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| Overwatch Logo |
Overwatch exists at an intersection between design and
artistry, a crossroad at which pure tactile fun meets refined, intelligent
design to make a rare spark of magic. As a 6v6 multiplayer, objective-based
shooter, it finds accessibility not by lowering the skill ceiling, but by
broadening the definition of skill. The person with deadshot aim is no more
valuable than the person with the decision-making ability to know when a
well-timed ability will turn an engagement, or the person with the map-sense to
find the optimal locations to place sentry turrets. While it didn't exactly
drown me in options, maps, and modes, it’s blessed with a multitude of tactical
layers, and none of them ever came between me and my enjoyment of its intense,
swirling team fights, and thrilling overtime comebacks.
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| Overwatch Gameplay |
At first glance, it's a simple formula: two teams
of six vie for control of mobile payloads, capture points, and key strategic
positions. Each of its four modes is easy to grasp, serving as the foundation
for the various maps and the powerful heroes colliding within them. That
apparent simplicity is deceiving, though. Overwatch is an amorphous,
shapeshifting organism that mean different things for different players, depending
on which hero you choose, and what role you assume within the context of your
team.
The quality of Overwatch, as a hero shooter,
relies on its fighters. And these 21 heroes, both in terms of personality and
design, compose one of the more distinct and diverse casts in recent memory.
Their dialogue hints at relationships among the group. Their art design conveys
a stark visual vocabulary. Their abilities set the stage for multidimensional
firefights with explosions, energy shields, and bursts of sonic energy. There's
an enticing balance between mastering one character and trying someone
completely new.
Overwatch
does a great many things well, but above all else, its success is built on the
backs of its many excellent characters. It’s fitting that the main menu is
dominated by and personalities are all laid bare with every pose they strike.
Reinhardt’s rocket hammer lands on his shoulder with a meaty clank that invokes
a broadsword resting against a medieval knight’s plate armor, and Tracer’s
jovial smile is just briefly interrupted by a rebellious bang that slides
across her face, tempting her to blow it back into place before re-addressing
the camera and blinking all over the place. There’s an intelligent gorilla
scientist, a lithe, blue-skinned assassin, and a cybernetic, zen-practicing
healer too. It speaks volumes that the one character that adheres to well-worn
shooter tropes
solely around one catch-all gun or skill to the extent
that you can find success by using it alone. Tracer’s dual machine-pistols have
a high rate of fire but poor accuracy, a short clip, and middling damage if you
aren’t scoring headshots. Genji’s shurikens are highly damaging and boast
unerring accuracy, but their slow rate of fire and long travel time can make
hitting a small moving target difficult. Almost every primary weapon fits this
mold: they’re useful, and in the right situation quite powerful, but never
versatile enough to be a security blanket to constantly cling to. Not only do
these little details help differentiate characters, they pushed me to explore
their other abilities in search of success.
target as best he can, but even if you were good
enough to reliably win one-on-one firefights this way, you wouldn’t be
realizing his full potential.
At face value his other two skills – Steel Trap and
Concussion Mine – seem straightforward. One immobilizes enemies that wander
into it, the other blows them sky-high when triggered. In practice though, they
can be so much more. Steel Trap can be an escape tool, allowing you to
disengage from fights with faster enemies trying to get in your face. Its
positional alert upon being triggered allows it to double as an early warning
system too, letting you know that someone on the other team is attempting to
flank your defenses and holding them there long enough for you to respond. Or,
plant a Concussion Mine on top of a Steel Trap and just detonate it when you
see it triggered while you’re off somewhere else peppering the objective with
grenades. You can even use Concussion Mine as a regular old grenade by tossing
it at a group of enemies and detonating it manually as it gets there. Perhaps
most amusingly, you can detonate it under yourself to rocket-jump up to
otherwise-inaccessible areas. Just two abilities on one character opens up all
those possibilities, and as you might imagine, once you get 12 characters scrapping
over objectives, using their abilities to help and hurt one another, further
layers of tactical nuance begin to unfurl.
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| Wow Nice :D |
To see the video gameplay link
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