Overwatch Vs. Battleborn: Which Is The Better Hero Shooter
Bastion is different from most of Overwatch's heroes in that his main ability alters his main weapon. His standard configuration, Recon, allows him to move freely and gives him a moderately powerful assault rifle designed for medium range encounters. His Sentry configuration is his most useful, and potentially most frustrating, setup. In this mode, Bastion is completely stationary, but has a turret that can do insane damage at close, medium and long range. Needless to say, running straight into Bastion when he's hanging out in his Sentry configuration is straight up foolish. Add this to the fact that his other ability, https://www.overwatchtactics.com Self-Repair, allows him to heal himself, and it's easy to see how Bastion can be frustrating for those who just bumrush an objective without thought. Oh, and let's not forget that Bastion's ultimate, Tank Configuration, not only makes him more mobile and gives him a powerful rocket launcher, but it also decreases the size of his hitbox significantly.
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 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.
Everyone's favorite peanut butter-loving scientist gorilla also might be the greatest distraction in all of Overwatch. Winston is a great character for those looking to play objectives, but not due to high damage output from his main weapon or his abilities; simply put, the best Winston players will utilize his abilities to pull opponents off of the objective, freeing teammates to either attack or defend in peace. Despite his weapon, the Tesla Cannon, boasting fairly weak damage, it automatically and continuously connects with any foes who are in Winston's immediate area. For this reason, it's the single-greatest way to defeat Tracer, as her abilities can't get her out of the way of this weapon (unless she leaves battle). This is also a fantastic weapon for capturing objectives, as you'll be able to do damage to multiple enemies at one time.
With all of that gushing out of the way, I'd like to pinpoint the exact moment where I realized that Overwatch was a special experience, at least for me. While the PC audience is far more knowledgeable about team composition than its console counterparts (as a result of sheer time played), I found myself on a team where the other five players thought it would be a good idea to choose three Tracers and two Reapers. If you don't know anything about Overwatch, you should know that a balanced team consisting of offense, defense, tanks and supports is going to succeed far more often than one where every player is in one category. Considering that Tracer is the squishiest offensive hero and Reaper is an offensive character that isn't going to be able to do damage at range, I found myself at a loss. Generally when I'm attacking a central control point, I enjoy picking someone like Junkrat, whose bouncing grenades can cause absolute chaos. Unfortunately, this hero was out of the question, as my more casual teammates would not be able to succeed without a healer. It's for that very reason that I chose Mercy, who can beam health into any allies that she aims her staff at.
To top all of this off, none of my teammates were communicating whatsoever. Needless to say, I was extremely frustrated and decided to start playing quarterback, directing my teammates through my microphone. After getting one Tracer and one Reaper to switch to Reinhardt, who rocks a giant shield that blocks enemy bullets, I hung in the background, healing everyone possible and positioning them on the control point in a way that I felt would be successful. Granted, my tone was far more authoritative than I would like to admit, and I'm sure that my teammates probably thought I was a huge jerk, but something very funny happened after I started to take control: we won. We had a completely unbalanced team that was doomed from the start, I chose a character whose main role isn't inflicting damage and somehow I ended up empowering the team as a whole. This was such a different experience from anything that I had ever experienced in a shooter, and despite the initial frustrations, it was the single most satisfying multiplayer match I was a part of (in any game) in the past two or three years.
It seems as though everyone is picking sides in this debate, and after playing extensive amounts of both titles on PC over the course of the week, I can safely say that I'm more fond of Blizzard's newest title. Granted, Battleborn has started to grow on me, which is impressive considering I have traditionally held the most negative opinion towards it on our staff, but there are three important reasons why Overwatch is emerging as the superior product for those looking to dive into a hero shooter this Spring.