Oh yeah. This is gonna be a long one (Maybe the longest one I’ve ever posted). I have been debating on talking about this game. There’s a lot of love for this game but a lot of hate. So, I will try to make this as unbiased as physically even though I’ve logged in….
1,000+ hours?! (So, that’s where all that time went). But yeah, here’s my review of a game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, Overwatch.
What’re You Talking About?
The best way I would describe Overwatch is a team-objective first-person shooter that uses a roster of different heroes. The game started with 22 unique characters, which grew to 32 with an adaptive A.I. robot named Echo as the latest edition by the time of this article. The game’s primary focus is using the roster to form a team of six to complete a set of objectives. The story behind the game is that it takes place sometime in the near future where robots are causing havoc around the world until a team called Overwatch (roll credits) was formed to stop the invasion.
What’s Good:
All of the characters are very unique. If you can categorize all of them, they go to tanks, healers, and damage-dealers. But because of how each character one heals, how each one protects, and how damages are so unique, no 2 work precisely the same. Wanna heal up-close, go with the Jamaican DJ, Lucio, or the Irish scientist, Moira. Wanna do damage from a distance, go with the Japanese assassin archer, Hanzo, or the flying militarize Egyptian, Pharah. Wanna tank that can beat someone to submission with a physics lesson, go with music-obsessed Sigma. Wanna tank with tons of mobility, play the adorable hamster, Wrecking Ball (I promise, I’m not making these up. I will never be this creative). The list goes on and on. It doesn’t matter if you resonate with a character by their gender, nationality, sexuality, cybernetics (you may have a thing for that, I won’t judge), or straight up play-style, there’s someone for you that you will love. It’s almost impossible at this point.
Another good thing is the locations/game modes. If you think for a second, these 2 sounds like 2 different things but, bear with me on this. This took me a while to notice, but in general, most locations in Overwatch tell you which game mode it is. If the place is Route 66, it’s an escort map, Ilios, Greece, it’s a control/king-of-the-hill, Ayutthaya in India, capture the flag. I love how that’s designated, and I love how every map is diverse in its own map design. How you attack Route 66 from the U.S. is different than how you attack Rialto, Italy. How you defend King’s Row, U.K. is different than how you defend Numbani (a made-up city/country near Nigeria).
The last positive I have to give is the replay-ability. I will gotta give a hand to Blizzard. Making new content for a game 4 years after its release is impressive. If you go year by year, season after season, you can find small changes to the game. Whether it be the heroes, the maps, or the limited skins and loot boxes that are available during yearly events, you can always find a reason to come back to the game.
So, What’s Bad:
First off, the story is cool, but nothing is going on with it yet. (For once, I can say, I didn’t read the comics). Between the locations and hero interactions, the world is seeping with lore. But no one can see where it’s going or if it was going at all. Disclaimer: There might be some explanation in the comic books that may fix this, but this video game review. When Overwatch came out, it was okay, but after 3 years, it just felt a little stagnant. I know there may be comics out there that further explain the current state of that world. Along with the Overwatch 2 reveal trailer showed the first actual timeline progression in the story. However, it still took at least 5 years for that to happen. Thanks, but I’m good on the lore. I will just stick to its game development. Which leads into a small gripe I have.
If you’re playing on console, be ready to not be heard. PC players, don’t skip this negative. This will be relevant to you. If there are any issues with the game, PC players have a higher-priority say than console players. The most recent example is the updated communications wheel. Several Xbox players have been having voice chat issues because of it. But since there’s no problem with it on PC, it’s not on the top of their priority list. There are also button-mapping issues, being and staying booted from a competitive game on console, the list goes on. I know what most people are gonna say, “Overwatch is a PC game,” “the Overwatch League is played on PC”, “the majority of their community is on PC”. But are we 100% positive about that? The only numbers Blizzard publicly released are the number of copies sold globally. There really isn’t any breakdown by platform (I know, I’ve tried). If I were to base the community on the global market share breakdown, console players barely edge out PC players (There will be a link to my source). But who knows, I could be in the wrong. But I do know there is a large community of console players, especially on Xbox, who love and play this game, and it’s a little disheartening to see their issues to be ignored.
The final negative I got is that this game still has loot boxes. I understand the necessity of loot boxes in most modern games, but sometimes the items you get in Overwatch rarely equate to the time and effort (and sometimes money) you put in. In 2017, Blizzard showed the percentage for their loot box rarity. The rarity and items seem pretty balanced. But between the chance rates for credit piles (in-game credits) and the lack of disclosed percentages for duplicates, then I see Blizzard’s workaround. Copies are VERY common in these loot boxes. I haven’t seen a single loot box that did not contain a duplicate, and what almost annoys me the most is that I see tons of items that I don’t have even though all I can get are duplicates. However, what does annoy me the most are the credit piles that can count as epic or legendary. Instead of a legendary skin or an epic emote, I get only credits. This is just discouraging (I realize I’m making a massive rant about a broken loot box system. Maybe after 1,000 hours, I think I should probably take a break from this game).
Final Thoughts:
Long story short, I like this game. It has a lot of things that always bring me back. But I don’t care about the story (because there isn’t) and their loot box system is still broken. Currently, the game cost around $40 for all PC and consoles, which is kind of too much, in my opinion. The game is 4 years old, and they announced its sequel last year, that alone calls for a more significant discount. Honestly, if you’re not feeling B.R.s at the moment and looking for a new shooter game to get in and get out, then I say check it out during a sale or a price drop.