Overwatch

User Rating: 8 | Overwatch (Origins Edition) PC

Overwatch, a game from Blizzard Entertainment, a large game studio, well known for its storied and polished games, such as Diablo, HearthStone, StarCraft, and most notably World of Warcraft. Overwatch is no exception to Blizzard's traditional successes and features a large and healthy player base.

Overwatch is a game with an interesting and distinct play style, combining elements from different game types and creating its own hybrid style. Overwatch is not quite along the lines of a team-based first-person shooter purist game such as the games in the Counter-Strike series by Valve. Overwatch draws elements from MOBA style games, ie League of Legends and Dota 2, featuring mechanics focused on ability management, enemy cooldowns, and positioning.

With its constant intense action and gameplay, Overwatch is an intense 6v6 constant slugfest, sometimes referred to as “Teamfight: The Game”, requiring coordination and mechanics. Depending on the player’s choice of character, he/she can fit into various roles on a team. Various characters such as McCree, Tracer, Genji require different forms of mechanical skill to succeed. But there's much more depth to the game than just aim. Part of mastering Overwatch, is not only having map mastery, ie knowing locations of health packs and alternative flanking routes, but also having a fundamental understanding of the state of the game. While not having as intense micromanagement as games such as Starcraft 2, Overwatch requires players to understand win conditions, ability and ultimate management, and how to conserve and manage resources towards each fight.

Graphically, Overwatch isn't quite as breathtaking as other modern games, but is still rather visually appealing. However, it is practical and provides for a engaging and quality competitive experience. With distinct animations and voice lines, Overwatch provides strong visual and audio cues to players of important events and actions within the game. With these practical and still appealing animations, Overwatch offers a great gaming experience in the visual department, while not being too computationally intense on players' computers.

My experience playing Overwatch has been a great and entertaining one. With infinite replayability, through its heavy focus on multiplayer competition, Overwatch encourages players to get better and better at the game through its seasonal ranking systems. Featuring a diverse set of characters to play, Overwatch gives variety and heaps of enjoyment with many facets of play and a good level of depth. Overall, Overwatch is fun to play, difficult to master, with plenty of opportunities for competitive and casual players alike.