Dubai: Blizzard Entertainment pitted a gaggle of Middle East gaming journalists against e-sports and industry pros in a preview of upcoming team shooter Overwatch on Wednesday.
There’s been a lot of buzz about the game, due to be released on May 26, in its lengthy development. Blizzard release relatively few games, but each is significant: Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, World of Warcraft.
While there have been a couple of betas, this is the first chance we’ve had to try the game on a console – in this case, the PlayStation 4.
And it was a blast. Overwatch is fast, furious and fun-filled.
What separates Overwatch from the slew of team first-person shooters (FPS), from CounterStrike on, is its light-hearted nature. It’s got over-the-top characters, bright colours, a slew of special abilities and toon-like kills.
There’s none of the grimness or gore that characterise modern FPS games. The game carries a 12+ PEGI age rating.
And while its controls aren’t going to interest the button-mashers, combo chainers or technical shootists (looking at you, Tom Clancy fans), this helps emphasise core skills – movement, aiming and power-matching.
Characters are in four broad groups: attackers deal plenty of damage but have few hits, tanks have tons of hits, defenders can create barriers to lock down areas and supporters give healing and buffs.
Even within these groups powers vary, and each character is designed to be countered by another. The ability to switch characters mid-game really opens out the strategy.
The presence of the e-sports people makes it pretty clear that Blizzard are hoping to attract this growing sector of the video games community.a
And I’m glad to say that we journalists did finally record a victory against the pros – after multiple defeats, to be sure, but I’m all for looking on the bright side.
