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Overwatch - Review Thread

TheYanger

Member
Gah, baited into another reply. I can't go down a list of specifics and prove "there, lack of depth" - it's more a feeling than anything. I'm generally pretty good at competitive games: MG elite in CS:GO and platinum in LoL - and Overwatch just isn't grabbing me. And the big reason is that every game feels exactly the same. There's very little to react to, especially once you get over the "how do I deal with Bastion?" hump (spoilers: it's Pharah, Hanzo, Widowmaker or Junkrat).

LoL has fantastic counterplay that makes it deep. CS:GO has amazing and perfected mechanics such as noise, team communication and grenades. Overwatch just feels dry by comparison: shooting and positioning.

Well shit, why don't you go pro and make a million dollars yo?

You keep bringing up 'noise' and 'team communication' as if those things aren't in Overwatch. Footsteps and sound design are INSANE in Overwatch. They have an entire GDC presentation about how they were mandated to create the sound design so that you could play the game blindfolded (metaphorically obviously). If you listen to it, it shows. "Very little to react to" in what way? There are enemies, they are doing things to prevent you from winning. They have 21^6 different combinations of teams they can approach you wtih at any given moment and they all require different responses from you and your team. That's ignoring the maps and the different approaches they can take as well, and your own team's composition. "Grenades" lol. Sorry, but you can't deride Overwatch for characters having 3-4 abilities and then go "Grenades are deep". You could just as easily say "Man. in CS Go you just have a guns and grenades. Game is shallow as fuck" - your argument is literally nonsensical. It's counterproductive for you to try and claim these aspects as deep and the Overwatch equivilents as shallow, when there are MORE of them in Overwatch. Team Communication...I don't even know what to say. Communicate with your team if you think you aren't getting any. There is in game voice chat ffs.
 

Mattenth

Member
Team Communication...I don't even know what to say. Communicate with your team if you think you aren't getting any. There is in game voice chat ffs.

I've played roughly 10 rounds since the game launched. I'm yet to encounter another player using voice chat. The channel management UI system is pretty bad, especially given that parties are in party-only chat by default (on PC).

(Actually kinda nice btw. Contrast with CoD where I'm muting everyone, heh).
 

TheYanger

Member
I've played roughly 10 rounds since the game launched. I'm yet to encounter another player using voice chat. The channel management UI system is pretty bad, especially given that parties are in party-only chat by default (on PC).

(Actually kinda nice btw. Contrast with CoD where I'm muting everyone, heh).

Do you try talking first? or just sit there listening? I often find you will get 1-2 people talking and if you start striking it up. 1-2 people communicating in a pug is enough to turn you guys into a coordinated killing force. I do it all the time (but to be fair, I'm used to being in a leadership role and am comfortable just telling people what to do, even if I'm wrong).
 

MUnited83

For you.
Gah, baited into another reply. I can't go down a list of specifics and prove "there, lack of depth" - it's more a feeling than anything. I'm generally pretty good at competitive games: MG elite in CS:GO, platinum in LoL, 1-shot the SC2 co-op mutators on brutal, etc. - and Overwatch just isn't grabbing me. And the big reason is that every game feels exactly the same. There's very little to react to, especially once you get over the "how do I deal with Bastion?" hump (spoilers: it's Pharah, Hanzo, Widowmaker or Junkrat).

LoL has fantastic counterplay that makes it deep. CS:GO has amazing and perfected mechanics such as noise, team communication and grenades. Overwatch just feels dry by comparison: shooting and positioning.
You're making a terrible job at trying to argue your points. Overwatch has counterplay, npise mechanics, team communication, grenades/explosives + various abilities that can do all sort of things from buffing speed to a team, launch yourself in the air and navigate the map vertically, push enemies out of objectives, shields that can be put down, turrets that can constructed on key spots and few dozen others without even counting the ults. Come on now.
I've played roughly 10 rounds since the game launched. I'm yet to encounter another player using voice chat. The channel management UI system is pretty bad, especially given that parties are in party-only chat by default (on PC).

(Actually kinda nice btw. Contrast with CoD where I'm muting everyone, heh).
If I go to play CS GO right now with randoms barely anyone will have a mic, and if someone does 90% chance that its a annoying kid that not doing any actual communication. Guess CS GO team communication is terrible based on this then!
 

packy34

Member
Calling now that this will be one of the most overrated games ever :p

Titanfall had an 86 average review score. Overwatch will score higher for its IP and accessibility ("my first competitive shooter"). But it'll falter for the same reasons as Titanfall: insufficient depth in gameplay and progression/customization. Once the honeymoon phase wanes, I think you'll find that the games start to become repetitive and same-y. The lack of game modes really drives this feeling home: if you've played any competitive shooter, the lack of variety will get you very quickly.

Team Fortress 2 is another great comparison point. What is the killer Overwatch innovation that's going to cause it to be 10x the size of TF2? So far, seems very similar with some incremental improvements and some losses, but nothing revolutionary. Though I agree with the claim that Blizzard could add content to get it to that level. But then again... TF2 is also free to play. Overwatch is (strangely) a $40+ boxed product.

Congratz to Blizzard either way though. So happy to see a new and well-executed IP. The "best game ever" sentiment may be unwarranted but it's a great foundation for the future of the IP.

Repetitive and samey don't matter when the game is fun to play. Titanfall felt small because the gameplay couldn't carry it. Overwatch's can.
 

Raitaro

Member
So if I was to outline the stuff that I feel would take the sheen off this games perception as perfect it would be the following:

-Complete lack of context to anything going on. You get a couple of character activated interaction lines in the countdown and thats it. Theres no attempt to make one side the villains and one side the heroes in regard to the world of Overwatch. The superhero basis is completely irrelevant for the actual game and causes a weird rift between it and the CGI episodes.

While I can't yet speak for the other points you bring up due to not being familiar with the game enough yet, this point does seem at least partly true for someone like me who has mostly watched the CGI movies and can't really figure out why these heroes are fighting each other while bigger conflicts seem to loom over them. Maybe a divide between hero teams and villain teams would have been better in that regard, though that would limit people's options of course.

I also have to say that I am a bit miffed that this is another game (after SFV, assuming you wish to earn FM) that apparently is getting away with requiring a constant internet connection even when playing (the otherwise appreciated) offline bot matches. I don't know what kind of world game developers live in, but in mine, having an ever-present, fast and reliable internet connection wherever I am or move to is not part of reality. Would be nice if one could still play at least some portions of a game in such circumstances imo.

Finally, is it true that all maps are specifically tied to certain game modes, meaning that some maps might become very underused if a mode ends up being unpopular? Couldn't they have made all maps available for one basic mode like team deathmatch (assuming there is such a mode) or reused some more of them in several modes, or would that have taken too much work adapting them and perhaps have other negative side effects?

Other than these possible points of worry, I'm still tempted to pick up the game, despite never really playing this genre before (except Splatoon, if that counts), based on Gaf's positivity and the positive reviews. But only after the dust settles a bit and after I'm done with Dark Souls 3, Doom and Uncharted 4 (sheesh, what a great couple of months it's been!).
 
In particular for Battlefront, with people wanting the "Battlefront of old," what people wanted there was a SP part because that was part of the "old" experience.

Fair or not, Overwatch never had that expectation hanging over it.

That's true. It's even weirder that people expect a single player in every single game still though.
I'm not sure if a CTF mode would work. Everyone would be Lucio.

Basically.
 

TheYanger

Member
While I can't yet speak for the other points you bring up due to not being familiar with the game enough yet, this point does seem at least partly true for someone like me who has mostly watched the CGI movies and can't really figure out why these heroes are fighting each other while bigger conflicts seem to loom over them. Maybe a divide between hero teams and villain teams would have been better in that regard, though that would limit people's options of course.

I have to say that I am a bit miffed that this is another game (after SFV, assuming you wish to earn FM) that apparently is getting away with requiring a constant internet connection even when playing (the otherwise appreciated) offline bot matches. I don't know what kind of world game developers live in, but in mine, having an ever-present, fast and reliable internet connection wherever I am or move to is not part of reality. Would be nice if one could still play at least some portions of a game in such circumstances imo.

Finally, is it true that all maps are specifically tied to certain game modes, meaning that some maps might become very underused if a mode ends up being unpopular? Couldn't they have made all maps available for one basic mode like team deathmatch (assuming there is such a mode) or reused some more of them in several modes or would that have taken too much work adapting them or perhaps have another negative side effect?

Other than these possible points of worry, I'm still tempted to pick up the game, despite never really playing this genre before (except Splatoon, if that counts), based on Gaf's positivity and the positive reviews. But only after the dust settles a bit and after I'm done with Dark Souls 3, Doom and Uncharted 4 (sheesh, what a great couple of months it's been!).

You don't choose a game 'mode' like that for matchmaking. They're all similar enough that you might slightly prefer one or the other, but it's not like the difference between CTF and Team Deathmatch where they're VASTLY different, so they're all in the same pool. And no, there is no TDM .it would be terrible in this game. As far as offline..sorry? Blizz doesn't make offline games anymore, let's be honest about it. They're all tied into their ecosystem and it's all always online. I mean, I understand that sucks for people with bad internet, but the reality is it's a multiplayer shooter.
 
That's true. It's even weirder that people expect a single player in every single game still though.
I don't know about every game, but to before the latest release, the games in the Battlefront series had a SP campaign, so the franchise had that expectation kind of built up around it.

I think the game could have skipped a SP campaign if it had justified my purchase in other ways (I didn't think it did and skipped it because of that).
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Any idea when more reviews will hit? Is everyone waiting till after today to post to get a feel for the servers?
 

fuzzyset

Member
Any idea when more reviews will hit? Is everyone waiting till after today to post to get a feel for the servers?

Wouldn't be surprised if they waited until after tonight since Tuesday is the 'normal' release day for games. I'm guessing they'll be another spike in users tonight for people that didn't realize they could play last night.

They have 21^6 different combinations of teams they can approach you wtih at any given moment and they all require different responses from you and your team.

Not to be that guy (I agree with all your points), but I would argue it's an 'unordered' sampling so it'd only be 21 choose 6 which is much less than 21^6. Either way, still a lot :p
 

TheYanger

Member
I don't know about every game, but to before the latest release, the games in the Battlefront series had a SP campaign, so the franchise had that expectation kind of built up around it.

I think the game could have skipped a SP campaign if it had justified my purchase in other ways (I didn't think it did and skipped it because of that).

Yeah, I think Battlefront was hit hard because the weapon variety, due to the license, felt slight, and because the previous games flat out had MORE of the same type of content. Same reason SF5 got hit hard (Though SF5 was because of genre expectations as well).

For example if you jsut released "BAttlefront" with no star wars license and the exact same game, I suspect it would have had a slightly better response due to expectations. Probably still not amazing, but absolutely 'better'.

Wouldn't be surprised if they waited until after tonight since Tuesday is the 'normal' release day for games. I'm guessing they'll be another spike in users tonight for people that didn't realize they could play last night.



Not to be that guy (I agree with all your points), but I would argue it's an 'unordered' sampling so it'd only be 21 choose 6 which is much less than 21^6. Either way, still a lot :p

I'm not a math guy but yeah that makes sense.
 
Wow, was not expecting so many 10s

I want to wait for a price drop, but watching people play it is so hard to do. Might pick it up while I can still get 20% off on Amazon Prime
 

Luq

Member
Well shit, why don't you go pro and make a million dollars yo?

You keep bringing up 'noise' and 'team communication' as if those things aren't in Overwatch. Footsteps and sound design are INSANE in Overwatch. They have an entire GDC presentation about how they were mandated to create the sound design so that you could play the game blindfolded (metaphorically obviously). If you listen to it, it shows. "Very little to react to" in what way? There are enemies, they are doing things to prevent you from winning. They have 21^6 different combinations of teams they can approach you wtih at any given moment and they all require different responses from you and your team. That's ignoring the maps and the different approaches they can take as well, and your own team's composition. "Grenades" lol. Sorry, but you can't deride Overwatch for characters having 3-4 abilities and then go "Grenades are deep". You could just as easily say "Man. in CS Go you just have a guns and grenades. Game is shallow as fuck" - your argument is literally nonsensical. It's counterproductive for you to try and claim these aspects as deep and the Overwatch equivilents as shallow, when there are MORE of them in Overwatch. Team Communication...I don't even know what to say. Communicate with your team if you think you aren't getting any. There is in game voice chat ffs.

Yup, just I said before. Just try to say something negative about this game and its fanboys will skin you alive.

Dude was expressing his opinion in cultural manner, why are you attacking him for that?
 
I'm also worried about the console userbase later down the line. Hopefully Blizzard releases enough content to maintain the userbase on consoles
 

That's how it starts, sir. The fever, the rage, the feeling of...powerlessness that turns good men... cruel.

batman-v-superman-sad-affleck-today-160325-tease-0d2_20a5ac342a386303651c469956439cf6.jpg
 

tesqui

Member
Never could get into TF2, but I had some fun with this games beta. Didn't think it was "wow 10/10 mind blowing masterpiece" though. I had way more fun with the Titanfall beta.
 

papercamm

Member
I'm pretty amazed at the scores the games been getting but I can't really think of anything I'd change about its current structure. It's so well polished, definitely earned those scores.
 

DAMN. They get it. I love these excerpts in particular:

Game Informer - 10/10
As the clock winds down to zero, you backtrack in time to drop a perfect pulse bomb on the enemy position, blowing apart the greedy robot-turned-turret and his teammate, a slick sniper assassin who was too busy tracking her prey to notice your explosive gift. The game heads into overtime as the payload wagon rests mere inches away from the victory point, but your team has just been annihilated by an enormous magical dragon. Then you hear it: “Heroes never die!” As your one chance, your team’s Mercy hero activates her ultimate ability and brings your entire group back to life for one last stand. After Mei brings a scientifically sound winter to your opponents by freezing them, victory is yours. Moments like these define Overwatch, including amazing victories and last-second defeats. No matter what happens – win or lose – you’re going to have fun.

Playstation Lifestyle - 10/10
With accessibility to spare, a real commitment to diversity and an infectious sense of innocent fun, Overwatch feels like an important game — the sort that can bridge boundaries in the oft-segmented gaming community. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that this may just be the project to revitalize lapsed or disheartened gamers’ interest in the medium, or the one to bring new players onboard the FPS wagon.
 

TheYanger

Member
Yup, just I said before. Just try to say something negative about this game and its fanboys will skin you alive.

Dude was expressing his opinion in cultural manner, why are you attacking him for that?

So, if someone says "X Y Z" is why it lacks depth while game A has real depth," It's a cultured argument. If someone says "Counterpoint to X Y Z" it's a fanboy attack. Got it.
 

airjoca

Member
It is something the vast majority of pub players won't notice due to the use of good dedis, and for competitive crowd, tournaments are run on customs with 60Hz tick rate support. And from a truck ton of people's experience, who played for over half a year already, the 20Hz tick rate thing impact the game in the most minimal way possible.

I noticed it a LOT during the Beta, and it sent BF4 launch shivers down my spine...
 
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