May
11
2016
0

Overwatch Beta Impressions

When Blizzard Entertainment announces a new game, it’s a big deal. When they announce a new IP, it’s an even bigger one. In light of this, it isn’t surprising that from the time the game was announced last year, it’s been drawing a lot of attention. After months in closed beta to refine the balance and features, Blizzard has opened the game up for an open beta. I dived in to find a potentially addictive shooter that may nonetheless not be for everyone.

In case you somehow managed to miss the game’s enormous marketing blitz [which is honestly worth checking out for the cinematic trailers alone], the concept behind Overwatch is simple: in the near future, a global peacekeeping force known as Overwatch is created to battle a Skynet-esque army of robots known as the Omnic in an event called the Omnic Crisis. Overwatch eventually wins, but soon after, falls to sedition and corruption before being eventually disbanded after its leader is seemingly blown up in an attack on an Overwatch base. We’re still being drip-fed the story from a combination of trailers, comics, and in-game dialogue, but Blizzard seems intent on painting a picture of a world falling deeper into conflict, with the former heroes of Overwatch being called back once again to bring order. It’s a basic story, but one supported, much like its gameplay, by the cast of colorful and charismatic characters, who range from ex-Overwatch operatives to independent mercenaries and even villainous terrorists.

It's critical to keep an organized defense around a point defense.

It’s critical to keep an organized defense around a point.

These twenty-one characters make up the game’s current roster, split into a number of classes. The immediate inspirations are obvious; Team Fortress 2 is an obvious predecessor to the game, substituting varied weapons in exchange for abilities bound to various buttons. Despite being of the same archetype, many characters play very different from each other. For example, my favorite tank, the massive german powered armor knight Reinhardt, wields a rocket hammer, creates a potent barrier in front of him, and charges enemies into walls for heavy damage, while Zarya, another tank, wields an energy cannon that boosts its damage by absorbing fire from the opposition in a shield that she can place on herself or teammates.

The actual gameplay is a riot. Fast-paced matches typically only last between five and ten minutes, making it easy to recover from a frustrating loss or get in a quick game when you don’t have much time. Every character feels distinct and useful, at least until you have people double or triple up on the same character – though this can at least result in some hilarity. Mechanically, it has the kind of polish you can expect from Blizzard, with rock-solid framerate even on weaker machines, little in the way of serious bugs, and on-point shooting. There have been complaints on some forums about the game’s tickrate – the rate the server refreshes the data from the client – but, full honesty, in twenty years of FPSes, this is literally the first time I’ve heard of it supposedly being a problem; the game feels no worse than any other shooter I’ve played, and better than most.

The game types are few right now, but a dozen maps between them add a bit of versatility. There’s the classic Payload, in which one team escorts a rolling vehicle or cart (depends on the level) while the other tries to stop them from reaching the end of their path. Capture sees two teams battling it out over a King of the Hill-style objective, while another mode sees a variant on this game type by having one team attempt to prevent the other from capturing the point. There are no death match modes, and honestly, Overwatch probably doesn’t need them. The game’s clearly built around team play and many characters are designed for objective denial, supporting teammates, and softening up precision targets; they wouldn’t fare too well in a contest to rack up kills.

There are LOADS of crossover references to Blizzard's other properties in the game.

There are LOADS of crossover references to Blizzard’s other properties in the game.

This isn’t to excuse a lack of variety, however. As fun as Overwatch is, after about twenty hours of playing the game, I’m definitely starting to feel like it could use more varied objectives. Capture-the-flag seems like it’d be a perfect fit, as well as other, more creative game modes suited to the more unique mechanics of the game. The ‘ brawl’ game type, much like Hearthstone’s, helps a little, promising varied thematic matchups, but the only one I got to see during the beta was one that randomized your hero on every death.

The only other issue I have with Overwatch isn’t really a fault of its own, but a simple reality of the subgenre: if you’re the type who likes to get a few games in by yourself, or doesn’t have an organized group to play with, the game can be hell. Coordination will win every time, as it should, but this can leave solo players in the cold. The upcoming competitive mode may alleviate this, but for the moment, I definitely enjoyed myself a lot more when I played with friends.

All in all, Overwatch feels promising, and Blizzard’s long history of enormous amounts of post-release support bodes well for the game. Whether or not it’s worth $40 is subjective, but I’m certainly interested enough in playing more to put my money down.