The creators of Warcraft and many other legendary games debuted in the genre of multiplayer online shooter, firing Overwatch. Why Blizzard made an unexpected role? What the developers saw the war of the future? What will happen to users? This tells Lenta.ru”.
In the war
The titans of the gaming industry, Blizzard Entertainment memorable games of RTS and RPG genres. Therefore, many were surprised by the announcement of a new FPS. Shooters are a genre of whimsical, but with a focus on multiplayer even more so. But Blizzard is not afraid to try himself in a new incarnation, knowing that this niche long occupied and to drag gamers will be very difficult.
Since the announcement many have compared the Overwatch with another team online shooter Team Fortress 2: cartoonish graphics, eccentric characters. Thought it would be a clone of the operating favorite gamers format and clichés. But it was not so…
The plot command in online shooters for a tick is present or absent in principle, but Blizzard messed up and made it decent enough, expanding the game universe animated short films and comics. The action of Overwatch takes place in the near future in the world, survived a war between people and created by them and gained their intelligence robots (omnicare). In General, Overwatch is an international group of special purpose, which this war was trying to stop. And it seems to be stopped, but there it was — the problem came from not waiting.
Trumpet calls
The Foundation of any shooter — gameplay. And this Blizzard is definitely not blundered. At the time of release in Overwatch has five modes, most of which are familiar to gamers firsthand: capture points, the tracking of the object, control object, capturing with the maintenance and brawl (whose rules change every week).
Regardless of the mode in each match has 12 players, six per team. Already training with Overwatch sets a furious pace — the speed of the game is extremely high. And it can not but rejoice.
In the game of 21 different character, each unique in terms of game mechanics, and design. The characters have two basic abilities and one ultimate. The latter can be used by combining available, dealing damage and generating steps for a preferred class of the selected character. The ultimate ability in their own strengths everyone has and under certain conditions can change the outcome of an entire match. For example, a cyborg ninja, Genji takes out a katana and begins to cut opponents in droves, and Reindhart, clad in armor, one hit can knock enemies down.
Mechanics classes is quite simple. Just at the moment there are four: assault heroes to assault and capture), protection (heroes, suitable for the defence), tank (tenacious character to protect allies and control enemies), support (characters that protect party members, healing them and providing assistance to the team various kinds).
At the end of each match showing the best of his time and the statistics of players with a vote for the most useful.
Now players have access to only 12 cards in different corners of the world: from the Greek island of Ilios to wolska design Bureau in Russia — there you can see the flying “Zhiguli” of the future. The cards are very different from each other, but to a certain time, they still become a little…
Yes, the main problem is the low variability of characters and maps. And while Blizzard will get together and something will release, a can from Overwatch to refuse. The delay time of the Exodus may the dynamism and variety of game situations. But there are serious disadvantages: for example, imbalanced some of the characters – so, hated by many players of Bastion with the support of colleagues is able to cut crowds of enemies or even destroy the whole team.
It is beautiful
The desire to continue to play Overwatch on the record — is largely due to the designers of Blizzard. Despite the “cartoon” graphics, it looks very serious. The abundance of flowers did not hurt the eyes, everything is perceived very easy and pleasant. Each card is fascinating in its own way: you can admire the ancient Greek ruins on the Ilios or tranquil landscapes Hanamura.
The better in Overwatch — the heroes. Giggler, Tracer, brutal Reindhart, crazy Krysavcik — every character is vivid, unique and able to be remembered for a long time. On top of that characters while waiting often converse with one another, allowing you to learn about their attitude towards enemies and friends, speculate about some of the episodes of their history.
In addition, each character has their own cosmetic options. Namely: the way in-game mark, remark, emotion, victory pose and the screen saver is the best time. About the images worth a special mention. There are two types: ordinary and legendary. Normal change only the color of the character models and small details. Legendary is much more interesting — they completely transform the style and appearance of the hero, as well as some replicas and animations.
For example, using images of the angel is able to transform into a Valkyrie from Norse mythology, and Egyptian Farr — a shaman of a tribe of North American Indians. All of these cosmetic items are pulled out of containers, the contents of which are determined randomly. The containers, in turn, can be extracted by upgrading your account or spending in-game transaction.
A lot of eggs
As with any Blizzard game, Overwatch full of humor and varied Easter eggs. But mostly referrals are served through map elements, such as posters, labels, stickers as well as using phrases, characters.
In the game you can find anything from references to previous games or quotes from film classics. For example, the character “cowboy McCrea quoted the legendary Sergio Leone’s film the Good, the bad and the ugly”, saying the phrase: I’m not good, not bad, but I sure as hell ain’t ugly. Remember in the game and movies like “Predator”, “rocky 4”, the series “Star trek” and many other achievements of pop culture.
Overwatch was released for personal computers, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. The game does not require miracles and transcendent skills of the game in shooters, but nevertheless, it should be used to the pace and mechanics to play, have fun, and break a dozen other keyboards or gamepads.
Blizzard made the right decision, without introducing cross-platform multiplayer, which would have made the game inequality. After all, Overwatch feels completely different on the keyboard and on the controller. For PC users getting used to the mechanics may take a few minutes, but on the controller all the more difficult because of the frenzied pace of the game and constant voltage.
***
Overwatch is a vivid example of the team shooter for everyone. Paying tribute to the past, the game is not afraid to show and new chips. Synthesis of dynamism with the originality and beautiful design — the trump card of the game, guaranteeing a huge number of future fans.
Whether this is enough in order to compete with mastodons and retain players, time will tell.
