of modern FPS’ and you’re wistfully recalling when shooters were a fireworks display of bullets, rockets, magic and particle effects, then keep an eye out for Overwatch. It’s just fun, man. And sometimes that really is all you need.