Overwatch

The world of Overwatch is teeming with elaborate characters and colorful environments. The exciting multiplayer system has you actively changing tactics to adapt to each fight, using each heroes specialize talents to defeat your enemies. However shallow customization options, lack of content prevent, and limited competitive options prevent Overwatch from reaching any notable acclaim. Overwatch looks incredible and plays fantastically, there’s simply not enough content here to continue after the first several hours.

Overwatch is a multiplayer only cooperative shooter. Players choose from up from 4 categories of heroes, each with 6 characters. Offense heroes are glass cannons, defensive heroes lack mobility but are heavy damage dealers, tanks have the most health of any other hero, and supports are medics. Each hero has their own unique weaknesses and strengths, understanding how each hero functions is essential to victory. 

Players will face each other in 6v6 battles across 12 maps. Each environment has multiple paths and vertical platforms, giving players multiple options of how to attack and defend. It’s on these multiple battlefields that Overwatch’s graphical style shines. The bright colors and marvelously designed landscape is lush and beautiful. 

Each of the 24 characters play differently, look distinctive, and are wonderfully voiced. It’s clear a lot of effort went into crafting each one, it’s a shame that same effort wasn’t put into building their stories. Outside from the animated videos that are available on YouTube only snippets of information about these heroes are heard through in-game dialogue. The opening cinematic serves as the largest piece of information regarding the heroes, a past war, and a new conflict.

Forming a balanced team of the 4 categories paramount, an unbalanced team will result in a quick defeat. For example Tracer is quick and can dash across the field easily, but lacks health. Bastion on the other hand cannot move quickly, instead the robot relies on self-healing and a giant turret transformation to deal heavy damage. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each hero is just as essential as knowing the map layout.

As you complete matches you’ll earn medals and experience. Leveling earns you loot boxes that unlocks new items such as animations, costumes, emotes, voice lines, introductions, and sprays. Weapons and abilities are pre-determined and cannot be altered. If you wish you can purchase them using real-world money. Everything that is unlockable is purely cosmetic and won’t give those who choose to opt-into the paid option an unfair advantage.

This is where Overwatch begins to show its lack of content. Three options are available; delivering a payload, defending an objective, and capturing a single-point. There’s is no free-for-all, team deathmatch, or multi-point domination. Arcade attempts to mix things up by offering different rules such as quicker cooldowns and increase health. Worst of all you cannot choose with one to play, there’s only one option that plugs you into the first open slot of a match. Compared to other multiplayer shooters and free-to-play games this is unacceptable, especially for a multiplayer only game. 

Custom games are available for private matches. You can alter damage, healing, charging rate, and other options within the multiplayer. However maps cannot be changed and remain in the same fixed pattern. If you wish to test out your creations or your skills AI opponents are available to fill in vacant slots, but this option is for private matches only.

Overwatch is full of excellent characters and the battlefields these heroes face off against one can become hectic. In the first few hours I had a blast testing out each hero and exploring the maps, but that excitement quickly demised. There simply isn’t enough content here to support a $60 price tag. Perhaps in the future when DLC releases Overwatch will offer a meatier experience, however until then it’s medicorely entertaining shooter.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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