Overwatch Character Guide: Zarya Genji Reinhardt

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.

Overwatch's Tracer is a perfect example of why Blizzard has created a game with a more appetizing personality than Gearbox. With a press of the E key, Tracer has the ability to warp back to a previous position, restoring the health and ammo she had at that point. Around half of the time one utilizes Tracer's Recall skill, she'll use her adorable English twang to drop the line, "Ever get that feeling of déjà vu?" Now, this is the type of quip that could be obnoxious if delivered imperfectly or too frequently, but it actually winds up being wonderfully charming every time. Combine this with her shrills of joy whenever she uses her Blink skill to warp around the map, and it's clear why Blizzard has made Overwatch's first hero the face of the franchise. With Battleborn, each character feels like the cheesiest character in a Borderlands game, and they never seem to be quiet. Add this to the fact that curse words are bleeped out, despite the fact that they're used frequently, and it often feels like Gearbox missed the mark on Battleborn's personality, which is a shame considering that its visual style is so striking and engaging.

If you're looking for a character that deals a massive amount of damage and has a relatively high skill ceiling, then you can do a whole lot worse then Genji. Hanzo's brother utilizes a combination of sword-based abilities and shurkiens not only makes him an awesome choice for kill-seekers, but also allow him to easily take out some of the most frustrating characters on the roster. Genji's primary fire allows him to throw ninja stars in three-round bursts in a straight line, making this the best option for doing large amounts of damage, though you have to be extremely accurate for any hope of success. His secondary fire allows him to throw three shurkiens in a fan, allowing you to do a smaller amount of damage, but increasing your potential for contact. Oh, and let's not forget that Genji can also climb up walls, so sneaking up on campers and snipers is an absolute breeze. Those who use a combination of his attacks, as opposed to simply sticking to one, will find themselves racking up kills at a staggering pace.

My single biggest complaint when it comes to Battleborn is how annoying all of its characters are to me. Now, this is about as subjective as it gets, and I've had discussions with players that find every inch of its universe charming as can be. To me, it often feels like Gearbox is trying way too hard to be funny, which results in Battleborn's characters all seeming like that annoying guy at your office who thinks he's a stand-up comedian. The fact that the While Overwatch doesn't have a core campaign, there is definitely a fair amount of lore to be discovered by sheer observation, and every character manages to nail that ever so important balance between charm and obnoxiousness. It says something that there is a dedicated way to turn off Battleborn's dialogue; after all, in a game whose dialogue is exceptionally well done, shouldn't including this option not be a possibility?


There are many superficial similarities between Overwatch and Battleborn , Gearbox’s character-based shooter released just click the next website a few weeks before Blizzard’s: both feature large rosters of cartoonish, over-the-top characters, and both are multiplayer-focused games with an emphasis on teamwork and roles. But there are significant differences between the two games that actually make the comparisons a little unfair. For starters, Battleborn does have some single-player offerings, but its main differentiator is in its inspiration. From the structure of its maps to the low-ranked AI units serving as cannon fodder to the way players slowly level up over the course of a match, Battleborn is clearly trying to blend first-person gameplay with frantic MOBA elements perfected in games like League of Legends . Overwatch is far more similar to Valve’s legendary class-based shooter Team Fortress 2 . It takes that game’s concepts (learning a class, wildly differing roles based on attacking, defending, and support, and changing roles constantly to adapt to new situations) and cranks them up to eleven, as more characters means more slight tweaks on the same central id