Consoles: Playstation 4, XBox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Published: Activision Blizzard
Developers: Blizzard Overwatch Team
Released: May 2016
Overwatch is a first person shooter game developed by the one and only Blizzard. The studio famous behind succesfull long supported franchises such as The World of Warcraft which was made in 2004, Diablo(1-3) which has been
present since 1997 and it said to have its next major installment A.K.A Diablo 4 next year in 2022, and Heartstone which is was released two years prior in 2014. Overwatch was the fourth succesfull game that came out of the studio and unlike
the past titles this was a fresh IP and a first person shooter which is something Blizzard never worked on in the past. The game offcially began as a game called Titan which was a project abandoned by Blizzard. The team that was working on it,
moved into a new project which came to be Overwatch, lead by the former head of the Overwatch team and Vice Pressident of Blizzard themselves, Jeff Kaplan. Overwatch was shown to the world in 2014's BlizzCon with trailers, closed Betas and in depth
videos. As the days gone by, the Overwatch team kept showing and showing content that lead the game to become one of the most anticipated games of 2016. In the year 2016 the game was released in the following forms:
Standard Edition
Included the game
Deluxe Edition
Included the game, A collectable pin,a collectable Coin
Collector Edition(Playstation 3, XBox 360)
Included the game, A Steelbook Case, Artbook, Audio Cd, Statue of the hero Soldier 76, a set of Overwatch card Postals
The Nintendo switch version was released 3 years later in 2019 and alongside it came a code with online goodies. Overwatch as a game was an outstanding gaming phenomenon whose road to success was shown from the demo of the game that received over 10 millions of
fans. With the actual release of the game, over 7 million gamers purchased the game within the first week and by the end of 2016 the developers confirm a revenue of over 560 million. The success of Overwatch had such an impact in the gaming community that
manage to earn the title Game of the Year 2016 with competition such as Doom 2016,Uncharted 4, Titanfall and Inside. In fact Overwatch earned 10 different Awards and 5 Nominations.
A year later in 2017 Overwatch was still standing among the top games and even created a deepe competitive scene in the form of Esports. In 2017 the game manage to earn 17 awards and 16 nominations. The years 2018-2020 the game still earned rewards with
6 awards won and 9 nominations.
Needless to say, Overwatch became a game recognisable by many and whether people agree or not, it is definetely one among the greatest games of all time. Not many new Ip take the world by storm like Overwatch did. in the year 2020 Blizzard announced that Overwatch 2
is in development and will most likely be released in the years 2022-2023.
Story of the Game
Overwatch has an enormous story, probably among the games with the biggest Lores as the developers can always introduce new heroes who themselves will bring new lore pieces. So far the developers talked alot, and i mean alot about the past lore of overwatch before the
team disbanded. Then they talked and showed alot about the heroes, 'villains'and the world now that Winston initiated the recall protocol and ofcourse the team loves teasing the future of the Universe. The game has no official Story mode or single player mode so where does this lore come from?
When it came down to Overwatch the developers expanded the universe through CGI (movie Quality) Cinematic trailers, comic books, light Novels, interviews with developers, character trailers, in game cosmeticks with evidential lore,maps, story events available during the Archive event
and last but not least through the character interactions between the heroes themselves. To elaborate on each:
CGI Trailers
These are trailers that showcase events from the universe such as the first ever trailer in the museum that gives the story of what happened to pogram Overwatch and it's heroes, whilst also introduces Doomfist gauntlent(Doomfist was not a hero in the came and he came to be
3 years later in 2019 as the fans were obsessed with the hero concept teased 3 years ago). Trailer recalled shows Winston making the Decision to bring the heroes back together as new Dangers appear and so many more.
Comic Books
Every so often Blizzard released Comics involving certain heroes to either teased an upcomming hero or event in the game. Comics such as the Legend of Junkerstein whose purpose was to introduce players to a haloween event, or even comics such as Zarya's mission to capture Sombra
after the events of the Innfiltration cinematic.
Ligh Novels
These are small books such as the hero of Numbani whose concept was to showcase the aftermath of Doomfist escape(from the Doomfist cinematic), introduce the players to Efi, a jenious kid who build Orisa (a hero introduced in Game) and allow Orisa to have her own Character Development.
Interviews of Developers
This is very straight forward. The fans who love Overwatch ask the developers in live interviews or in the forums and the developers might confirm the statement, may denied it or may give an entire explanation about a certain concept.
In Game Cosmeticks.
Cosmeticks mostly referring to the sprays of the heroes or certain skins that come with their own descriptions. For example, Genji's Sparrow skin, allow the players to see Genji's appearance before he was cut down by his brother Hanzo, his Blackwatch skin shows how Mercy gave life To Genji
by giving him some cyber parts and his new basic skin shows his current statues. Sombras Los Muertos skin description explains how Sombra used to be a member of the Los Muertos back in Mexico. The sprays on the other hand reveal other secrets such as Moira being behind Reaper's transformation and
other experimentations. DVas Acting career etc.
Character Trailers
Unlike the CGI trailers, Character cinematics are short and showcase events of the certain heroes career. For example, Ana's trailer showed the world that she was mentor to Widowmaker who was kidnapped during a mission. After a certain time, during a mission Ana was set as a sniper to look after her team
but the opponent also had a sniper who was task to defeats Ana's team. Ana Could ve saved them but the enemy sniper was none other than the missing Widowmaker, Ana could not deliver the shot and the Widow punish her by shooting her. Ana wake up in the hospital and was inform that everymember of her team died.
Her next act is to let everyone think she is dead while she goes around supporting her friends.
In game Interactions
The game has alot, and i mean alot of character interactions. The basic idea is that if certain heros are placed in the same team these heroes will most likely trigger a unique interaction. For example Sombra's dialogue with either Tracer or Winston is referring to her stealing the plans for Tracer's Chronal
Accelerator with both of them calling her a theif. Doomfist will try to regroup Hanzo as his skills are extremely useful, Mercy will call Moira's methods unethical while Moira claims that Mercy cannot deny her discoveries. Lucio will show his despise to Symmetra as her company brings nothing good to the Lucio's
people and so more. At the same time interactions can be heard if a certain hero defeats another hero, for example, a reaper defeating Winston will cause reaper to call Winston a Money as he doesnt respect him as a scientint, Tracer will make fun of Sombra and Hanzo and Kenji will both claim something wise depending
on who defeats who. Similar to hero to hero interactions, the game has plenty of random interaction with the maps. For example, Sombra in Volskaya will make a reference to the infiltration cinematic, Genji in Hanamura will make a reference of his younger days when he spent countless hours in the arcade playing video
games. Pharah in Anubis will reference the virus from the God Virus (Phara comic),Orisa in Numbani will reference her fallen OR15A (model used to make Orisa), Widowmaker and Tracer will reference the event of Mendata's death (in Alive Trailer) and so many other.
Maps
The maps themselves have plenty of references and easter eggs. For example,whilst playing in Junkertown and exploring around, the players can see plenty of Posters of Junkrat and Roadhog, his hangout locations and their Junk metas. Furthermore posters of a female with an Axe can be seen that lead players to believe it's
a future hero called the Junker Queen. Playing in Nepal, someone may encounter Genji's room with a picture of him and his brother. After Genji awaken in his cyber body he hated himself and couldnt find piece. He moved to Nepal and under Zenyatas guide he began to accept his new condition. Furthermore in Castillo(a pvp map)
players can find Sombra'r room. In Eichenwal there's an armor lying at the end of the map and plenty of broken Bastians, these all became clear with the trailer and interactions of Reinhart.
Archive Events
Archive Events are seasonal events (more of that further below) that takes place once every year and lasts for three weeks. During the Archive events the Overwatch team experimented on delivering a four man mission versus Ai with a plot attached to it. The first event allowed players to live Tracer's first ever mission as part
of overwatch, the second allowed the players to see the downfall of Blackwatch wich lead to the fall of Overwatch and the third one takes place in a more recent event after Overwatch got back together and Doomfist already escaped Numbani's prisons.
The Good and Bad of the Game's Story
Seeing how the game does not provide a single player or even a multiplayer online story, it will be inapropriate to commend on a story, however it felt like it was worth mentioning as most likely anyone who may be interested in the game will most likely want to learn more about Blizzards Overwatch Universe. At this point it should also be mentioned
how Blizzard and more specifically the Overwatch team announced that the sequel Overwatch 2 will have a a full online Co-op story and Mission select for the players to join forces versus the Omnics, null sector and Overwatch (assuming the enemy team(lore wise) will be facing the heroes ).
Gameplay( Basic-Gamemodes)
Overwatch is an online multiplayer game. This means the game cannot be accessed without internet connection not even for trainning vs bots or to display the heroes. In order to play Overwatch online whilst on a console aka (Playstation, Xbox, Switch) requires that player to purchase an online subscription
in order to enjoy it. This means purchasing Ps Plus membership(Ps4), Xbox Live (xbox) And switch Online (Nintendo Switch). The game is a team base 6 vs 6 online experience where it teams players together with certian objectives.
The game modes are:
Assault
During an Assault, team A is task to attack an objective while team B is set on Defense. The attacking team is set to attack and capture point A, in order to proceed to point B. The attacking team has five minutes to capture point A, upon succeeding the timer will receive an Extra additional five minutes added to their timer in order
to capture point B. In order to capture the objective the team has to defeat the enemies and stand on point. A bar will slowly fill until its fully filled. Each point has three save marks to add as safely captured. The defensive team can only win by succesfully defending either point A or point B before the timer runs out. Overtime
will be triggered if the attacking team has heroes on point when the timer reaches zero.
in the Competitive scene, Assault goes as follows, team A attacks team B. The rules are the same as above, team A can either capture both points, capture point A and some parts of point b (?/3), or even none. The sides will then swap between them and team B will set to attack the same points
whilst team A is on Defense. Team B can only win by getting more points than team A. If both teams fail to capture a point then the game ends in a draw. If both teams captures both points, then they will fight another set, this time around, the teams both have the timer they won with, for example if team A won with 4 mins left they have that ammount
to capture the point. If a team had zero timer they get 1 minute to 'shine'.
Control
Control is a game mode in which two teams fight over, in order to capture a certain point. Similar to assault, a point is set in the middle, however it belongs to none of the team and both of the playing teams are tasked to attack the point and capture it. The team who won the first fight will most likely be the first team to capture a point(similar to assaults point captured).
While a team A is controlling the point, a progression bar will appear and start from 0% to reach 100%. The first team to reach 100% first wins the round. Its a best out of three format. If team B wins a team fight, they will most likely capture the point themselves. Once this is done, the percentage(%) of team A will freeze and teams B will start progressing.
Overtime will be triggered if one of the two teams reach 99% while the point is being contested by the other team, for as long as their members are on the point. This game mode does not have a time limit, unlike others.
Unlike the other game modes the competitive version of this game is the exact same as its casual game.
Escort
Escort also known as Payload missions have the team A escorting a payload from point to point while team B is set on defense. Each Map has 3 safe checkpoints that the team can remove the payload without the fear of losing it. The payload moves forward as long as the attacking team is staying near it. The payload itself provides slow healling effect for the attackers, and
the more attackers are on payload the faster it moves. Team A wins if they manage to escort the payload from the starting point all the way to the finishing point. Each time a point is captured the spawn place of each team change to be closer to the payload and extra timer is added to the overall timer. On the other hand team B tries to prevent team A by defending the
payload. Once team B succesfully captures the payload, it slowly moves backwards. As mentioned the payload can only go as back as the nearest checkpoint. Overtime will be triggered if the timer runs out while the payload is being contested by the team A, for as long they are near the payload.
In the Competitive scene, both teams get to escort the Payload. The team that pushed the payload the most will be the one who wins the set. On the other hand, if both teams succesfully escort the payload all the way to the end, they get reset and escort the payload once again. If a team fails to escort the payload all the way the payload will be left with a percentage Eg, 57,8%.
That 57,8% will be marked in the map and the team is set to push the payload below that. The moment team B achieves 57,9% the game will be officially finished even if team A still had time to defend the payload and move it back.
Hybrid
Hybrid is a game mode that begins as a single point Assault, and upon succesfully achieving the point it becomes an escort mission. Each part of Hybrid follows the same rules of both Escort and Assault for quickplay and competitive.
Gameplay(Arcade-Gamemodes)
Overwatch gives the players the option to play different game modes that can be found in Arcade. It is also the place where the Overwatch team used to experiment and introduce new concept to the game. These modes are :
Capture the Flag
Similar to Call of duty, capture the flag is a game mode that allows player to attack and capture the enemy flag. The objective is to capture the flag and bring it back to their own base,whilst defending their won flag for the enemy team. The team that reaches 3 flags first will offically be the victor BUT in the case that both failed to capture 3 flags , by the time the 5 minutes are passed
the team with the most flags captured will be the winners. Overtime is triggered if the timer reaches Zero and one or both the flags are not yet in their base safely guarded. In the case of both teams having same score, sudden death will be triggered where the flag bases will be teleported closer to each other and it's whoever scores the first point wins. Competitive follows the same rule as
the regular mode.
No Limits
No limits is a game mode that plays as a regular game AkA Escort,Hybrid,Control and assasult. However, the players are allow to have multiple versions of a certain hero,EG a team of 6 Tracers.
Random Heroes
Similar to No limits, this game mode plays a regular game however each time a payer dies, they respawn in a random hero with reset ultimate status.
Elimination (team or not)
Elimination is a game mode in which players fight either alone or in teams of three or six against another group of the same size.Once killed, a player cannot respawn in that round. The first team to kill all opposing team members wins the round. Best out of three sets. Heroes used during a winning round cannot be used again.
Deathmatch (team or not)
Deathmatch is a game mode in which eight players shoot each other in a free-for-all with the only objective being to eliminate each other and reach 20 eliminations. Win is achieved to the top four players of each match.
A Team Deathmatch variation, uses the same rules as Deathmatch but seperates the players players into 2 teams of 4. The team that succesfully reaches 30 kill counts wins the game.
Classic Overwatch
During the first two years of overwatch the game used to allow players to play whichever hero they liked. Whether it was a team of 6 DPs, or 4 tanks 2 supports and other. Now overwatch is played in the form of 2-2-2(Tanks, Dps, Support). This gamemode exists to allow the fans to play the game in the style they prefer without beiing limited to it's standard format.
A competitive mode also became available for the same purpose.
Overwatch Workshop
The workshop allows the community to build their own format/gamemode. The community came with gamemmodes like, Thanos :Colorful orbs appear that grant strength , Hp boost, speed boost etc, when a player gathers all 5 power ups the worl resets and the player gets 1 point. Other game mode was similar to the hit game Floppy bird, other gamemodes were minigames similar to those found in Super mario part and many more.
Gameplay (Seasonal Events)
Since it's initial release the team was very excited and wanted to come up with ways to make each season special for the players outside of simply adding skins for the certain event(Christmas,Halloween etc.). Needless to say the first 2 years had alot of originality and it gave the fanbase plenty of events that were made from scratch. The next 3 years however,had the same gamemodes with small changes here and there such as allowing more heroes to
enter a certain game mode or new maps made for that event alone. These events are:
Summer Games
As the name suggests, Summer games take place during the summer. This event comes attached to Lucio Ball a game-mode very similar to rocket league. Three Lucio players are placed in new maps that resemble a football stadium. The Lucios can move around, wallride and boost however they cannot shoot at the enemy Lucios. The aim of the game is to score the ball in the enemy goal. A timer of five minutes is set however if any of the teams
gets ahead by 10 goals the game ends with a crushing victory. During it's first year the gamemode was very popular, thus the next year Blizzard introduced Cupa LucioBall which is lucio ball but competitive. In case of a draw, the game mode will triggere sudden death where who ever scores first wins the game.
Halloween of Terror
Every Halloween, Overwatch revisits an ancient tale of Junkersteins revenge. A Tale that have wonderers defending a castle from the mad Dr. Junkerstein, his friend the Witch and his creations. This is a 4 player gamemode where the team is placed in an alternative version of Eichenwalde. The players are task to protect the gates of the castle by defending it from enemy waves whose goal is to break the gate. The game will end in one of
three ways. The team succesfully defending the gate from the mad Scientist, The gate being breached leading to defeat, and all the heroes falling in combat. The hero themselves do not change as they have the same cooldowns as in Quick play however, they re referenced with different names such as the Archer(Hanzo), the alchemist(Ana) etc. The enemy bots will ignore the players as their goal is to kamikazee on the door. Blue bots are tasked with shooting
the players in order to kill em. The rip tires follow the same logic as the normal bots however they deal more damage and move faster. The enemy bosses do not attack the gate but they do attack the players, and unlike their Quick play counterparts they have more health and can take more damage.
Christmas Event
There Are two different gamemodes available during Christmas: Mei's Snowball fight: This game mode is similar to Elimination were Six Meis are placed in a map. All of them have 1 snowball in their weapon and they have to use it to eliminate the Enemy Meis. If a Mei shoots and miss, there are glowy Snowy parts in the ground that may can withdraw in her weapon granting her one extra shot. During her Ultimate her friend Snowball will grant her infinite snowballs for a small period of time. The round ends when
all Mei's in one team are eliminated. Mei's Yeti Hunt: This Game mode came a year later where 5 Mei players go up againts a Winston. Each team has one goal, eliminate the others. The Mei players move around trying to locate Winston and freeze him to death. For Ultimate Mei gets Junkrats bear trap that will escort them on stunning the enemy Winston. Winston on the other hand has to move around in order to find 5 stakes. These Stakes allow Winston to triggere rage mode which helps him deal
more damage and defeat the meis With Ease.
Lunar new year
This Event was introduced with the chinese new year, and each time it introduces a different year Eg. Year of the Ox, Pig etc. Capture the flag was originally introduced with this event, however duo to popularity deman, capture the flag became it's own game mode two years later. Nevertheless, in order to celebrate the origin of Capture the flag, every year during the Lunar event, theres a competitive capture the Flag game mmode
Archive Events
In terms of real life celebrations, Archive represents none, however the team made the decision to experiment and give players something the wanted since day 1. Story events. Each year for the the first 3 years during Spring, the developers released PVE missions that represent a Story event from the Overwatch Universe. The first event Uprising represented Tracers First mission to stop the Omnic crisis in London. A team of 4 players are given 4 characters
(Tank: Reinhart, Support: Mercy, DPS: Tracer & Torbjorn). The map is modified and as a first objective the heroes have to capture and defend three differents Points. They then proceed to a payload that they have to rpotect for approximately 5 mins, that Lore wise Torjorn was fixing. Once the Payload is ready to go, the heroes have to escort it from point A to B while defending it. Once the payload is escorted the team is task to defeat 5 or14s. The second event Retribution
follows Black watch. This time around, the game has 4 Heroes(3 Dps Mcree(Cassidy),Reaper, Genji and 1 support Moira) who were on a mission in Italy. This event is more simple as it focusses more on survival than mini tasks, and lore wise it's the even that made Blackwatch considered enemies which lead to the downfall of the Overwatch protocol. The third eventStorm Rising, takes place after the call to reassemble overwatch and has the four heroes (Tank Winston, Support Mercy, DPS Genji and Tracer)
chasing Maximilian, a non playable hero who has a huge impact in the story based on the comics, the cinematicks and the interviews. The event combines the survival aspect of the second event, with a payload section mid way.
Anniversarry
As the name suggest this event celebrates the release of Overwatch every May. During this event, Each day for three weeks has a seasonal event accessible. For example day one LucioBall, day2, Halloween of terror, day 3Mei snowball, day 4 Mei yeti hunt etc.
General Gameplay
Despite the game the players get to choose a role with it's own set of heroes. Two Tanks, 2 Dps(Damage Per Second) and 2 support, each role is important and teamwork itself is essential. Each of the heroes are unique and have their own powers and abilities. Some heroes require the team to play around them(Sombra) while others are more powerfull when stay as a group (Brighita,Zarya). There is a total of 32 heroes, each of them unique in their own right and all of them unique personalities whose character
is displayed through their interactions, dressing code, voice lines and gamestyle. The players will 100% find a character they can identify as, from western cowboys, to future robots, to cyber ninjas, to Skating Djs and so many. The Tanks as the name suggest, are heroes with more HP than the rest and have abilities such as shields to protect their teammates. DPSs are heroes who re ostly responsible for dealling damage to the enemy and get kills or even get certain picks such as killing the supports before
they re able to help their teams. Last but not least the support heroes are capable of restoring lost health to teammates or even support with other abilities such as speed boost, weakening enemies and even power boosting. As already mentioned each role is important.
Controls
The players move around with L3 while controlling the camera with R3. Tapping R3 will allow each of the heroes to melee the opponents. X is used for Jumping, Certain heroes have double jump, others can hover in air and others can even wall ride. Square is used to reload the weapons. There's no official ammo limit. There is a capacity, for example 25 bullets, however once all 25 are used or square is pressed the hero will go back to their 25 bullets. Each hero has their own set of bullet ammo(25,100,7 Etc).
Circle is used for crouch. Triangle triggers each heroes Special/Ultimate. Whilst playing the game in the bottom center there is a circle with a certain percentage that represents the ultimate charging. Each hero has there own ultimate that has their own usage, for example some deal heavy damage(Bastion, Pharah,Tracer etc), some are used to set the stage for a play (Zarya's graviton, Sombra's Emp) and others are powerful support ults. (Lucio, Zenyata, Symmetra) . R2 is the main way of dealing damage by shooting
with the heroes the weapon. R1, L1 and L2 are used to trigger the heroes special abilities with L2 being the alternative fire in most cases. Each of the heroes have their own unique abilities. Eg Sombra uses L2 Hacks the enemies, L1 turns Sombra Imvisible and R1 is used to use the translocator. Genji uses L2 to alternate his shuriken throwing, R1 to dash(swift strike) and L1 to deflect enemy bullets. The touchpad, opens the game status. An interface that shows the ammount of kills,deaths,objective kills, damage dealt,
healing done and time on point. At the same interface the player can see the ultimate status of teammates and who is currently alive. The touchpad on the other hand is used to communicate. Down arrow is used to open the wheen with commands where the player can use R3 to select an option. Down and R1 will open the menu with the Sprays whilst L1 will open the voiceline command wheel. Right arrow on the other hand can swap weapons for heroes. More specifically Mercy's healing staff to pistol. Any player can swap a hero bwhen
they re in the spawn area or when they die by pressing and holding square. The ammount of ultimate charge will reset if the hero is swapped. For example a Zenyata with 40%,20% or even 100% if swapped to a Lucio will reset the charge to 0%.
Collectables
The game does not have collectables in the essence that the player requires to find whilst on a map but it more or less the cosmeticks a hero can unlock. Every hero have their own sets of cosmeticks and all of them are different, these cosmeticks can be Skins, Sprays, Voicelines, Victory poses, emotes and play of the game clips. Skins: as the name applies these skins change the appearance of the heroes. Sprays: these are images that the players can place on the walls.
Voice lines: Voicelines that heroes can tell.
Emotes: a small animation unique to the hero. (aka sit, laugh etc).
Victory poses: When a team wins a game, the heroes are placed next to each other for 5 seconds. These are alternative poses for the heroes.
Play of the Game: When a game is over, after the victory screen the game picks a hero who did something good in 10 seconds.(multikills,shutdowns,enviromental kills etc). This is a small animation that plays prior to the play.
Overwatch cross platform
In 2021, the developers had a major update that allow Overwatch to be enjoyed as cross platform. In the past each of the players could only enjoy the game among their platform of Choice, Pc players with pc, Playstation with playstation and so on. With the 2021 patch every player can select to play the game with everyone. For example the console players have the option to search server of only players of their console (Ps4-Ps4), they can select to play with other console players
(ps4-Xbox-Switch) or even Queue among servers of everyone(Ps4-Xbox-Switch-Pc). The main difference is that if console players decide to Queue alongside computer players the aim assist found in the consoles will be removed so that the game can be 'faired'.
Music and Level
First things first the music of the game is really good. The music of the game is always attached to certain levels. Each of the map takes place in a futuristick version of a real location. The reason behind this statement is because each of the background songs are referencing the culture of that country. For example the music in Ilios (Greece) has the sound of a Bouzouki playing in the background. Visiting Numbani has that african influence in it and it can be heard. Furthermore visiting Paris has the accordion that can be heard.
Each of the map at the same time has elements that represent the country, for example in Paris the Eiffel tower can be seen along side notre dame. Egypt has pyramids and several referecnes to Anubis. Ilios reminds Sandorini and Mykonos alot with its harbor, greek pillars similar to Parthenon and plenty of references to greek culture.
Negative Side of Overwatch
It goes without saying but a game that exist since 2016 (5 years now (in 2021)) it has seen its fair share of negative critisism. In this case overwatch used to struggle alot with balancing the game. Every time the team finds a 'perfect' balance a new hero introduced that threw that balanced off. The overwatch team however does it best to keep updating the game in order to find it's perfect balance. The team also had several rework of heroes that remove certain skills that were over powered such Hanzo's Scattered Arrow,
symmetras Shield generator and shield, Mercy's team ressurection and other. The team also introduced a mode called Experimental where the team used to show its fan base what changes they were trying to see fit. (Roadhog Massive healling, Zaryas Multi bubble etc).
Another major critisism the game received back in the day was the balance between console and pc. Pc used to be the main focus when balancing the game. This lead to the team buffing Pharah as she wasnt effective in the Pc servers even though she was already a dominant force in the consoles. It its safe to say that this problem has now been fixed but back in the day it was a major probelm.
Nowadays the main three problems the Game is facing is the uprising of Smurfs, the time to find a game and the lack of Content. Smurfs are players who create new accounts in order to play with lower players. For example, players with 200+ hrs can play the game with players of 2hrs of experience. This also appears in competitive as smurfs players come and throw games as this is not their main account and losing rank is not something they actual care about. Time to find a game is not as major of a factor as the team introduce a ticket system which
works for quick play however it doesnt work as well in competitive high ranks with occasions where the timer reached 30 mins +. Last but not least Overwatch is lacking new content. Back in the day, every three months a new map was revealed in the game and every 4 months a new hero. Seasonal events were also introduced and updated. The last hero aka Echo hero 32 was introduced almost 2 years ago as of the writting of this. Since that no mroe heroes have been announced as the team stated that all of their efforts are going staright into Overwatch 2
and the Esports arena. Overwatch 2 was estimated to be released in 2022 however, as of November 2021 there have been no new about overwatch 2 and nothing new comming to overwatch 1. The fans are furious with the team as for 2 years there has been nothing new to the game other than cosmeticks, and overwatch 2 which was revealed in 2019 has nothing new to display other than the developers words for it.
Final Thoughts
Overall Overwatch was a game that took the world by the storm. It was and still is a fun game that everybody can enjoy however, it is not on its prime days. A player purchasing the game will instantly gain access to all the heroes and maps that came after the games initial release for free as the team never charged the players for stuff like players, maps gamemodes. It's agame that had it's ups and downs however it is still a game worth experiencing. As the wait for Overwatch 2 is growing it
is recomended to play the original one. The heroes themselves are unique with recognisable physiques and different personalities. As a shooter game the game feels different than the other games Call of duty doom and others. The maps themselves are differnet and well design with various of locations left and right. The objectives of each game mode are simple to follow and everybody can enjoy playing the game.
This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game
Overwatch has an enormous story, probably among the games with the biggest Lores as the developers can always introduce new heroes who themselves will bring new lore pieces. So far the developers talked alot, and i mean alot about the past lore of overwatch before the
team disbanded. Then they talked and showed alot about the heroes, 'villains'and the world now that Winston initiated the recall protocol and ofcourse the team loves teasing the future of the Universe.
Since it's initial release the team was very excited and wanted to come up with ways to make each season special for the players outside of simply adding skins for the certain event(Christmas,Halloween etc.). Needless to say the first 2 years had alot of originality and it gave the fanbase plenty of events that were made from scratch. The next 3 years however,had the same gamemodes with small changes here and there such as allowing more heroes to
enter a certain game mode or new maps made for that event alone. These events are:
