Overwatch Character Guide: Reaper Bastion And Mercy

Disclaimer: The following opinions are those of the author only. In this post, he complains about a title that most of the staff here adores. He might be wrong, but we tolerate him. His milkshake does bring all the boys to the yard, after all.


Yesterday evening (December 1st, at the time of writing this) was the night of the annual Game Awards show, a lavish live-streamed spectacle where the best and brightest of the video games industry gathered in Los Angeles - in order to receive awards voted on by industry peers and journalists, celebrating the year in gaming. It was a good night for big-name hits like Uncharted 4: A Thief's End , the reboot of DOOM and Blizzard's mega-selling team shooter **Overwatch ** , as well as respected independent titles like That Dragon Cancer - and it was a chance for those in attendance to show off all-new trailers for upcoming tit

It isn’t just the characters that feel unique, it’s also the maps. Overwatch ships with twelve maps, three dedicated to each of the four game modes. All twelve maps are based on real-world locations and match their website settings wonderfully. Route 66 is as much a desert as the real world locale, Hanamura is a beautiful Japanese castle, and the Temple of Anubis takes players to the Giza Plateau and its mighty pyramids. These are not only aesthetically pleasing maps, but also very well designed maps.

Mercy also boasts a slightly passive perk known as Angelic Decent, which allows her to fall slowly when in the air by holding the jump prompt. This not only allows her to hide in plain sight, but it will also allow for moments of healing without being right in the thick of the action (survival is the name of the game with Mercy). Finally, Mercy's ultimate seems simple to use, but it's a wonderful way to frustrate your team if you're careless. Resurrect gives Mercy the power to revive fallen teammates, which is exceptionally useful when trying to take over an objective or win in overtime. However, simply spamming the ultimate button whenever a teammate dies isn't the most effective use of this ability, as it can often mean causing a swift second death. We recommend waiting for either multiple teammates to be down, or timing it for a massive push on an objective. As always, remember that Mercy is there to help, so in order to play this character effectively, you need to be committed to the success of others, which might not be your style if you're always seeking your next triple kill.

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.

This is what makes Overwatch all the more frustrating to me. There is a great game ready to be born out of this mess. Blizzard tends to know what they are doing. That is why I am confused regarding how this game has achieved such universal praise, despite its shortcomings. The developer can do much, much better. In its current state, the free-to-play Gotham City Imposters offered much more in the way of depth with a similar tone and varied abilities. How Blizzard can get away with charging $40 (or $60) dollars for less than WB's beleaguered shooter, and then riddle it with microtransactions, is beyond me.

Overwatch 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.

Aside from Tracer, Reaper seems to be a favorite for more casual players (AKA you'll sometimes see full teams comprised of the two). Despite his relatively low barrier of entry, this hero-hunting mercenary also boasts a pretty high skill ceiling. Reaper's Hellfire Shotguns are absolutely devastating from short range, though they dramatically lose effectiveness as encounter distance increases. For this reason, you're going to always want to try and attack him from mid-to-long range. What's more, Reaper generates a collectible health orb whenever he kills a foe, meaning that he can go on some absolutely devastating runs if opposing players get too close.