Overwatch (video game)

Overwatch
File:Overwatch cover art (PC).jpg Cover for the game's Origins Edition, featuring the Hero character Tracer
Developer(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Director(s)	Jeffrey Kaplan Chris Metzen Aaron Keller
Designer(s)	Jeremy Craig Michael Elliott Scott Mercer
Programmer(s)	Mike Elliott John LeFleur
Artist(s)	William Petras Arnold Tsang
Composer(s)	Derek Duke Neal Acree
Platforms	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Overwatch is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Unveiled at BlizzCon 2014, the game emphasizes cooperative gameplay using a cast of various "heroes", each with their own abilities and roles within a team. The game entered closed beta in North America and Europe in October 2015, with plans to bring the beta to Asia at a later date. The final closed beta weekend began in April 2016 and primarily served as a stress test for Overwatch's servers, lasting 36 hours. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One worldwide in May 2016.

Gameplay

Overwatch features squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each. Players choose one of several hero characters, each with their own unique abilities and role classes. The four character roles include: offense characters with high speed and attack but low defense, defense characters meant to form choke points for enemies, support characters that provide buffs and debuffs for their allies and enemies respectively (such as healing or speed alterations), and tank characters that have a large amount of armor and hit points to withstand enemy attacks and draw fire away from teammates. During the pre-match setup, players on a team will be given advice from the game if their team is unbalanced, such as if they are lacking defensive heroes, encouraging players to switch to other heroes pre-match and balance the starting team. Within a match, players can switch between characters in-game following deaths or by returning to their home base, which is encouraged by the game's overall design.

Each hero has a primary attack or skill and at least two additional skills that can be evoked at any time, some requiring a brief cooldown period before they can be used again. Furthermore, each player slowly builds up a meter towards the one-time use of the character's "ultimate" skill; this meter builds up over time but can build up faster for defeating opponents or performing other beneficial tasks for their team. Once ready, the player can use this skill at any time, but then must wait for the meter to fill up again. A second meter tracks how many in-round points a player has scored, which are rewarded for killing or assisting in killing, providing team defense or healing, and scoring objective points. When a certain threshold is reached, the player character's icon will be "on fire", representing that that character is a threat, but otherwise does not directly affect gameplay.

At the conclusion of each match, the game server determines and replays for all players a short period of time from a specific player as the "Play of the Game" based on a number of factors that highlight a high-scoring play, such as a rapid number of kills or an effective use of team healing. Up to four individual achievements for players on both teams are then highlighted and players are given the option to select one to promote. Obtaining the "Play of the Game" or the most votes during this post-game are rewarded as experience points for the player's meta-game.

Following the match, all players gain experience towards a metagame experience level based on several factors such as whether they won or lost, how effective they used their character's main powers, and beating past personal records in a number of categories. On gaining an experience level, the player can earn a loot crate, which contains a number of cosmetic items for certain heroes, including victory poses, paint sprays, alternate color schemes and voice lines.

The game's maps are inspired by real-world locations; the first three maps unveiled ("King's Row", "Hanamura", "Temple of Anubis") are inspired by London, Japan, and the ruins of Ancient Egypt, respectively.

Game modes

Overwatch currently has four main game modes, including a hybrid of assault and escort:

• Assault: The attacking team is tasked with capturing two target points in sequence on the map, while the defending team must stop them.
• Escort: The attacking team is tasked with escorting a payload to a certain delivery point before time runs out, while the defending team must stop them. The payload vehicle moves along a fixed track when any player on the attacking team is close to it, but will stop if a defending player is nearby; should no attacker be near the vehicle, it will start to move backwards along the track. Passing specific checkpoints will extend the match time and prevent the payload from moving backwards from that point.
• Assault/Escort: The attacking team has to capture the payload and escort it to its destination, while the defending team tries to hold them back.
• Control: Each team tries to capture and maintain a common control point until their capture percentage reaches 100%. This game mode is played in a best-of-three format.

Each mode includes a "Overtime" period lasting for only a few seconds if an objective is not yet completed by the attacking team, such as if the attackers in Escort have not moved the payload to the next checkpoint, or failing to take the control point held by the other team in Control. Overtime continues if attackers continuously push at their objective, but will end quickly if the attackers are held away from the objective.

At launch the game also included a special Weekly Brawl mode inspired by Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's Tavern Brawls. These matches feature unique rules, such as players forced to play a specific hero or a specific class of hero, or may force a random hero on the player each time they respawn. These Brawls will change weekly.

At launch, all game modes are based on casual matchmaking, irrespective of player's experience level. Blizzard had anticipated on including Ranked mode - in which players would compete in a tournament-style ladder against players of similar level to ascend that ladder - but had difficulty with matchmaking during the open beta that caused low-ranked players to be pitted against much higher-ranked players. Ranked mode is planned to be introduced in a mid-June 2016 update to the game. Ranked mode will feature month-long challenges, with players' standings reset at the end of the month. Players that participate in ranked mode will earn rewards, similar to loot boxes, based on their standing at the end of each month.

Roles

Main article: Characters of Overwatch

Characters in Overwatch come in four varieties: Offense, Defense, Tank, and Support. These roles serve to categorize the heroes of Overwatch by similar characteristics that can be used to describe them and their playstyle. The first appearance of an Overwatch character in a released game was on April 19, 2016 in Heroes of the Storm.

• Offense: Offense characters have high mobility and are known for their ability to deal large amounts of damage. To balance this, offense characters have a low number of hit points.
• Defense: Defense characters excel at protecting specific locations and creating choke points. They can also provide several means of field support, such as sentry set-up and trapping the enemy team.
• Tank: Tank characters have the most hit points out of all the characters in the game. Because of this, they are able to draw enemy fire away from their teammates to themselves, so as to disrupt the enemy team.
• Support: Support characters are utility characters that have abilities that enhance their own team and/or weaken the enemy team. They might not deal the most damage or have the most hit points, but the buffs and debuffs they provide ensure that their teammates who do will make short work of their opponents.

Plot

Overwatch is set in the near-future Earth, years after the resolution of the global-scale "Omnic Crisis". This crisis put humanity under threat of the "Omnic" artificial intelligence. This led to the uprising of robots all around the world and a massive conflict on the global scale. To end this conflict, an international task force called "Overwatch" was formed by the United Nations to protect humanity, ending the Crisis. In the years after, Overwatch remained as a peacekeeping force, but after multiple incidents of criminal activity popped up around the globe, accusations of corruption and sedition began to surface. The people turned against those who had saved them. Once regarded as heroes, members of Overwatch were then looked down upon with suspicion. Then one day, the headquarters of Overwatch were suddenly destroyed—apparently by accident. Officially, the attack took the life of Overwatch leader Jack Morrison and second-in-command Gabriel Reyes. After this event, the task force was eventually disbanded. It is believed by some that the cause of the downfall of Overwatch was due actually to an elaborate conspiracy by those who wanted to see the end of the organization, although nothing has been confirmed officially by the UN.

Development

According to Blizzard Entertainment co-founder Michael Morhaime, Overwatch is intended to "create an awesome [first-person shooter] experience that's more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love." The title's creative director, Chris Metzen, acknowledged that parts of Overwatch, such as maps, share "continuity" with the company's cancelled massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Titan, though the games are completely different. Due to the cancellation of Titan, Overwatch became Blizzard's second attempt at launching a new franchise since StarCraft in 1998. Citing a desire to keep its game styles "simple", and because it contradicted its emphasis on accomplishing goals as a team rather than trying to achieve large numbers of kills, Overwatch does not contain a traditional deathmatch mode. Metzen stated that "we have a long legacy of developing multiplayer games, and it came down to 'is it even possible to build a shooter that doesn't feel cynical, that doesn't feel cruel, that doesn't feel nasty? Can you build one that really promotes teamwork and relationship and having fun with your friends, and not getting killed with a thrown knife from halfway across the map as soon as you jump in?'"

The narrative for Overwatch is led by Blizzard's senior game designer Michael Chu. Creating a narrative for the game was a challenge compared to past Blizzard titles as the game lacks a single-player mode or a traditional story-telling mechanic. Instead, the story crafters for the game sought to create a spanning narrative that could be injected into the game through the short dialog used in game, unlockable hero skins, and associated media releases. This gives the developers some flexibility as to where they can take the story as Overwatch is expanded over the years. Blizzard felt they had strength in developing a narrative for a large universe of characters as they had done for Warcraft. Once it was determined Overwatch would be played on a near-futuristic version of Earth, the writers recognized the possibility of having a global-spanning set of characters and locations set in an "inspirational future". The cast of playable characters in Overwatch was stated as being intended to portray diverse representations of genders and ethnicities (including males, females, and non-human characters such as robots and a gorilla). Game director Jeffrey Kaplan explained that the industry was "clearly in an age where gaming is for everybody", going on to say that "increasingly, people want to feel represented, from all walks of life, boys and girls, everybody. We feel indebted to do our best to honor that." Metzen admitted that even his daughter had asked why the characters in a Warcraft cutscene were wearing swimsuits. Despite this, however, a writer for Kotaku still remarked that "Overwatch's women are mostly super slim and clad in cat suits."

The United States Patent and Trademark Office suspended Blizzard's application for a trademark for Overwatch due to "a likelihood of confusion" with a previously registered trademark by Innovis Labs. On October 13, 2015, Innovis Labs and Blizzard settled a pending lawsuit. A week later, on October 21, 2015, Innovis Labs surrendered their trademark registration for Overwatch.

Controversy

Following promotional images featuring the female character Tracer in March 2016, a thread on Blizzard's official forums drew attention to one of Tracer's victory poses, which featured her posterior, as an example of inappropriate sexual objectification of an otherwise friendly and heroic character. Other forum comments expressed additional concern with the pose given that Tracer was prominent in the game's marketing, even being included on the game's cover. Blizzard game designer Jeffrey Kaplan revealed in later interviews that concerns about the pose had previously been expressed internally. Blizzard opted to change the victory pose, instead using one inspired by mid-20th century pin-up models. Members of the gaming community had mixed reactions to the change, expressing both appreciation of Blizzard's recognition of this problem and disappointment at Blizzard's apparent yielding of creative authority. The pose was replaced in the beta, before the game's launch.

Promotion and release

An closed beta period for Overwatch across all three platforms began on October 27, 2015. The closed beta was put on "extended break" in December and brought back in February 2016. Following the March 2016 release announcement, Blizzard also announced an open beta period from May 5 to May 9 for any registered user of the Battle.net client. The open beta proven popular with Blizzard reporting over 9.7 million players participating, and as a way of showing thanks, extended the open beta period by one extra day.

In the week prior to release, Blizzard arranged to have three giant-sized boxes (approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) tall) of various Overwatch heroes, as if being sold as packaged action figures, put on display across the globe at Hollywood, Paris, and Busan, South Korea. The displays were created by Alliance Studios, led by Steve Wang, who has collaborated with Blizzard before on past projects, and Eddie Yang. After planning the design of the sculptures in January 2016, teams across the world, including Droga5, Scicon, Stratasys and Egads, raced to print, finish and assemble the works in time for the game's release.

Overwatch was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One platforms on May 24, 2016. Unlike previous Blizzard releases, there are no plans for a version of Overwatch for OS X. Blizzard has expressed interest in supporting cross-platform play between these systems in the future. The game will be supported by updates, including new maps and characters. All of the additional content will be free for existing players and does not require additional payment. Blizzard hoped that through this method they can alleviate the concerns of some players.

Two special editions of Overwatch were released alongside the base game. The Origins Edition, available both as a downloadable and retail product, includes the base game and five additional character skins, as well as other bonus items for other Blizzard games via Battle.net. The Collectors Edition, only available as retail, includes the Origins Edition content as well as a statue of Soldier 76, one of the playable characters, the game's soundtrack, and a source book.

Related media

In March 2016, Blizzard announced that they would be releasing comics and animated shorts based on Overwatch in 2016. It includes six digital comics, an animated short series, and a graphic novel called Overwatch: First Strike, which focuses on the story of several in-game characters including Soldier: 76, Torbjörn, Reaper, and Reinhardt. The novel is being written by writer Micky Neilson and artist Ludo Lullabi.

The first episode of the animated short series, Recall, was released on March 23. It centers on Winston and Reaper, and features flashbacks to Winston's childhood. The second episode, Alive, showcased a standoff between Tracer and Widowmaker, and was released on April 5. The third episode, Dragons, featuring the brothers Hanzo and Genji, was released on May 16. The fourth and final episode of the series' first season, Hero, stars Soldier: 76, and was released May 22. The animated shorts maintain the style of the game's cinematic trailer, which centered on a battle in which Tracer and Winston fought Reaper and Widowmaker in the Overwatch Museum. The trailer was released on November 7, 2014.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic Review scores Publication Score Destructoid 10/10 Game Informer 10/10 Game Revolution GameSpot 9/10 IGN 9.4/10 Polygon 8/10 VideoGamer.com 9/10 PlayStation LifeStyle 10/10 The Escapist The Guardian

Pre-launch

Before its release, Overwatch experienced a period of pre-launch attention not typically expected; Game Revolution noted that "[Overwatch's] reputation has quickly permeated through cyberspace, attracting attention from people who may not traditionally put down $40 to $60 each time a new first-person shooter releases." The game's open beta, which attracted 9.7 million players, was also noted to be heavily covered by the media.

Critical reception

Overwatch received universal acclaim upon release, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. IGN's Vince Ingenito awarded the game a 9.4/10 and praised the game's characters and maps, writing "Overwatch takes just about every possible opportunity to make its cast and locales seem like people and places rather than puppets and scenery." Ingenito added that the game has a "strong online experience that gets you into games quickly and reliably." The Verge's Andrew Webster praised Overwatch and previous titles Titanfall and Splatoon as "friendly online shooters" that have room for both new and casual players who may not desire to master the game but can still compete fairly with others, and for expert players that can utilize the various heroes to adapt to the dynamic tactics of the game.