Overwatch Character Guide: Torbjörn Zenyatta Widowmaker

Overwatch doesn’t have a plot, but it does have a ton of character. Overwatch’s cast of quirky characters are interesting and diverse with unique personalities. Junkrat is a limping psychopath who wants to blow things up. Winston is a scholarly gorilla who, when provoked, dips into his rage-filled primal instincts. Tracer, the spunky Brit who serves as the game’s mascot, is full of little quips as she zips around the battlefield. Players who take the extra time to stop and admire the different map’s scenery will learn even more about the different character’s backstories. Cues, like a D.Va poster, provide clues into a character's history prior Www.Overwatchtactics.Com to the game. It’s an interesting way to convey lore, but it’s never quite enough. Blizzard clearly wants Overwatch to be a big franchise with an interesting lore and they do provide that outside of the game. Much like Destiny’s Grimoire Cards, players will need to turn to sources outside the main game to learn about the lore. For example, without the animated shorts, I never would have known Hanzo and Genji were brothers. Blizzard also plans to release digital comics and graphic novels to further flesh out the lore. Now, Overwatch may not need a campaign, but it would have been nice to have some access to story content in the main game.

Symmetra's first ability, her Sentry Turrets, allow her to place up to six turrets around the map. Once an enemy steps within range, these turrets will fire a continuous beam of medium-damage energy until that foe either dies or steps out of range. While these turrets are exceptionally easy for enemies to kill, they can be hidden in creative locations and grouped together to maximize effectiveness. Her second ability, Photon Shield, allows her to grant extra hitpoints to teammates within range. While shields will not heal those who are critically injured, equipping an entire team with them before a big push can certainly give you an edge. Finally, her ultimate, Teleporter, is one of the biggest game-changing abilities in all of Overwatch. By placing the Teleporter somewhere on the map, a second portal is opened up at the spawn point, allowing teammates to bypass that potentially long journey back to the objective. Not only can this assist your team in reaching an capture point quicker, but it makes escorting a payload a relative breeze considering it's possible to always have one person moving it forward.

Blizzard has perfected the RTS and now they’ve laid a fantastic foundation for the FPS. Though simple on the surface, Overwatch manages to create depth thanks to its 21 character roster and 12 intricately designed maps, consistently rewarding players that master their characters, learn the maps and work as a team. Putting a competent team together and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat is one of the most satisfying experiences a multiplayer game has offered in years. It could use a campaign, a few more game modes and refinement of its RNG system, but none of that distracts from the fact that Overwatch is an superb effort that will entertain players for an ungodly amount of time.

This level of inclusion might not mean that much to gamers, but after showcasing the game to a few close friends, including female and minority gamers, we were all in agreeance that Blizzard’s design decisions made the game resonate with us more so than other games have, even if they aren’t an integral part of the experience. Still, as much as I am a fan of the diverse characters of Overwatch, the diversity within the game’s playable heroes is only one facet of the game’s dedication to inclusivity. While there are plenty of diverse characters, there are a few traditional, archetypal ones as well, though these are used to great effect.

Leading up to the game’s release, both Blizzard and critics drew attention to the game’s diverse cast of characters and it’s easily one of the game’s most defining traits. As a minority myself (and one who is on the heavier side), it’s rare that I find a character in any form of media that I can relate to, from movies and TV to games as well. To be honest, even the ones that are included often encroach on traditional stereotypes; the doctor, the convenience store owner, or the timid Indian fellow complete with accent.

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.