Review: Overwatch
Blizzard is known for bringing the quality, for taking existing genres and perfecting it. It doesn't take a genius to see that they have some fantastic designers over there who earn every penny they are paid. Every franchise is synonymous with being the best in the trade. So, when they said they were going to try their hands at the shooter, it seemed like a sure thing and now Overwatch is undeniably popular, with even Amazon running out of copies.
The first thing you need to know when playing as Mercy is that you're not in it for the kills. It's entirely possible that Mercy might be the only character you have a negative K/D ratio with, and that's actually totally fine. The name of the game with Mercy is to heal your teammates, and as such, pulling out your Caduceus Blaster should be a last resort. Think about it: any moment you're using your relatively under-powered offensive weapon is a moment where you could be letting one of your teammates die. Granted, Mercy wouldn't have a pistol if she didn't need to use it at times, but it shouldn't be the main item that you use when picking this character.
The 21 characters are grouped together in 1 of 4 classes: Offense, Defense, Tank and Support. Though characters may share a class, each plays completely different from one another. For example, Soldier 76 and Tracer are both part of the Offense class, but each has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. Soldier 76 players like a traditional Assault character from a Battlefield game. He deals good damage at mid-range and can even drop a healing beacon, but he doesn’t have a lot of health. Tracer, on the other hand, has small clip-sizes and low health but is fast and able to rewind time to pull herself to safety. There aren’t two characters that are similar, and there isn’t a single character that is a perfect "all-around" character. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and learning how to play to those strengths and exploit enemy weaknesses is all part of the game’s meta.
Overwatch lore does its best to avoid the pitfalls of other multiplayer-only games, mainly content. Overwatch’s 21 characters provide plenty of variety and the 12 uniquely designed maps will keep players interested for matches on end. Where Overwatch’s content falls flat is in its game modes. There are only four and one of them is merely a hybrid of two other modes. Assault tasks attackers with capturing two consecutive points on the map, Escort is about leading a package through a set number of checkpoints to a final delivery point and Control is King-of-the-Hill. Assault/Escort is a blend of the first two modes where attackers capture a point and then escort a payload. The game modes are perfectly fine, but they can get tiresome after a while. Why there couldn’t be a Team Deathmatch or Domination/Conquest mode is curious. While Blizzard has said they will be adding more heroes and maps post-launch, they have no confirmed if there will be any new game modes outside of Competitive Play mode. New maps and characters are nice, but it’s the lack of game modes that is Overwatch’s big variety problem right now.
Besides the size of this update, the rate at which this Heroes of the Storm update arrived is particularly noteworthy. Since they resumed in 2022, most of these updates have had two to three months between them, and about a month between the patch's arrival on the Public Test Realm and the live release. Not only did this patch arrive faster than usual – less than two months after the last Heroes of the Storm update – but it also came the same month as it hit the PTR. While this could mean nothing, Heroes of the Storm ’s 10-year anniversary is on June 2, leading many fans to wonder if the increased attention could herald something big in store for the MOBA's big milest
Roadhog boasts one of the most effective ability combinations of any of Overwatch's heroes. His Chain Hook allows him to pull in any hero to point blank range, meaning that it's pretty much a guaranteed kill for those who nail the timing and accuracy of this maneuver. The most effective Roadhog players will ensure that healers and frustrating characters like Tracer are the main priorities at the start of any given battle, as this will ensure that the opposing team is always at a disadvantage. In addition, Roadhog's second main skill, Take a Breather, allows him to heal a great portion of his own health, allowing him to stay on the front line of battle for far longer than pretty much every other hero outside of Reinhardt. Finally, Roadhog's ultimate is absolutely devastating, though it is equally difficult to control. His Whole Hog skill gives him the ability to transform his Scrap Gun into a massive automatic gatling gun, though the sheer amount of recoil makes this a far better option for close and medium range than long distance engagements. The recommendation here is to use Take a Breather to heal up to 600 hitpoints and then dive right onto the objective before activating Whole Hog.