Blizzard’s newest game Overwatch, is coming out later this month, and is in a free-to-play Open Beta right now until May 9. For the uninitiated, Overwatch is a first person shooter that focuses on battle-arena-style cooperative gameplay that pits two teams of six against one another in a variety of different game styles. There’s four main class types: offense, defense, tank, and support, and over twenty types of heroes to choose from. Each hero has a different feel to their movement and abilities, which makes for fun and engaging matches without getting stale and repetitive.
Personally, I hate MOBAs, but I love first-person shooters. Despite that, I didn’t really enjoy Smite, and was expecting Overwatch to be similar. So, from the start, I had my doubts about how much I would enjoy the game. Now, after playing it non-stop for the last few days and only stopping long enough to make this video and write this article while doing the absolute minimum I have to do for other work-related and life activities, I can say with certainty, that this game far more fun than I was expecting. The whole battle-arena MOBA thing is a fairly minor aspect in what is really an intense FPS for the hardcore adrenaline junky. The only thing that would make this more mind blowing is to hook it up to VR, which I’m sure someone will do one day.
Those of us here at TMC that have been playing are having a ton of fun trying out the different classes and tactics that can be utilized to push objectives, with some objectives and matches being far more nail-biting and butt-clenching that I expected them to be, often coming down to the last second in order to achieve victory. Maybe it’s just that everyone is learning the game and so no one has figured out the best min/max approach to break it and make it unfun yet. Or maybe it’s just fun?
For the brand-new player, starting out has never been easier. One of the greatest features of Overwatch that can really help you get used to the multitude of different hero classes is the training room. It features different types of targets moving around for you to hit and test your abilities against. Once you’re feeling more comfortable, the next step would be to try a game against the AI, which will be controlling a team of opposing heroes. Or, if you want to jump right in, you can do that too – just like we did.
While most games focus around king-of-the-hill-style attack/defend game types, the approaches and way in which teams can attack and defend are many. What helps the game really achieve this feel, is the versatility given to players in each map type. There are sniping spots, flanking spots, hidden corners, and passageways along with plenty of open spaces which you can totally wreck faces in. A neat feature called “overtime” comes into play when the objective gets contested at 99% captured. Our group was able to come back from 70% and contest an objective in overtime winning the game, which, I gotta say, made us pretty badass!
The only downside right now to Overwatch is the number of users running around using aimbot scripts and hacks that let you shoot through walls. That said, if any company is up to the challenge of ban-hammering cheaters, it’s Blizzard.
A minor thing I noticed was the amount of server-side lag that can be completely game-breaking. This isn’t an uncommon thing in many multiplayer games, but it’s very noticeable in the fast paced, action packed slugfest that is Overwatch. Eventually we reached an equilibrium, but it’s something to keep in mind when playing with folks who have different types of internet speeds.
So far, the game is off to a great start. Hopefully, this open-beta, like many open-betas, will help the developer team create and deploy anti-hack and anti-cheat protections as well as fix some of the the other issues with lag and terrain texture and physics issues that pop up from time to time. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with how things progress. All in all, it looks like a great game and I can say with certainty that Overwatch will be worth watching for long time to come.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Porkbutte.