“Uh, what?”, was the response when Blizzard Entertainment first announced the development of their team based multiplayer first-person shooter, Overwatch, back in Blizzcon 2014. Well, the closest thing we got to a shooter from them was the unfortunately cancelled Star Craft: Ghost.

With that as an example, everyone expressed their concerns and doubts that the developer could actually see success in a genre that they are unfamiliar with. However, the initial announcement trailer and gameplay clips of Overwatch left a really good impression and thus, built an impressive amount of hype.

A Lighter Shift in Tone

Speaking of the trailer, it was indeed the gorgeous art direction of Overwatch that caught the attention of many. Most would immediately comment its likeliness to works from Pixar with its vibrant and cartoony style, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The tone carried in Overwatch is much more energetic and stylish compared to Blizzard’s other titles such as WarCraft and StarCraft.

Unfortunately, its story is not carried within the game itself, but is delivered by exterior mediums such as episodic short animations and digital comics that are released for free. While they expand the lore of Overwatch in small chunks, they help introduce us to its world and characters.

Heroes Never Die

While some might immediately compare Overwatch with Valve’s Team Fortress 2, I can assure you that this game is a beast on its own. With 21 heroes at your disposal, each have their own unique personalities, armaments, and abilities. These characters are divided into four classes – attack, defence, tank, and support – and a fully optimised team will have a better chance at winning a match.

To name a few: Tracer is excellent in zipping behind enemy lines to annoy and disrupt your opponents’ progress, Reinhardt can block paths and protect the team with his shield, and Lucio can sup-port the team by either boosting their movement speed or activate an area-of-effect heal to replenish health.

Inspired by MOBA games, each hero have Ultimate moves to help turn the tide of a match. Each hero’s Ultimate meter will fill up slow when in a passive state, but is filled up quickly if you participate in combat; be it eliminating enemies or healing allies. Once charged, players can activate the Ultimate either for offense or defence, depending on character. Ultimates are extremely valuable in matches as it could eliminate multiple enemies, boost defence, or revive multiple fallen allies in one go.

Balancing Act

Players may switch heroes at will, provided that they are in the spawn area. This enables a swift change in tactics to adapt to the current situation of a match, and the game encourages a balanced team by notifying players that they are lacking key classes in the hero selection screen. Interestingly enough, the game does not restrict you to it, and it’s possible to select multiples of the same hero if your team chooses to do so.

Weird as it sounds, it does apply to a gung-ho tactic especially if you want to catch your opponents off guard. Welcome the attacking team with six Bastion turrets? Yup, you can do that, but don’t expect the other team to not counter that with their own combinations.

Balance in Overwatch is an interesting concept to toy with. No hero is deemed overpowered, and can be countered with another. Fast characters such as Tracer or Genji annoying you? Call in Mei and let her freeze them in place for everyone else to shoot. Bastion mowing down the team with his turret minigun? Get Pharah to fire rockets at him from afar. It’s played out in a rock-paper-scissors concept between characters, and is played out quite well.

Ready for more

Aside from the combat and character choices, Overwatch also has some nice features to add to the overall experience. At the end of every match, players are greeted to a highlight called Play of The Game that showcases a player’s skill during the fight. Other dedicated players are not left out as they are later featured in a voting board showcasing their best stats for the match.

The game also awards experience points to every player after each match to rank up. Achieving a new rank will reward them with a Loot Box that contains randomised items from sprays, character voice lines, skins and icons. Impatient players may opt for the speedy route to gain Loot Boxes with micro-transactions, but with the fun competitive matches, I don’t mind going through the grind day-in and day-out.

Blizzard has also promised more free updates coming in forms of new playable maps and additional heroes in the near future. They’ve surprised and impressed us with Overwatch so far, and it’s definitely fun to play especially with a group of friends.

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Platform: PS4, Xbox ONE, PC

Release Date: May 24, 2016

Genre: First-person Competitive Multiplayer

Player(s): Multiplayer

Chosen Platform: PC

Score 9/10