Not often do I buy a game on release day. Even less often is a game I buy on release day a brand new IP I know absolutely nothing about, but I bought into the hype train of Overwatch. Everybody was talking about it, so I had a moment of weakness. Even I am surprised by this because as a rule I don't buy multiplayer-only games either. I'm breaking my own rules all over the damn place with this one, but it was worth it. Overwatch is an excellent game.
It's very much Team Fortress-like. There are several different maps, and the goal is generally to capture or defend a point or to move or stop a payload, necessitating teamwork and an overall balanced team makeup. You have 21 different characters to choose from, each with different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. These characters are split up by role: Offense, Defense, Tank, and Support. The characters are the most interesting bit about the game, so I'll touch on each of em a hot minute:
OFFENSE
Genji: A badass ninja that hucks ninja stars at people's faces and whose deflect ability is the bane of any rapid fire character's existence.
McCree: Straight out of the old west, this revolver toting cowboy delivers ridiculous amounts of damage from his six-shooter, IF you're on target that is.
Pharah: Death from above, Pharah, flies into the air and rains down a barrage of face-fucking missiles.
Reaper: A dual-pistol packing grim reaper whose AOE Ult ability strikes fear into the hearts of all those nearby with his chant of "DIE, DIE, DIE!" #heythatrhymed
Soldier 76: Your standard gun toting multiplayer pew pew option with some healy AOE skills as a bonus.
Tracer: Quick as she is cockney, Tracer uses her speed to flank enemies, and can literally roll back time if she gets in too deep of a mess.
DEFENSE
Mei: An ice-wielding chick who can freeze you in your tracks and throw up ice walls as a defensive measure. The most powerful character becomes downright docile as an ice cube.
Bastion: A robot that can transform into a turret and make any choke point a site of mass murder.
Hanzo: A sneaky bow-wielding motherfucker that can wipe out whole teams with a well placed dragon Ult.
Junkrat: An absolute madman, Junkrat is all about hucking explosives into a den of enemies and blowing them to kingdom come.
Torbjorn: An engineer type who builds turrets to protect the homestead and can build upgrades for his pals using crud he finds lying around.
Widowmaker: The snipey-est sniper who ever sniped. An effective Widowmaker can stop an offensive attack dead in its tracks.
TANK
D.Va: Inhabiting a mech, D.Va runs into the fray causing chaos with powerful short range boomsticks. If her mech takes too much damage, she can bail and continue on foot, making her kind of a cockroach to kill.
Reinhardt: A tank in every sense of the word. Reinhardt's big ol' shield can serve as a protective blanket for his teammates and is great for pushing a payload forward.
Roadhog: Hog is right. This portly mofo is slow, but who needs speed when you can pull your enemies toward you with a chain hook of no escape.
Winston: Space monkey, thy name is Winston. Winston is great at jumping from a great distance and wreaking monkey havoc amongst a group of clustered enemies.
Zarya: An energy beam canon toting tank who grows stronger in attack power as her shields on herself or others take damage. She can also round up an entire team with her Ult, making them easy pickins for her and her team.
SUPPORT
Lucio: A dude that's constantly jammin' to music, which serves as an area of effect ability to either heal or speed up nearby allies.
Mercy: A Valkyrie-like angel of HOLY FUCK, HEAL ME. Mercy flies from ally to ally to heal or boost their damage and has the ability to revive fallen party members.
Symmetra: Turret droppin', shield granting lady that's useful when you need a strong defensive position.
Zenyatta: A floating, orb-slinging support character, Zenyatta has the ability to heal friendlies and make baddies take more damage, as long as he can see them. A sadist that guy is, apparently.
A big thing everybody else is all hot and bothered about but I don't quite get is the customization of all these characters. You can get new skins, and tags, voice emotes, and action poses, etc. These are all found within Loot Boxes you can earn through gameplay by leveling up, or you can buy them...oh and how people have bought them. The chance that you'll get what you actually want is slim to haha, fuck you, so I'm glad that I neither care about those little extras, nor have the proclivities toward gambling that would make me waste inordinate amounts of money to acquire them. But I digress...
I haven't clocked a ton of hours on this game, and I haven't even played all of these characters at length yet, but what is clear is that Overwatch is a shit ton of fun. There aren't a ton of maps or game types yet, but the team make-up can be so different each time, with each of those people at different skill levels, that no game feels the same. Additionally, every person should be able to find a character that matches their play style, with 21 options to choose from and all. Also, at $40 bucks, it's cheaper than your standard AAA game (as long as you don't fall into the microtransaction trap). Take it from this pinch-penny, it's well worth the cost of admission.
