Overwatch Review

A Class of its Own:

Overwatch is Blizzard’s next big thing. Having produced a variety of classics in a multitude of genres (Strategy, Dungeon Crawlers, MMOs, MOBAs and even Card Games) Blizzard have proved time and time again they’re up to the challenge of producing something new, with each experiment usually ending with them adding a best-in-class genre-great to their library. They don’t tend to move on from any of their titles either, which means that each gets better and better with time.

With Overwatch, Blizzard are tackling the class-based team shooter genre that titles like Team Fortress 2 have long dominated. All I can say is, watch out Team Fortress 2.

Gameplay:

Anyone who has played similar games will know what to expect with Overwatch. You’ll start by choosing a character from the impressively large roster. Whilst all of these colourful and varied faces staring out from the character select screen can be a bit overwhelming and seem wildly different, they all fall into four classes: Support, Defense, Offense and Tank. These roles shape the way each character operates and brings the huge cast into a more understandable meta, meaning you can mess around with characters you’ve never used before and understand their place on the battlefield quickly.

What separates them is a handful of special moves that will keep the tier-rankers arguing for months. Each character has dash moves, secondary abilities and chargeable supers that allow them to affect a battle in a big way. Reaper can spin around guns akimbo and cut down any opposition in a room, whilst the healer Mercy can wait until there are a handful of dead on her team and resurrect them all at once, subverting the usual respawn time and spawn point and surprising any enemies that thought they got the best of their opposition. Some of these are more varied (and fun) than others, but they’re all important tools to cement a victory or potentially pull a game back from the jaws of defeat.

Once you’ve picked your character you’re shipped off to an online multiplayer battle as part of a team of six, usually either defending or attacking an objective. There are wrinkles to this set up, such as escort missions, where your objective moves and you must support it, or the control mode, a king-of-the-hill gametype that sees everyone vying for the same objective.

These modes are limited and feel samey, but Blizzard are already talking about new ones on the horizon and a promise of variety that, considering the developer, I’m inclined to believe.