See, this isn't marked as specifically the Open Beta because frankly, the game is finished. Sure the full release will have ranked mode back in, but not much else, and there isn't much I want to talk about there.
There's more than enough for me to witter on about in regards to the meat and potatoes though, so I'm going to do that weather YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.
Overwatch has been rightly pegged as TF2 by way of a "MOBA", the figurehead of the recent "Hero Shooter" genre push, that literally nothing else will ever be more successful than because Overwatch is by fucking Blizzard. Blizzard is big enough to have it's own convention, and frankly they've got the back-catalogue to justify it. Besides World of Warcraft, the machine that prints money, they've got StarCraft, Diablo and Hearthstone under their belts, among others, all of which are great examples of their own genres with huge dedicated fanbases. And Overwatch I feel plays to their strengths like nothing else before, the close-up camera view allowing their famously grandiose and gorgeous CGI animation to take a real shine in the game itself, rather than just trailers and cutscenes. World of Warcraft is clearly an old man with plastic surgery and hip youngster clothes on, and Diablo and StarCraft both have zoomed-out cameras and lots going on at once, which limits how detailed you can get with animation. So by making an FPS with high-fidelity character models and fantastically unique characters, Blizzard feels right at home in a genre they've never tackled before, which is impressive.
And fuck me do I love the characters. Diverse, endearing and beautifully realised with gorgeous animation and sound design. Even Tracer with her odd accent and forced catchphrase. I mean, D.Va. Man. D.Va. That little fingergun thing on the character select. The way her mouth scrunches up. The way that plugsuit fits to the contours of her-one second
I checked the Wiki. She's 19.
The way that plugsuit fits to the contours of her key art assets.
But all that animation finesse isn't just for show nor is the excellent sound design. Blizzard's Gameplay First motto would doubtless not let them get away with such visual perfection without justification. Every animation is designed to convey as much information as possible to you, your team and the enemy, to create an environment which remains hectic, while still being completely readable and never overwhelming to a calm mind. Each character's main weapon has unique and easily identifiable projectiles and sound effects, voice lines for ultimates being activated are team dependant, so no getting scared by an ally activating their ultimate thinking they're an enemy, even character footsteps are unique and made to help identify an enemy just by sound. and that's just the broad strokes.
Take, for example, D.Va. Her mech's footsteps are easily identifiable by speed and tempo even from Bastion, the other big stompy robot, her defence matrix ability is visible to other players besides herself as a cone to signify the no-fire zone, and when she ejects for her ult the abandoned and volatile mech is clearly seen as a danger even without the DANGER hud element. But if you go deeper, you see more. From her perspective, the lines that dart out to cancel enemy projectiles during defence matrix clearly show where bullets have come from, and don't obscure the screen to any game-effecting degree, giving you more information and making you a better player for it. The bullet spread from her main weapons is easy to see based on how the shots are highlighted, and the ping it makes when shots connect encourages suppressive fire from a medium distance wile not discouraging other types of play.
And that's before you get into the fascinating sound environment the game creates under it's skin. There are talks about this all over the place, but to pick and choose some highlights, enemies are prioritised based on parameters like "who's shooting at you", "who's closest to you" and "who poses the biggest threat to you", and their sound effects are made louder for you to identify them. Distant and/or unimportant gunfire is less audible than gunfire aimed at you or nearby teammates, while teammates actions are also generally quieter than enemies. There's some fascinating stuff going on behind the curtains that all works towards making you a better player, and thus making you enjoy yourself more.
And it works so well. I haven't enjoyed a shooter this much since Team Fortress 2, and even that offered little for when you don't feel like shooting, or when you want the sort of tankiness and mobility you get from, say, a 19 year old ex-StarCraft player in a mech suit. For the first time in literally forever I can watch killcams and actually calm down a bit after dieing, because they just show exactly how I perfectly legitimately died, rather than how the hitboxes got fucked or how something insanely overpowered was insanely overpowered. Unless it's Junkrat because fuck Junkrat and his fucking no skill grenades that little fucking
But beyond that core, the maps and gamemodes are all simply really well-executed versions of things we've all seen before. We know payload and capture point. TF2 had them. And while they work, there's room for more original things down the line. The progression system is also rather simple and thin on the ground, which won't be enough to hold anyone who can't deal with some repetition in their life. This is clearly a game meant for those who want to go along the path to perfection, who want to "Git Gud" so to speak. But that's fine, there's a market for that, and I'm in it. But for those who want their online peppered with frequent unlocks, deep customisation and constant chaking up of gameplay, this isn't that game. At least, not yet. Who knows what Blizzard could do in the future. Though I wouldn't get your hopes up.
So yeah, I like D.Va. Rest of the game is pretty good too I guess.
Next week, I'm thinking it's time to weigh in on Hyrule Warriors and Hyrule Warriors Legends. Perhaps something following up on Dark Souls 3 now that I've sunk far too much time into it. Gotta justify it somehow.
There's more than enough for me to witter on about in regards to the meat and potatoes though, so I'm going to do that weather YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.
Overwatch has been rightly pegged as TF2 by way of a "MOBA", the figurehead of the recent "Hero Shooter" genre push, that literally nothing else will ever be more successful than because Overwatch is by fucking Blizzard. Blizzard is big enough to have it's own convention, and frankly they've got the back-catalogue to justify it. Besides World of Warcraft, the machine that prints money, they've got StarCraft, Diablo and Hearthstone under their belts, among others, all of which are great examples of their own genres with huge dedicated fanbases. And Overwatch I feel plays to their strengths like nothing else before, the close-up camera view allowing their famously grandiose and gorgeous CGI animation to take a real shine in the game itself, rather than just trailers and cutscenes. World of Warcraft is clearly an old man with plastic surgery and hip youngster clothes on, and Diablo and StarCraft both have zoomed-out cameras and lots going on at once, which limits how detailed you can get with animation. So by making an FPS with high-fidelity character models and fantastically unique characters, Blizzard feels right at home in a genre they've never tackled before, which is impressive.
And fuck me do I love the characters. Diverse, endearing and beautifully realised with gorgeous animation and sound design. Even Tracer with her odd accent and forced catchphrase. I mean, D.Va. Man. D.Va. That little fingergun thing on the character select. The way her mouth scrunches up. The way that plugsuit fits to the contours of her-one second
I checked the Wiki. She's 19.
The way that plugsuit fits to the contours of her key art assets.
But all that animation finesse isn't just for show nor is the excellent sound design. Blizzard's Gameplay First motto would doubtless not let them get away with such visual perfection without justification. Every animation is designed to convey as much information as possible to you, your team and the enemy, to create an environment which remains hectic, while still being completely readable and never overwhelming to a calm mind. Each character's main weapon has unique and easily identifiable projectiles and sound effects, voice lines for ultimates being activated are team dependant, so no getting scared by an ally activating their ultimate thinking they're an enemy, even character footsteps are unique and made to help identify an enemy just by sound. and that's just the broad strokes.
Take, for example, D.Va. Her mech's footsteps are easily identifiable by speed and tempo even from Bastion, the other big stompy robot, her defence matrix ability is visible to other players besides herself as a cone to signify the no-fire zone, and when she ejects for her ult the abandoned and volatile mech is clearly seen as a danger even without the DANGER hud element. But if you go deeper, you see more. From her perspective, the lines that dart out to cancel enemy projectiles during defence matrix clearly show where bullets have come from, and don't obscure the screen to any game-effecting degree, giving you more information and making you a better player for it. The bullet spread from her main weapons is easy to see based on how the shots are highlighted, and the ping it makes when shots connect encourages suppressive fire from a medium distance wile not discouraging other types of play.
And that's before you get into the fascinating sound environment the game creates under it's skin. There are talks about this all over the place, but to pick and choose some highlights, enemies are prioritised based on parameters like "who's shooting at you", "who's closest to you" and "who poses the biggest threat to you", and their sound effects are made louder for you to identify them. Distant and/or unimportant gunfire is less audible than gunfire aimed at you or nearby teammates, while teammates actions are also generally quieter than enemies. There's some fascinating stuff going on behind the curtains that all works towards making you a better player, and thus making you enjoy yourself more.
And it works so well. I haven't enjoyed a shooter this much since Team Fortress 2, and even that offered little for when you don't feel like shooting, or when you want the sort of tankiness and mobility you get from, say, a 19 year old ex-StarCraft player in a mech suit. For the first time in literally forever I can watch killcams and actually calm down a bit after dieing, because they just show exactly how I perfectly legitimately died, rather than how the hitboxes got fucked or how something insanely overpowered was insanely overpowered. Unless it's Junkrat because fuck Junkrat and his fucking no skill grenades that little fucking
But beyond that core, the maps and gamemodes are all simply really well-executed versions of things we've all seen before. We know payload and capture point. TF2 had them. And while they work, there's room for more original things down the line. The progression system is also rather simple and thin on the ground, which won't be enough to hold anyone who can't deal with some repetition in their life. This is clearly a game meant for those who want to go along the path to perfection, who want to "Git Gud" so to speak. But that's fine, there's a market for that, and I'm in it. But for those who want their online peppered with frequent unlocks, deep customisation and constant chaking up of gameplay, this isn't that game. At least, not yet. Who knows what Blizzard could do in the future. Though I wouldn't get your hopes up.
So yeah, I like D.Va. Rest of the game is pretty good too I guess.
Next week, I'm thinking it's time to weigh in on Hyrule Warriors and Hyrule Warriors Legends. Perhaps something following up on Dark Souls 3 now that I've sunk far too much time into it. Gotta justify it somehow.
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