The Impact Factor

The Cavalry’s Here

Review

Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment (PS4)

Abstract: Overwatch is the most fun I’ve had with a multiplayer first-person shooter in a decade. The game is not only a love-letter to a long lineage of arena shooters, Overwatch also brilliantly adapts elements from MOBAs and fighting games to create an experience we’ve never quite had before. Overwatch is Blizzard doing the impossible, refining a well-wrought genre to near perfection. Unobtrusive but compelling lore supports a fantastic and diverse cast of heroes. Overwatch’s gameplay excels where others fail in its legibility, tactility, and rewards for players of all styles and skill. Overwatch is the epitome of fun, light enough to play casually with mechanical complexity that supports pro-level play. Despite high expectations Overwatch blew me away. It is not one to be missed.

The world could use more heroes. Well, one hero actually. And that hero is Overwatch. I was skeptical at first. The team at Blizzard is talented, but making its first new IP in over 15 years a first-person shooter? A genre that’s nearly been done to death? Where could they find novelty, and where could they optimize a nearly perfected formula? That’s a big ask. Especially for me, someone who had all but completely moved away from competitive FPS games in the past six years or so. But here’s Overwatch and it’s fantastic and I cannot stop playing.

Overwatch is an online team-based first-person shooter. Without a campaign or other single player content, Overwatch relies on a variety of sources to establish its game world.  Aside from a bare bones introductory cinematic, the majority of the world building is done through the characters and maps. Biographies and in-game quips between the game’s 21 characters shed light onto a fully realized world, an Earth in the near future that’s wholly unlike our own. Robots known as Omnics rose up against humanity, leading to a global war known as the Omnic Crisis. A team of talented individuals was assembled to fight the Omnics and take back the Earth – this group was called Overwatch. After winning the war, however, internal disagreements and a shifting public image led to the disbandment of Overwatch, scattering its eclectic cast of heroes across the world. Now 30 years later the world is once again in peril, and heroes old and new must lead the fight against the forces of evil.

The premise is merely an excuse to assemble a vibrant cast to duke it out across the world, however, and has little bearing on the game itself outside of environments and personalities. For example, the game’s lore doesn’t stop a team of six players from all picking Reaper and going shotgun crazy against a team of three Mercys and three Tracers. After all, for as grave as the story might seem, Overwatch couldn’t be further from it. Overwatch’s world and characters are poppy, colorful, and full of life. The story and character bios provide just enough to make traveling to the different maps interesting and to fuel character loyalty. I would love to see more story in the future as I have gone deep into the lore rabbit hole, but for now it provides a sufficient narrative framework upon which the game stands.

The lore gives a good reason why a transforming robot would square off against
a rocket-propelled hammer-wielding German, believe it or not.

The game’s core is its characters and that is where Overwatch knocks it out of the park. Before the game was even released communities formed up around specific characters, a testament to the remarkable design finesse that went into each and every hero. In a marketplace flooded with hero-based games, it was surprising that I could identify and name the entire roster with little study. Overwatch’s cast is diverse and fascinating. From the time-zipping Tracer to the pro-gamer turned mech pilot D. Va to hook-wielding Mad Max inspired Roadhog, no two characters are alike. Aesthetically, thematically, and most importantly gameplay wise, every single character brings something new to the game. Characters are divided into four general roles: Attacker, Defender, Tank, and Support. Attackers are generally your damage dealers, defenders help control the combat space, tanks block damage and supports bolster team performance. Within each role, however, the variety is astounding. Take support, for instance. The four heroes in that category are dramatically different, not forced to simply be back-line healers. One can create teleporters and defend objectives with laser turrets, another can attach healing orbs to allies while attaching debilitating orbs to enemy players. This diversity keeps matches fresh, as no two team combinations work exactly the same way.

What a fantastic cast of characters.

More impressively, every single hero is fun to play. It’s a truly noteworthy accomplishment. Never before have I played a character-based or hero-based game in which I’ve found enjoyment from literally the entire cast. I never thought in a million years I would like the Hot Topic steeped Reaper or the epitome of middle school cool Genji, but here I sit with the latter as my most played character. In so many ways Overwatch reminds me of my favorite fighting games, but I think the comparison that rings the most true is Super Street Fighter II. Overwatch’s heroes are world warriors, representing countries and combat styles. Mastering Overwatch’s cast is like mastering fighting game characters in all the best ways. There is so much nuance to each, from styles of play to skill ceilings to everything in between. I’ve sunk nearly 30 hours into Overwatch already and I have barely scratched the surface to truly understanding the strategic and skill depth for any of the game’s heroes.

When looking at a gameplay perspective, it was initially hard to put into words what exactly I found so engaging about Overwatch. At a surface level, Overwatch is a fairly standard first-person shooter with no real innovations when it comes to game modes, styles of play, map design, etc. It was a problem shared between myself and many in the game criticism community – people knew they were loving Overwatch but weren’t sure exactly why. Upon reflection, I’ve decided upon three key design decisions that make Overwatch a superior shooter. They are legibility, tactility, and rewarding play.

This is so much fun, but why? Legibility, tactility, and rewarding all players is why.

Everything about Overwatch’s gameplay is crisp and clear. First-person shooters often devolve into illegible chaos, with death coming from unexpected angles and objectives lost to the muddiness of combat. At all times during a match, Overwatch makes it clear to the player what to do and where to go. From colored directional lines unobtrusively found on the ground to great map design, Overwatch communicates its objective based gameplay clearly. The legibility extends to characters, too. Hero silhouettes are distinct, so even at the most cursory glance you know who you’re dealing with. Ultimate abilities come with an audio cue like “It’s high noon” or “Justice rains from above” letting you know what the enemy is doing and how you should react. Audio cues are distinct between teammates and opponents, too. Player health indicators make it clear to support who to heal, the minimal HUD heightens map awareness, and bold player outlines make it clear who is friend or foe. From team composition to objective play to character choice to character counters, Overwatch keeps it simple and makes it obvious. It’s fantastic.

Overwatch is also an incredibly tactile game. This is something Blizzard really excels at, adding a physicality and weight to the game that makes it a joy to play. Character abilities have the appropriate visual and audio flare so that even the most mundane of actions feels powerful and is satisfying to perform. Sound design all around is incredible, adding a layer of substance to the world that moves it past feeling like a sterile 3D combat arena. Each of the characters’ weapons is fun to use, having clearly defined attributes like distance traveled or bullet drop. Fast matches reinforce this tactility. Never are you stuck in monotonous repetition. Each game of Overwatch gives you those endorphin boosts and aesthetic rewards so that you’ll be saying “just one more match.” Overwatch is crunchy (mechanics heavy), fluffy (lightness), and sticky (keeps you playing). Playing a match of Overwatch is a textural treat for your mind that leaves a long lasting flavor.

Overwatch is a sensorial experience from its most mundane moments to its
most action packed.

The game’s most remarkable design innovations are evident in rewarding the player. Overwatch is probably the most player-friendly first-person shooter I’ve ever played. No matter your style of play, defensive or aggressive, or how well you play, terrible or spectacular, Overwatch lets you know what you did well. A mid-match menu that shows you at the bottom of a list of players or with a sub 50% kill to death ratio is nowhere to be found. End of match statistics display personal bests, as well as if you’re in the top three in your team in eliminations, healing, or blocking. If you damage an enemy at all you get a kill ping when they go down, not just for the player with the final blow. In-game gestures can be used in the place of audio chat, limiting toxicity. Overwatch highlights one Play of the Game at the end of each match, showing off multikills and other skillful play. Players are encouraged to stay in the same lobby for multiple matches via a consecutive match experience bonus, helping to build familiarity with the players and get a feel for how they play. Up to four players have their performance highlighted in-between matches, showing off their accomplishments like highest accuracy or most objective time. You can vote for a player of your choice, giving them extra commendation as well as increasing your chance to have them on your team next match.  Heroes’ ultimate abilities charge mostly irrespective of player performance, so unlike kill streak bonuses from games like Call of Duty, everyone gets to enjoy unleashing crazy powerful attacks. And the list goes on from there. I wrote last week that Overwatch is the epitome of fun and I stand by that. So many small design decisions synergize in a way that create one of the most friendly and enjoyable multiplayer experiences I’ve had in a decade.

Getting a Play of the Game feels oh so good.

Overwatch’s clear design strength helps to mask an admittedly content light final release. Unless you like playing against fairly incompetent AI, the game offers only two modes of play at the moment. The weekly brawl, in which the game’s rules are modified, is a nice addition to the standard Quick Play mode but doesn’t really bring much extra to the final package. Overwatch only has three kinds of match types, too: Payload, Control and Capture. Extra styles of play would have been nice, though something like Team Deathmatch or Free For All would not work with Overwatch’s role-based heroes. Player progression is aesthetic only. You receive a blind item loot box each time your profile levels up. Loot boxes contain cosmetic items like character skins, sprays, voice lines, and emotes. As someone who loves distinguishing themselves via cosmetic customization, I’ve had a blast collecting and equipping these items. I appreciate that all unlocks are aesthetic only, so no one player has an advantage because she managed to open a great gun in her random box. Still, it will be interesting to see if these cosmetic rewards keep me engaged for the long haul. Perhaps what will keep me coming back is just how much fun the game is to play? Shocking, I know.

I keep coming back for games like this one. Overwatch is incredible. 

As I wrap up the review, I still feel like I’ve fallen short on communicating exactly why Overwatch is so phenomenal. Suffice to say, Overwatch is greater than the sum of its parts. Blizzard has done the impossible, refine and simplify the team-based first-person shooter to perfection. Everything just works. Overwatch is a blast played solo and it’s even better with friends. Overwatch is fun to play for fun and great to play at a highly competitive level. High skill ceiling characters keep me coming back to get better, and low skill floor characters are perfect for quick casual matches. If history is any indication, Overwatch is the platform for much more to come. And what an absolutely stellar platform it is. Watch out other games, the cavalry is here.

Overwatch

5/5