Overwatch has been out for a few months now, long enough to be chewed up and digested by most every interested party. Save one, that is – us. In this new short form Final Opinion review, we’ll finally give our take on Blizzard’s competitive shooter and see if it is more WarCraft with guns, or a Team Fortress 2 wannabe.
Long story short, Overwatch is closer to WarCraft with guns, and not because it in any way resembles the gameplay or lore of WarCraft. Instead, like many Blizzard games, it takes an existing formula and polishes it to a fine sheen. Just like original WarCraft improved the RTS and World of WarCraft refined the MMO, Overwatch takes the team based shooter and makes some simple improvements that make it worth playing for anyone who enjoys the genre.
The shooting itself feels solid and smooth as you take one of a varied cast of characters (called heroes in Overwatch) into battle. There’s a hero for every type of player, and they are pretty much all fun to play. I tend to gravitate to the assault heroes like Pharah and Solider 76 when I can because of their straight-forward focus on dealing damage and maneuverability, but it pays to be willing and able to switch heroes mid-match to counter the enemy team as needed.
I love the graphics of Overwatch, with their colorful, clean, simple aesthetic and great level layouts. The heroes themselves are also well designed and animated, complete with a custom spoken dialog and one-liners. The graphics are, however, one reason that people are quick to pull the Team Fortress 2 comparison card.
My take on people who complain that Overwatch is a Team Fortress 2 rip-off is that there’s no reason there can’t be two (or more) colorful shooters on the market – after all, there’s a ton of realistic military shooters, right? If you’re hung up on the fact that Overwatch costs $40 and Team Fortress 2 doesn’t, then by all means, skip Overwatch and keep playing TF2 (which is still a fine game in its own right).
For those who aren’t put off by the price, and all those enjoy playing online shooters, Overwatch is…