Overwatch

[Aldotsk]

 

"The World Could Always Need More Heroes. Cheers, love! The Cavalry's Here!" - Tracer

 

 

 

Overview

 

We've seen plenty of First Person Shooter games in a modern warfare aspects, World War II aspects, and some explosive dynamic aspects. But we barely see cartoonish style of FPS games, excluding the infamous Team Fortress 2 of course. There aren't a lot of FPS games that interest me these days because the themes are pretty repetitive and the visuals are all the same, and the only thing that is different is slight gameplay changes and the title names. Then there was, at the Blizzcon 2014; where Overwatch was first announced where it was a replacement project from Titan MMORPG that they were working on. Overwatch is Blizzard's first time First Person Shooter game divided into four roles and have 21 characters with their own special abilities for each of them. The objective of the game in the gameplay are Assault/Control (King of the Hill), Escort, and Hybrid in which both modes are in play for one map. Because the game was released recently, it is expected to release more different types of gameplays and also more developments is to come by.

 

 

Concept

 

The concept from Blizzard have always been impressive and they always never let players disappoint in what they are creating since Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo franchise. They've always done so much work to create amazing game environments and character designs for players to feel impressed. Even when characters are viewed to look cool, unique, strong, and even sexy. The best part about Overwatch in concepts are that the characters have their own unique abilities, animations, designs, and yet also their own background stories. Yes, each 21 characters have their own unique stories behind Overwatch. The trailers are out on Youtube by Blizzard Entertainment before the release. They were amusing and interesting to watch. Even Valve's Team Fortress 2's characters had their own background trailers too. In regards to the way characters look and they act, they have a lot of easter eggs and somewhat cameo appearance from their previously developed games such as Lost Vikings, Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. Like the Blizzard have always loved Dwarves and Vikings since Lost Vikings, and they've used them plenty of times in Warcraft and even in Starcraft's one of the protagonists as well. Torbjorn of Overwatch is a Dwarf looking design who uses hammers and build mechanical turrets with molten lava. DVa on the other hand is a Korean character who has the background of being the best Starcraft player in the world based on South Korea to honor the nation for having the most talented Starcraft players. Then Hanzo and Genji were used because a lot of Blizzard developers are also into Japanese culture concepts such as samurai and ninja. But, who doesn't like samurais and ninjas?

 

The very unique concept characters I've seen so far are characters like Lucio who uses music to heal and fight against enemies, Tracer who can teleport around and shoot with dual pistols, Mei who can create ice walls and freeze enemies or even freeze herself to heal, and even Winston who is an intelligent gorilla that can use electromagnetic weapons and go berserk like Hulk. 

 

I personally loved the Overwatch concept, and I hope I could see more in the future.

 

 

Gameplay

 

Gameplay for FPS are usually generic. You have to look around a lot, you find people to shoot, and you kill them. That's how it usually works. Other than that, the other gameplay for FPS are usually the objectives in the game mode that you are playing in. The key functions, and movement of characters are definitely smooth and fast paced. As equally the same as Team Fortress 2 and Unreal Tournament series. While you fight your enemies, you can gain your Ultimate Ability gauge charged up to kill your opponents, or even benefit your allies. Gameplay Modes are pretty simple. Assault and Control modes are pretty much King of the Hill, and Assault is more related to two objective areas. You capture one as a checkpoint, then you capture the second one to win within the time limit. While Control is more divided into 2-3 rounds where a team has to capture the control point until the gauge hits 100% to win that round. After the 1st round, the winning team has to win one more win, or the opposite team has to win to lead to 3rd round for final round to see who would win. As for the other game mode is known as Escort where you escort the vehicle or an object to reach to the finals. Escort has at least 3 check points and each checkpoints will give you slight amount of extension to your time to achieve your objective. This is similar to Team Fortress 2, where you had to lead the bomb train to the end to blow up the enemy's base. Last mode is the hybrid of Assault and Escort where you would capture the point then escort the vehicle to win the match. 

 

There are some other catches such as Quick Play to join in right away, then there are ladder mode such as Competitive Play, and then there are some daily challenges that you could go for. 

 

Another cool gimmick that Overwatch delivers is that just like Team Fortress 2, the characters have their own actions, emotes, dialogues and skins. Every level up will get you a Loot Box to let you keep 4 random items that will apply to your characters gimmicks. For any additional loot boxes without leveling would be mostly paid by micro transactions. This is not pay to win however. The extra content to make your character look is your choice. 

 

Let's talk about downside. No matter how much you love the character because of design and its uniqueness, you'll realize that sometimes the character can't beat your opponent. It's probably because how other character is really overpowered or just that good, or even you are just lacking your ability of gameplay comparing to your opponent player. But there are definitely character balance issues that need to be looked over.

 

Personal downside opinion about Overwatch is that the game modes are still lacking. Assault and Control are pretty much the same style, and escort would be the other mode that you'd play. But I was rather hoping for more modes such as Capture the Flag, or other modes such as "Bring the Objective back to the base" (Technically, that is Capture the Flag too), or even Team Deathmatch, and also unique types of Assault mode like Unreal Tournament 2004 did by riding vehicles, or even pilot a space ship to infiltrate enemy base. But that's just me. I just hope they'd add more unique game modes eventually.

 

Other downside is that I was rather hoping for co-operative modes such as TF2's Mann vs Machine included, and not just VS AI death match. VS AI felt more like a practice than actually spending time alone for yourself when playing against other players can frustrate you.

 

In the end, gameplay still deserves a good score and it is in its first phase. It'll eventually update more as the game and community grow.

 

 

Sound/Music

 

Sound and Music are quite fun to listen to. Each characters have their own dialogues and some characters do have their own unique language of other nation such as Hanzo, Genji, DVa, and Mei. (If I've missed anyone else, is probably because I have not played other characters too much). Though I am hoping that they'll implement more musics into each maps to fit to the theme. Not just one, but like a bit more. That's all.

 

I also would not mind if Lucio had more musics, but also when he's being played - players can have the ability to switch the playlist of Lucio's songs.

 

 

Overall

 

The game is extremely fun, exciting and thrilling. Even if you maybe bored of one character, there are other 20 characters you can try out to meet with your satisfaction. The PC version right now is $40, then there is Origins version for PC/PS4/XBOX ONE which is $60 included with Origin skins for Tracer, Pharah, Soldier 76, Bastion, and Reaper. 

 

Is it worth the money? Well, the game is pretty much buy one time and expect to receive a lot of updates and gimmicks as you play along. Nothing like Team Fortress 2 where you'd have to buy some items to get your glamour. You get what you paid for, and it's worth every money. It's really fun, and silly to play these unique characters.

 

The Good

• Unique Contents, Amazing Graphics
• Unique Characters with abilities
• Fast Paced Gameplay matches

 

The Bad

• Still lacking some Game Modes
• Lacking some Maps
• Balance Issues with Characters

 

Final Verdict Score:

9.5/10