So, somehow I ended up in the rather exclusive closed beta. I came here to talk a bit about it and noticed there was no Overwatch thread, so here's one.
For those who haven't been paying attention to it, here are the straight basics: Overwatch is a class based, objective-oriented FPS, similar to Team Fortress 2. There are 21 classes or "heroes", and each hero has a primary weapon of some sort plus 2-4 special abilities, including an "Ultimate" ability. Rather than being on a cooldown timer, Ultimate abilities are "charged" by doing damage or playing your role, whether it be healing, tanking or providing buffs.
First I have to remark that the way the game looks when watching someone else play it on Twitch/Youtube is quite different from how the game actually feels when you play it.
Here are my impressions so far:
-It does not play like a "First Person MOBA", it is indeed a shooter. There are a few elements that make the game feel more like Smite than Team Fortress 2 at times, but the MOBA elements do not overwhelm the gameplay.
-The Ultimates, even the more powerful ones, ARE NOT "I WIN" BUTTONS. I've seen a ton of wasted, ineffective and/or quickly countered Ults. A few of the more powerful Ults seem OP at first, but there are ways to counter or avoid the majority of them, if not all of them. They all have voice cues, so you know when one is coming.
-The gun play is smooth, intuitive and fun. I never had one of those Counter Strike moments where I got the drop on someone but still lost the gun fight because I was unfamiliar with the weapon's recoil pattern. No hitbox issues or anything like that either. I can already tell Soldier 76 is going to be a very popular hero among CoD players.
-The meta game is all about knowing which hero to use in which situation, as you can switch heroes at any time, as many times as you like. This is not a game where mastering one single hero is your best route. Reaper is my favorite hero so far, but you can be the best Reaper player in the world and there will still be some situations where Reaper is almost useless. Now, there are certain heroes that will always see play in certain situations. If you're on an attack/defend map, and you're on defense, your team WILL have a Bastion. He's just too useful to not have as a defender. If you're doing payload escort, your team WILL have a Reinhardt. He's perfect for it. But aside from those few must-have heroes for certain objectives, everyone on your team should be CONSTANTLY swapping heroes to counter the other team's composition and achieve the objective. This is where the gameplay really differentiates itself from Team Fortress 2.
-Maps are good. Very pretty and full of Blizzard franchise easter eggs. There's at least one way around every chokepoint and plenty of places to get creative with movement based abilities like Widowmaker's grappling hook, Reaper's teleport ability, Hanzo's ability to climb, etc.
-Play of the Game is shown after every match, but it could use some tweaking, as it sometimes shows rather mediocre plays when much better plays had been made.
-The sound design. Dear Jebus, the sound design. It is absolutely MAGNIFICENT. The music, the voices, the sound effects, footsteps, EVERYTHING sounds amazing.
-Matchmaking is smooth, with a skirmish mode to play around with heroes before the game starts. Voice communication is built in.
-Progression is cosmetic only. Playing gives you experience, and every time you level up you get a loot crate. Loot crates do not need keys or anything, you can open them right away while you're waiting for your next match to start. They can contain hero skins, spray tags, player icons, hero emotes, voice commands, and the like. You can sell unwanted cosmetic items for credits, then use credits to buy the stuff you really want.
-At the end of the match they will display a few cards showing the most valuable players of the game, including those of the losing team, and players can vote to who they think performed the best. If you get 5 votes, it says "Epic!" but I haven't noticed it give any kind of palpable rewards. There is also an extremely comprehensive list of stats and a "Rate Match" as well as "Rate Players" option.
Now, what really impressed me about Overwatch is the depth of play. We all know the mantra "Easy to learn, difficult master", but Overwatch really epitomizes this philosophy. The majority of heroes are simple to learn and play proficiently, but the skill cap seems incredibly high. Both the skill cap of how good players are with individual heroes and the skill cap of how good players are with knowing what hero to use to counter the enemy team. ActiBlizzard recently purchased MLG and has been in talks with ESPN to do more serious eSports. I really think Overwatch will be their eSports flagship. The depth of play is really impressive and I can see competitive play being fun, challenging, and interesting to spectate.
A lot of people hate ActiBlizzard nowadays and may be rooting for Overwatch to fail... but trust me... it won't fail. It's just too good.
If you have any questions about the game feel free to ask me here.
