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The Hero Shooter to Beat - Overwatch Review

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

imageThe Hero Shooter to Beat - Overwatch Review

Overwatch feels like a sort of natural evolution of the Team Fortress formula. Blizzard’s taken the basic idea of Team Fortress 2 and managed to modernize it with gameplay elements from the MOBA genre. It’s a hard locked six vs. six affair and there are way more characters (21, to be exact), but they’re ultimately pretty similar games with similar game modes.

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Comments

  • VolgoreVolgore Member EpicPosts: 3,872
    "Blizzard has committed to growing the game over time with new characters and maps/modes (all free with your purchase of the game) and given the studio’s track record, this should go a long way towards ensuring the game remains fresh over time."

    Erm...WoW? No content for 12 month?

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  • UnleadedRevUnleadedRev Member UncommonPosts: 568
    Overwatch despite being a very well made game like all Blizzard products suffers from the same affliction al Blizzard games have.
    "Silliness"...looks silly, sounds silly, artstyle is silly everything is just silly.
    In particularly, it is a game for young players who ingest too much sugar and are constantly moving.
  • DeltoisDeltois Member UncommonPosts: 384
    Nothing even close, haven t felt like logging into a game as much as this since early DAOC days. Will just get better too. As far as silly, that's in the eye of the beholder. I completely disagree with that opinion, but hey to each their own.
  • 123ffxiv123ffxiv Member UncommonPosts: 30
    I'd give it an 8/10. Finding bugs daily and also the competitive mode will be a WiP. With time I think it will get better but it has glaring issues.
  • MardukkMardukk Member RarePosts: 2,222
    So this is "titan"?
  • garrett53garrett53 Member UncommonPosts: 7
    MOBA elements? Whata moba elements?
  • PhryPhry Member LegendaryPosts: 11,004
    garrett53 said:
    MOBA elements? Whata moba elements?
    The clue is in what MOBA stands for. :p
  • MadFrenchieMadFrenchie Member LegendaryPosts: 8,505
    Despite the acronym's individual words, there's very little traditional MOBA to Overwatch. Compared to TF2, the only thing they've added that's MOBA-like is abilities. 10 years of "evolution," and they couldn't even come up with a new game type or involve an NPC element in any interesting way to spice up the experience.

    The ultimates aren't even really a completely foreign idea because, as I've mentioned in another thread, Valve experimented with this a decade ago in the form of the Medic's invulnerability/kritzkrieg.

    The flavors of the characters aren't new... TF2 has been doing that for years with shorts starring one or more of the character classes in their game.

    This is a good game that's being hyped as an incredible game due to brand recognition. It's polished and fun, but so is Warhammer: Vermintide, yet I don't see articles here at MMORPG hyping it as being the "hero-based co-op game to beat".

    The comparison between L4D and Vermintide is almost identical to the one with TF2 and Overwatch (down to the developer borrowing heavily from a Valve title, in fact), as Vermintide took the L4D formula and altered it ever so slightly by using Warhammer characters and giving them each unique weapons (instead of having every character play identically as in L4D). Yet whereas Vermintide was consistently decked points for being so copy/paste from Valve's unique zombie foray, folks seem to merely pay lip service to how much Overwatch uses Valve's class-based shooter unapologetically and with very little evolution to account for 10 years of progress (or its lack of content, having only an online-only component as well- TF2 even does the player vs. AI thing better, see TF2's Mann vs. Machine).

    In the end, I'm sure I'll be accused of simply hating on Blizzard. But that's the thing: I think Overwatch is a good game. I don't dislike the game, nor do I wish ill will on Blizzard as I've enjoyed many hours with their games. It's just not as groundbreakingly awesome as Blizzard fans would have you believe. From this gamers perspective, it fails in just as many ways to take advantage of a stagnant genre (with only one entry of note over the past ten years) as it succeeds in blending the most common MOBA tropes with a hero shooter.

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  • jesteralwaysjesteralways Member RarePosts: 2,560
    edited June 2016

    Mardukk said:

    So this is "titan"?



    No, some of the assets of titan was used here, like character design and tools related to it, arts asset, small portions of maps from titan, it is not the whole titan.

    Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.

  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,888
    edited June 2016

    10 years of "evolution," and they couldn't even come up with a new game type or involve an NPC element in any interesting way to spice up the experience.


    10 years of evolution, and Blizzard just did it better than anyone else.
     
  • HatefullHatefull Member EpicPosts: 2,502

    Mardukk said:

    So this is "titan"?



    No, some of the assets of titan was used here, like character design and tools related to it, arts asset, small portions of maps from titan, it is not the whole titan.
    Serious question, where did you get this information?  I admit about the only place I have not looked is on the Over watch forums (my bad) but I can't seem to find anywhere that an employee/rep of Blizz said anything where Titan was scrapped for OW, or where parts of Titan were used in OW.

    Not saying you are wrong, just saying it is a topic of interest for me (nothing to do with this forum) and I can't seem to find any information about it. 

    Again, to reiterate I am in no way attacking you just asking for information.

    If you want a new idea, go read an old book.

    In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.

  • VicodinTacoVicodinTaco Member UncommonPosts: 804

    garrett53 said:

    MOBA elements? Whata moba elements?



    Yeah Overwatch feels waaaaay better than TF2 especially when you get a good group together. As far as MOBA elements, several Overwatch maps are basically lane pushes with out the creeps. Love them. Nothing better than when the enemy team sets up a good defense and your team adapts with a few hero changes and goes in for the kill. Push the objective, enemy team adapts to your push, sets up a new defense, comes in with new hereos...!! You whip out a couple heroics ooooooooo Rinse repeat let the best team win!!!! ARRRRRGGGHHH LET ME PLAY I'M AT WORK FOR THE NEXT 12 HOURS
  • KanethKaneth Member RarePosts: 2,286
    Hatefull said:

    Mardukk said:

    So this is "titan"?



    No, some of the assets of titan was used here, like character design and tools related to it, arts asset, small portions of maps from titan, it is not the whole titan.
    Serious question, where did you get this information?  I admit about the only place I have not looked is on the Over watch forums (my bad) but I can't seem to find anywhere that an employee/rep of Blizz said anything where Titan was scrapped for OW, or where parts of Titan were used in OW.

    Not saying you are wrong, just saying it is a topic of interest for me (nothing to do with this forum) and I can't seem to find any information about it. 

    Again, to reiterate I am in no way attacking you just asking for information.
    Gamespot did a 4 part making of series a little while ago where they met with many folks from the Overwatch dev team. They discuss the failure of Project Titan and how it relates to Overwatch.

    Here's part one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq-HwvYjLLg
  • MadFrenchieMadFrenchie Member LegendaryPosts: 8,505
    edited June 2016
    Aori said:
    Even if we say Overwatch is a TF2 clone, Blizzard did it better. I can't stand TF2, I think it is a terrible game. It isn't fun and simply rage inducing.
    I had fun in Team Fortress 2, but I agree that Overwatch is a superior game.   I think having only 9 classes in Team Fortress 2 versus 21 Heroes in Overwatch has a lot to do with it.
    I do wish Valve had went the route of adding classes to TF2 instead of adding weapons with different functions.  That's one of the things I was never a huge fan of with TF2.

    EDIT- @Vrika, take a look at the TF2 steam charts.  In May (Overwatch's release month),  TF2 lost a whopping 3.17% of its total average players.  It's actually gained a percent of those players back in the last 30 days (which would, oddly enough, include Overwatch's first week).  The title lost more players leading up to Overwatch's release than it has since, indicating it isn't replacing TF2 for the vast majority of folks who were fans of the genre before Overwatch's release.  Not even sure what you mean by "anyone else," as I don't know of another AAA hero shooter released between TF2 and Overwatch (though they may exist).

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  • KoboliKoboli Member UncommonPosts: 210
    Yes, an official review of a game that isn't an MMORPG. I wasn't waiting with baited breath for this one!
  • ZendaiZendai Member UncommonPosts: 115




    Overwatch despite being a very well made game like all Blizzard products suffers from the same affliction al Blizzard games have.
    "Silliness"...looks silly, sounds silly, artstyle is silly everything is just silly.
    In particularly, it is a game for young players who ingest too much sugar and are constantly moving.



    I feel this is a stupid argument, and is only levied by people that think they are "too mature" to play games that have a bit of cartoonish art style. My brother gave me the same excuse, and my response was "so even if the game play ended up being the most fun you have had in years, you still won't try the game because of superficial aesthetic preferences?" which is answered with at short "yes". Pig headed approach, and of course his current favorite game right now is "The Division", a game with such a repetitive and uninteresting setting for an MMO, that I couldn't keep playing past level 10...

    But I guess people are entitled to their opinion. I just think you should not take yourselves so seriously, your still just nerd gamers like the rest of us, despite what you tell yourselves.
  • KanethKaneth Member RarePosts: 2,286
    Aori said:
    Even if we say Overwatch is a TF2 clone, Blizzard did it better. I can't stand TF2, I think it is a terrible game. It isn't fun and simply rage inducing.
    I had fun in Team Fortress 2, but I agree that Overwatch is a superior game.   I think having only 9 classes in Team Fortress 2 versus 21 Heroes in Overwatch has a lot to do with it.
    I do wish Valve had went the route of adding classes to TF2 instead of adding weapons with different functions.  That's one of the things I was never a huge fan of with TF2.

    EDIT- @Vrika, take a look at the TF2 steam charts.  In May (Overwatch's release month),  TF2 lost a whopping 3.17% of its total average players.  It's actually gained a percent of those players back in the last 30 days (which would, oddly enough, include Overwatch's first week).  The title lost more players leading up to Overwatch's release than it has since, indicating it isn't replacing TF2 for the vast majority of folks who were fans of the genre before Overwatch's release.  Not even sure what you mean by "anyone else," as I don't know of another AAA hero shooter released between TF2 and Overwatch (though they may exist).
    I would say the TF2 retention of players is mostly due to the free to play nature more than anything else. If Overwatch were F2P I could almost guarantee that TF2's numbers would've been heavily affected. For many gamers the lowest $40 price point is a deal breaker, not to mention $60 being a flat out no.

    I've seen a number of threads elsewhere, and even a youtube video about LoL being more affected by Overwatch than anything else. Seems OW could be picking up more LoL players...which really sucks imo.
  • MadFrenchieMadFrenchie Member LegendaryPosts: 8,505
    Kaneth said:
    Aori said:
    Even if we say Overwatch is a TF2 clone, Blizzard did it better. I can't stand TF2, I think it is a terrible game. It isn't fun and simply rage inducing.
    I had fun in Team Fortress 2, but I agree that Overwatch is a superior game.   I think having only 9 classes in Team Fortress 2 versus 21 Heroes in Overwatch has a lot to do with it.
    I do wish Valve had went the route of adding classes to TF2 instead of adding weapons with different functions.  That's one of the things I was never a huge fan of with TF2.

    EDIT- @Vrika, take a look at the TF2 steam charts.  In May (Overwatch's release month),  TF2 lost a whopping 3.17% of its total average players.  It's actually gained a percent of those players back in the last 30 days (which would, oddly enough, include Overwatch's first week).  The title lost more players leading up to Overwatch's release than it has since, indicating it isn't replacing TF2 for the vast majority of folks who were fans of the genre before Overwatch's release.  Not even sure what you mean by "anyone else," as I don't know of another AAA hero shooter released between TF2 and Overwatch (though they may exist).
    I would say the TF2 retention of players is mostly due to the free to play nature more than anything else. If Overwatch were F2P I could almost guarantee that TF2's numbers would've been heavily affected. For many gamers the lowest $40 price point is a deal breaker, not to mention $60 being a flat out no.

    I've seen a number of threads elsewhere, and even a youtube video about LoL being more affected by Overwatch than anything else. Seems OW could be picking up more LoL players...which really sucks imo.
    I'm not so sure..  TF2 has held about the same amount of gamers since 2012.  I think it's more indicative of the boon all Valve titles seem to enjoy...  They are competitively addictive.  Valve has always focused their FPSs solely on matching one's skill against the skill of others (CS, DoD, NS, and TF).  As such, I think they attract a player who enjoys putting their skills to the test without abilities (such as Ultimates) that take away from this skill-based play (i.e. wall-hack ultimates, aimbot ultimates, execution abilities, etc.).

    From my perspective (and having read what folks here seem to like about OW), it seems the vast majority of Overwatch buyers are either casual MOBA/FPS players who like that they don't have to fool with "laning phases" or being completely dominated by hardcore gamers (as the abilities in OW help a more casual player feel useful even in the face of more hardcore players).  I don't fault anyone for enjoying either of these aspects, as they alleviate a lot of the timesink required to feel like you're contributing to your team.

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  • vectrexevovectrexevo Member UncommonPosts: 167
    I feel we need to move past wanting games to be free to play. The last con of "Price may be a barrier to entry" should never reflect a games score.
  • corvascorvas Member UncommonPosts: 151
    it might be a good game, but giving it a 9 out of 10 for just another arena shooter with no goal besides just cosmetics is way to high, and with this 9 it really looks like a payed review from Blizzard.

    dont get me wrong this game might be great but a 9 is too high for a game that doesnt even have any progress in it and no "new" features that wasnt already in other games.

    Its just select hero, play a battle, get cosmetics as reward and repeat.
  • WicoaWicoa Member UncommonPosts: 1,637
    edited June 2016
    This one has completely flown over apart from the fanfare which was annoying with the spam from media outlets on facebook for about two weeks. "Its not for you jen" :D (I don't know a friend or family member who plays this). WoW, Diablo, Hots sure but not this one.
  • DistopiaDistopia Member EpicPosts: 21,183
    edited June 2016
    Aori said:
    Even if we say Overwatch is a TF2 clone, Blizzard did it better. I can't stand TF2, I think it is a terrible game. It isn't fun and simply rage inducing.
    I had fun in Team Fortress 2, but I agree that Overwatch is a superior game.   I think having only 9 classes in Team Fortress 2 versus 21 Heroes in Overwatch has a lot to do with it.
    LOL I really don't understand why people keep making this point, TF2 released in 2007.... if in almost a decade OW still has 55,745 In-Game.(copy and pasted from 2 seconds ago on steam)..  We can say Blizz did it better... As far as game mechanics go, I would certainly hope OW is "betterz" considering it was made almost a decade after. Blizzard fans..../sigh

    For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson


  • ZoeMcCloskeyZoeMcCloskey Member UncommonPosts: 1,372
    Sorry if this was said anywhere above, didn't see it. Very interested in the game but get sick playing FPS. I read before that Blizzard was adding some things to this game to help combat that? Anyone know anything about how playable this game is for those with the motion sickness problems? Thanks, game sure sounds like fun.

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  • KoboliKoboli Member UncommonPosts: 210


    I feel we need to move past wanting games to be free to play. The last con of "Price may be a barrier to entry" should never reflect a games score.



    Except that $40 for a shooter with no story mode seems like a little much.
  • KoboliKoboli Member UncommonPosts: 210


    Sorry if this was said anywhere above, didn't see it. Very interested in the game but get sick playing FPS. I read before that Blizzard was adding some things to this game to help combat that? Anyone know anything about how playable this game is for those with the motion sickness problems? Thanks, game sure sounds like fun.



    It's a very objective-oriented game: escort item Y from point A to point B... protect area X while group accomplishes goal Z, etc. It just isn't deathmatch centric. Having said that, WoW's battlegrounds (especially the recent ones) are also designed in this same manner, and quickly grow incredibly stale.
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