Five Things You Need to Know About Blizzard's New Online First Person Shooter ‘Overwatch’

For 25 years Blizzard Entertainment have been at the forefront in developing groundbreaking Real Time Strategy games such as Starcraft, and turning the MMORPG community on it’s head with the life-consuming World of Warcraft. Now they’ve jumped into the First Person Shooter genre with Overwatch, which is certainly a big step outside of their comfort zone. So the million-pound question is: did they pull it off? For the most part, we’d have to say yes.

During the in-game presentation we went to, Blizzard were keen to point-out that this is very much their interpretation of what an online, team-based shooter SHOULD BE like. That’s the good thing about Blizzard, when they introduce a new game for a genre they haven’t covered yet they make sure to put their stamp on it. Furthermore you’ll find that once they do find that winning formula they’re not going to do a FIFA/Call of Duty maneuver where they ‘pump out’ title-after-title. Instead they make their games to last (Don’t believe us? WoW was first released in 2004 and till this day 5.5 million players are still online in the world of Azeroth).

We had over an hour to play Overwatch and what we found was a highly enjoyable, easy to pick up game that constantly challenged us. The game will be released on May 24 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, that’s more than enough time to prepare yourself for the five things you need to know about Overwatch.

All online FPS games require a degree of cooperation — that much is obvious. However in most of those games you can usually go off on your own, do your own thing and not have to care about your teammates. That kind of cavalier attitude doesn’t work with Overwatch.

You’ll quickly realize being a lone wolf has very little payoff and you’ll be respawning at an alarming rate. We’re not saying you need to talk to your teammates through your headsets (because that’s bound to kick off some childish arguments) but sticking closely together and throwing support buffs is your best chance of winning your matches.

Overwatch has a strong cast of heroes to choose from, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. Depending how much time you invest in this, and how quickly you learn, experimenting with the various characters can be extremely beneficial.

Because teamwork is so integral to the DNA of this game, your team needs to be varied. For example, having a team consisting of only attackers means that you will be lacking in the defensive department, which is integral for high octane escort and area assault missions. If you have a team consisting of characters with varying abilities you stand a better chance of winning. Simply put: In order to survive, you need to adapt.

You can now finally live out your childhood fantasies and be a ninja (albeit in video game form), because let’s be honest; growing up to be a shadowy assassin was (and will always be) the dream.

While being a ‘real life’ ninja takes years of hard work and dedication, the opportunity to be a digital one is most certainly worth it with its two characters, Hanzo and Genji. Both are uniquely different, Hanzo being a more scout/defence character armed with a box and arrow, whilst Genji is a offensive cyborg killing machine.

One look at the design and it’s pretty clear that the team at Blizzard having been watching too much anime (think One Piece and Dragon Ball Z). They have a penchant for employing a cartoon-like aesthetic to their games and Overwatch is no different. With our first glance at the in-game design thoughts of WoW came to mind and this definitely had a fantasy element vibe, mixed with a sci-fi/cyberpunk look.

Despite the huge cast and frantic pace, Overwatch is not a complicated game to pick up and play. In fact, in terms of modern day shooters we’d say that this game accommodates to first-time players/casual gamers. That doesn’t mean to say that online veterans won’t find this challenging or worth investing in. There’s a range of insane features and skills that requires a degree (not an actual one) of mastery. But what Overwatch does nicely is that it strips away the unnecessary distractions (like having an extensive category of weapons that you’ll never use) and instead encourages you to just jump straight into the game and start playing.