At first glance, Overwatch isn’t as bad as TF2 in the “attackers always win” style of attack maps. It seemed closer to 50/50 for attackers and defenders than like 90/10 for TF2. So there will end up being more clear winners, with one side succeeding on attack and then succeeding on defense too. But it’s still fundamentally stupid not to compare results by each team to determine the winner. You can definitely still end up with attacker wins/flip/attacker wins or defender wins/flip/defender wins frequently.
Oh, another plus, the “play of the game” replay system is a lot of fun. I wish it had better heuristics than just “made a lot of kills quickly”, but it’s a really cool concept, along with the commendations at the end of the game, although I don’t know what those actually do.
And I’m not sure if it’s a pro or con yet, but not having a scoreboard is definitely interesting. It gets you focused more on team objectives than individual stats, and doesn’t make support classes or classes in general that succeed by doing something other than making kills feel less appreciated. I do wish it came with an extended awards screen, just not the 4 that pop up.
It definitely does, though they’re pretty opaque.
During the last open beta window, I had a moment where I was playing Reinhardt on one of the “push the payload” maps. An enemy McCree walked out onto a bridge overhead (and at a pretty far distance) and popped his ultimate. Just as he started saying, “it’s high noon,” I used my little rocket launcher attack and killed him before he could begin shooting anybody.
Some algorithm clearly figured out that I’d interrupted an ult with a low-percentage kill shot and awarded me the play of the game for it.
edit: An alternate possibility is that the overall game stats sucked and I got the play of the game because I was also racking up “push the payload” points during the kill, which increased by score during that time window. I hope that’s not the case.
I don’t think I like how twitchy it is. Whether I die or I kill someone it seems anticlimatic with how quick everything moves.
I’ll give it a few more plays before I make up my mind.
I was wondering this too. I googled and found this:
“A spray is a graffiti-like tag that you can place onto the environment for other players to see. The default keybinding is T”
Oh you sweet summer children, not growing up in a world in which you could spray goatse everywhere.
Obviously Blizzard is never going to allow people to upload their own sprays, but this is a cool system with the class-specific sprays that still let you make your mark.
Another very big pro that I forgot to mention: It would appear that nothing you can unlock actually affects gameplay. Too many games create the stupid grinding treadmill where you have to play to unlock things that affect how well you can play the game. Power ups, mods, etc. I hate that trend in gaming. You should have access to the same stuff that everyone has access to from the start, otherwise it’s just a “shit on new players” experience. The only unlocks in this game are cosmetic which is fine.
Another con… I don’t know why they allow 2+ of the same hero on a team. Character design feels more like a MOBA in this game than a class. You’re not playing an archetype but a particular hero with their own personality. In TF2, it was necessary to allow multiple players per class simply because you could have a 32+ player game with only 9 classes. But in this game it’s all 6v6 with 21 classes - there’s no reason not to limit one player per hero and it feels really weird that they don’t do that.
Right now, maybe. Will that stay the same as people gain more familiarity with the game (characters, maps, and gameplay in general)? Maybe, maybe not. And if it doesn’t stay the same, then a time comparison would make sense.
On the other hand, I can see the possibility of an attacking team winning extremely quickly via some sort of low-percentage backdoor rush, and then trying to meet that time yourself wouldn’t seem very fun. And in the second game, everyone would know just how much time they need, while they wouldn’t in the first, which would probably make a difference (though which way is harder to see: It’d depend on details of how the game plays).
…And, it looks like I won’t be trying the free weekend after all. There’s no Mac version.
Beta got extended for a day, runs through tomorrow.
I think that the reason for allowing multiple heroes is to avoid the issue in MOBAs where a new player starts to feel competent with one single hero, and then suddenly finds that he’s not having a good time because he’s been blocked out from that. I have noticed that the game puts a little number underneath the hero based on the order you selected him, so you can encourage someone to pick a different character based on the fact you had ‘dibs,’ so to speak.
Just like the game will let a team play with all support classes, but will let them know that they’re missing the parts of a balanced loadout, I think it’s nice for the game to provide that information without railroading certain choices.
I’ve gotten a lot more time in over the free beta.
In a group of 4-6, this game is a lot of fun. However, I only enjoy playing a few characters and don’t really see myself breaking into too many more. I was the same way in TF2. The few times I’ve gone in and played solo matches, I’ve gotten bored almost instantly and have stopped after one or two matches.
I haven’t yet decided if the lack of deliberate progression is a dealbreaker or not. Yes, you can save your paltry gold to eventually buy skins that you want, but the gold itself comes in at an inconsistent rate. The skins are also 95% “hidden” purchases in that you mostly only see them when you’re watching yourself die on the killcam.
Not being able to level characters, pick loadouts, buy items, or make any of the other choices (during or between matches) that I’ve come to expect from modern shooters leaves me a little cold.
Finally, the loot boxes are incredibly frustrating. What’s this? Another four sprays? Wow! Just awful.
I agree with everything but the last line because I didn’t play with a group of friends, just random matches.
It’s a well-polished step from TF2. I enjoy how easy it is to get into, but it’s not a game I would play much and I won’t spend the $60 Blizzard is asking. I’m simply not good enough at online FPS to enjoy playing anything other than a tank or healer, and even then, I’m limited by anything that requires much accuracy. It’s fun enough that I’d pick up and play every now and then if I had it, but not fun enough to drop that much money on it.
The team shooter meets MOBA abilities is a solid iteration on the TF2 template. It takes a bit to learn each character, but not too much that it makes learning unfun.
The most fun I had was playing Winston and jumping onto enemy snipers and going apeshit on them while my barrier keeps their annoying allies off me. It’s quite satisfying.
I utterly despise what people like you have done to gaming. “What’s my incentive to play if I’m not put in a skinner box?!” - once upon a time the incentive to play games was because you enjoyed the gameplay. Now because of this attitude, no game can simply be the best game it can be in order to be as fun as possible. No, now the game has to lock everything down behind an artificial progression system because modern gamers apparently get no enjoyment from the actual process of playing the game, but only because it says OMG YOU GOT +1 + 1 +1 HERE’S A NEW THING FOR YOU! +1 +1 +1!!! LEVEL UP!!!
One of the best things about this game is that the unlockable stuff is only cosmetic, and they’re not hiding equipment or abilities behind an artificial progression system. It is utterly baffling to me that anyone would think that’s a negative.
It’s a $40 game.
I appears I was looking at the XBox and PS pricing. That’s closer to what I might pay, but I so rarely play FPS anymore. I might pick it up for half that.
If team FPS games are your jam, it looks like a solid game. 15 years ago, I would have picked it up. Heck, 15 years ago, I did pick up TF2 (plus the rest of the Orange Box) for $60.
The good thing is that if I do decide to pick it up later, I don’t have to worry about being underpowered because all the purchases/finds are cosmetic. The last time I dipped into TF2, it felt like a very different game and most people seemed to be running around with gear that had been created in the time since I had last played. I was far behind the learning curve of what that gear did and how it adjusted play and in acquiring my own gear and it simply turned me off.
Um, wow. No. My complaint is that I cannot choose what I am progressing towards. The rewards are completely at random. I want to unlock stuff for D.va because I’m playing D.va. My problem isn’t that the rewards are cosmetic; my problem is that they’re indiscriminate.
My other concerns (leveling, loadouts, and so on) are game design choices and have little-to-nothing to do with reward structures depending on what type of game we’re talking about. When I say I want to level my characters and abilities, I’m talking about doing it within the confines of the game like in a MOBA, because I tend to feel that matches become static and dull after a while without the ability to react beyond “pick a new character with a new set of static abilities.”
Seriously man, dial it back with your “despise”-o-meter.
Pick loadouts? Loadouts of what? Different skills and abilities and perks and equipment that you unlock, generally.
You claim you were talking about in-match level ups, like in a MOBA, but then you specifically say “during or between matches”, which contradicts that.
The very thing you mean by “modern shooters” is that they’ve followed Call of Duty’s formula and they’re skinner boxes. You’re constantly levelling up and unlocking things.
If not, what are these “modern shooters” that you describe, that only allow in-match choices without locking things like abilities, perks, and equipment through an xp treadmill?
If you could unlock shit quicker, you’d probably say “I’ve unlocked everything I want, what incentive do I have to keep playing?” - and if not you, lots of people would.
Anyway, give me a break. You want the game to have loadouts, levelling up, and other choices (between matches) just like you’ve come to expect from “modern shooters” - if you weren’t talking about having a Call Of Duty style progression system, you expressed yourself incredibly poorly. This feigned outrage that I somehow read you all wrong is very silly.
Good god, why don’t you chill out and take me at my word rather than deconstructing my post like we’re in GD? This isn’t the Hague and I’m not on trial for crimes against SenorBeef’s preferred style of gaming.
Although if you must know, off-topic though it may be, I have enjoyed playing games with Skinner Box progression in them. I also play console games! I understand that I am in your view destroying the game industry but I have to admit that I am not overly concerned.
Give me a break, indeed.
I took you at your word the first time, in which you said you wanted a game more like “modern shooters” with progression. Only after I said something judgmental about that did you say I was wrong and that I was jumping to conclusions. I wasn’t. Everything I reacted to was right there in your post about what you felt was missing from the game.
You didn’t say “yep, you’re right, we like different things, I want xp progression in my game”, you said “oh no, I didn’t say anything like that, how ridiculous of you to jump to conclusions like that! what’s wrong with you!”
I have no interest in playing this game, but wow would I go see a feature film. Tons of good character.
Please. You went scientistshit on them. The racial slur isn’t necessary.