Overwatch review: Blizzard’s team-based online shooter opens the genre up to the talentless schmucks
It’s okay to initially be a bit baffled by Overwatch. It’s an online, team-based first-person shooter, but it’s made by Blizzard, a developer better known for making games where you wave a cursor around and click on dwarves.
In truth, anyone who’s ever played the classic Team Fortress 2 or its ilk will find Overwatch pretty familiar. Two teams of six unique heroes are armed with wildly varying weapons and abilities, which they must use to achieve one of a number of different objectives. Working in the spirit of cooperation, in one round you’ll be escorting a payload through a map, while in another you’ll be defending a capture point for as long as possible. On paper that sounds like almost every other online shooter, but it’s the imagination that’s hidden behind each character’s abilities, and how those abilities interact with one another, that sets Overwatch apart from its peers.
From Tracer, who can teleport around and ‘rewind’ to wherever she was five seconds ago, to the likes of D.Va, who pilots a giant mech that she can hop in and out of, you’re sure to find at least a few characters whose quirks appeal to you.
Overwatch rewards players of every skill level too. If you’re the sort of person who’s frustrated by being repeatedly murdered online by teenagers thousands of miles away, Overwatch provides a few clever ways to keep you engaged, interested and feeling valued by your teammates.
Whereas most other shooters end each round by ranking each player according to the number of kills they got versus the number of times they corked it, Overwatch gives you the option to give one of four players a friendly ‘thumbs up’ because you thought they did a good job. In practice it’s actually fairly uplifting, like a pat on the back rather than the usual slap in the face.
Maybe one guy spent the entire round shielding you from enemy fire, while another was running around healing anyone who needed it. All of these random acts of kindness are celebrated and noted by other players and by the game itself, and as a result it’s far more likely that most players will find their niche instead of just assuming they’re rubbish and giving up.
If you’ve ever tried to enjoy a competitive online game but found the actual competitive element a bit off-putting, Overwatch might just win you over.
Platforms: XBO, PS4, PC | ★★★★★