Overwatch: My Thoughts (finally!)

I swear Blizzard's marketing is very effective...

Overwatch is the newest IP in Blizzard's arsenal, and man what an impact it had when it released! Even before I got the game, I was heavily watching gameplay vids on YouTube, all of the "origins" cinematic and character comics. I was very engaged in the world, and I haven't even played the damn game yet! Initially I held back buying the game thinking I would not like it for long, but was I wrong! Level 62 and climbing...

What I like:

You see, I'm not a multiplayer FPS guy. At all. I loved the Modern Warfare 2 campaign modes and other single player modes that FPSs provide. However when it comes to multiplayer, I've always avoided it like the plague. But because of Blizzard's approach to the genre, I was intrigued by the character designs and roles they play. 

In fact the characters are the number one thing I enjoy about this game. Each and every one of them play different from one another, and I dig the concepts of roles (tanks, offense, etc). Every character has a specific role to help push objectives and it's up to you and your team to create the best comp to do so...or just go all Torbjorn and wreck havoc. The graphics are bright and colorful and feels very alive. The detail in each character is amazing and has that typical Blizzard polish. The controls are quick and responsive. You can even tweak your controls depending on the hero you play as.

Quick play is one of the main modes of Overwatch. You enter a queue to play a match with other players and go from there. The different matches include: 

Control - Fighting over an objective in a best-out-of-three format.

Escort - Attacking team escorts a payload to its destination; Defending team stops it from happening.

Assault - Attacking team capture a point objective; Defending teams defend point objective.

Hybrid - A combination of Assault and Escort

Each match type has 3 different maps for a total of 12 maps overall.

There are other modes such as Training where you can hone your skills in a training room, or against AI opponents. Competitive mode is for the serious players that wants their skills noticed. After 10 trial matches players are acquire their rank rating based on their win/loss ratio and overall performance. Weekly brawl are random challenges that changes every week which offers an alternative form of gameplay from the norm.

I like that there's a room where I can practice on my lesser used heroes, or get better on my main ones. I remember the first couple of hours, I only fought with the AI just to make sure I was semi-ok before making the jump, so those modes are appreciated. You would think that 12 maps wouldn't be enough, but since there is so much variety in the heroes, each match will play completely different from the last. The game promotes switching heroes in between fights, so it makes the gameplay extremely engaging since each fight have different outcomes. Someone who mains only one character won't have as much enjoyment as someone who is good with at least one hero from each role. It really prevents the gameplay from becoming stale. 

This game really promotes playing with friends. My first moments when I graduated from AI killing to quick play, my WoW buddy was on at the time and we grouped up with another friend and got on voice chat. We had an amazing time winning/losing (mostly winning) matches, as we were able to be somewhat organized. We all had our characters that we gravitated to, and we were able to play multiple roles. It was just plain fun as hell. It's great to login and to have one of my friends online. Many fun antics to be had.

What I didn't like:

Honestly there wasn't a lot that I didn't like about the game, expect for one glaring issue: No single player campaign! Are you kidding me?! Never have I seen a multiplayer FPS with so much lore and backstory and Blizz's not capitalizing on that? Maybe it's coming in the near future; maybe the lore side could be it's own stand alone game, but I know one thing. As popular as Overwatch is now, adding a single player campaign would be like icing on the cake, or in Overwatch's situation, the cake on the icing. And I say that because outside of some play modes, there isn't much to the game. Yeah, the game have things like character skins,voices, and emotes, (all attainable by lock-boxes where you can either purchase or earn per level) but the game is definitely lacking on that front. I know those who bought the game on console had to feel a little cheated paying so much for just multiplayer matches. But then again the matches are so fast paced and fun (especially with friends) it may just be worth it.

I know many people think that playing solo can be a not-so-fun experience...and they're right somewhat. It's a very mixed bag figuring out what type of team you get, but if you just go with the flow, most of your matches can be fun, win or lose. For example: Sometimes I'll get into a match with people that are actually trying to push the objective. Of course those are the most fun. Then once in a while, I'll get a match where there are six Tracers or four Bastions. At that point I know they aren't taking it too seriously and therefore wont take it seriously myself, more than likely joining them in their antics. And then there's the trolls. The Mei that like to icewall your allies to certain doom, or the Symetrra that places her teleport near cliffs. At that point I'll just leave that game and take a small break before returning.

Can't complain about the balance issue too much, since Blizzard has been making changes left and right since release. But one thing they need to fix are the Play of the Game mechanic. There are amazing ones, but when it comes to the bad ones, it's either one of the three: A Bastion potg where he's mowing down the entire team (skill), a Torbjorn potg where he's dead and his turrent is getting the kills, or an odd one where the player isn't doing anything spectacular. I'm sure that's not such an easy one to fix, but I have faith they will make improvements on that front.

As far as the community, they're your typical online group of people. You'll encounter really cool people and you'll get those that take quick matches a little too seriously. It's not something to like or dislike, I just have an "it is what it is" mentality when it comes to online communities. I will say the Overwatch community is nowhere near as toxic as moba or other game communities, or at least in my eyes. It's a very subjective topic, I know, but it mostly depends on your overall perception of people you encounter online. You mileage may vary.

All-in-all, these are my thoughts. It has caught me by surprise and if you try this out, which I highly recommend, it may do the same to you!