Overwatch Unveiled
The Overwatch site is now online, so you can read about all of the heroes and watch some gameplay. You can talk about Overwatch in its new forum!
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Story
  • The game is set on Earth, 60 years in the future
  • Robots became very common in the future and they went crazy, attacking cities all over the world. The war that resulted against the robots was the Omnic (?) Crisis.
  • The strike team that took on the robots was Overwatch.
  • For the next 30 years after the war, Overwatch was a worldwide agency that displayed how great people could be when they came together, representing heroism and sacrifice.
  • In the last few years, Overwatch started to fall apart.

Gameplay
  • Chris Metzen is only doing one voice in this game.
  • Blizzard has been making competitive PvP games for a long time and this will be yet another.
  • Overwatch will have some dark gritty areas, but it will mostly be a world you will want to come back to.
  • The game is all about heroes.
  • The game will be accessible with non-twitch options.
  • You can do things other than put a crosshair over targets, as that is what drives people away from other shooters.
  • The game is less-lethal. You will die, but you should die less frequently than in current modern military shooters. With more time alive, you are able to do more interesting things and interact with your team more.
  • The teams are going to be 6v6, which is just big enough to make it fun.
  • There are Payload and Capture Point maps, no deathmatch mode.
  • The game is focused on Heroes, not classes. Each hero has a unique story.
  • There are 12 playable characters at Blizzcon, with many more to come.
  • Tracer has a ~10 meter teleport / blink that uses energy. Enough energy to do 3 blinks in a row.
  • Tracer has Recall, which puts her back where she was 3 seconds ago. This also includes health, ammo, and energy.
  • Lots of the story is going to take place outside of the game, unlike previous Blizzard games.
  • Regenerate ult by doing and taking damage.

Hero Roles
  • Offense - Scout, harass, press the objective, high damage. (Pharah, Reaper, Tracer, Hanzo)
  • Defense - Guard locations, create choke points, establish a front. (Widowmaker, Bastion, Torbjorn)
  • Tank - Protectors, high survivability, disruption, lead the charge, have armor to reduce damage. (Reinhardt, Winston)
  • Support - Heal, buff, utility. (Zenyatta, Mercy, Symmetra)

Maps and Game Modes
  • Exotic worldwide locations
  • Simple objectives
  • Encourage hero mobility
  • Team focus encounters
  • Temple of Anubis - At the base of a technological pyramid.
  • Hanamura - Temple grounds, homeland of Hanzo.
  • King's Row - 30 years ago there was a population of robots that lived below the streets. People were going to send an EMP underground to destroy them.
  • You can change to another hero every time you die.

Q&A
  • They aren't talking about the cost yet, so no idea if it will be free to play, a one time purchase, or something else.
  • There are elements of Titan in Overwatch, both were Earth based, there were some shared ideas, but it is different from Titan.
  • There is no customization to the gameplay. Initially there was a robust customization system, but there are too many heroes to keep track of all of the customization that can be done. Customization works in Heroes of the Storm because it is a slower paced game.
  • Overwatch will be on PC, consoles are something they can look at in the future.
  • It is too early to talk about system requirements, but they should be reasonable, just like other Blizzard games.
  • The game will be balanced so that two of a hero on a team will be okay, but more than that will likely put you at a disadvantage.
  • They aren't ready to talk about skins, leveling, or achievement systems yet, but they are all good ideas.
  • There is party chat and team chat, with party chat being your group that you queued with. The team is also working on VO and chat communication.
  • There will be some kind of long term progression in the game.
  • The team is looking at outside Voice Chat options, as players prefer that over in game chat usually.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Overwatch Unveiled started by chaud View original post
Comments 113 Comments
  1. Schmilblick's Avatar
    60 years in the future from SOO ?
  1. mmocc2f450f39f's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Schmilblick View Post
    60 years in the future from SOO ?
    I chuckled
  1. merli's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Schmilblick View Post
    60 years in the future from SOO ?
    No from now. It plays on earth.
    Overwatch site is live now.
    And there seems to be a character from Switzerland
  1. mmoc442be69514's Avatar
    Robots attacking cities.. wow, never seen that idea before!!
  1. mmocf3c5a88651's Avatar
    Wow. looks ok to me. although there will always be skeptics
  1. mmoc7c5dca6535's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Scorpio9 View Post
    Robots attacking cities.. wow, never seen that idea before!!
    Exactly what I came to say.
  1. Nerevar's Avatar
    "Overwatch started to fall apart." I hope the game will end up like this as well
  1. TheWindWalker's Avatar
    I can't friggin wait for this. Also, god I hope that Metzen's voice isn't going to end up being one you hear constantly like an announcer or something.
  1. Korru's Avatar
    Is this game like a weeaboo version of TF2?
  1. Spalding's Avatar
    It's using the graphics engine that was used for Titan. yay
  1. mmoc2a274d6a6c's Avatar
    What's with the Pixar Kids Movie vibe?
  1. anon5123's Avatar
    Blizzard Fortress 2?
  1. McNeil's Avatar
    No idea what I just watched. I liked the Hearthstone cameo though.
  1. zrankfappa's Avatar
    while I like FPS's , not a big fan of class based FPS's, as it limits individual gameplay.

    Going to be interesting to see how this plays though ... can you have two of a character on a team? stuff like that ...
  1. Schmilblick's Avatar
    The game is less-lethal. You will die, but you should die less frequently than in current modern military shooters. With more time alive, you are able to do more interesting things and interact with your team more.
    You will be paired with a Resto Druid from the Burning Crusade era.
    No deathmatch mode
    LOL, just LOL.
  1. Kawzation's Avatar
    Chris Metzen is only doing one voice in this game.
    That raised the appeal of the game about 1000 percent for me.
  1. Some Vanilla Player's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Korru View Post
    Is this game like a weeaboo version of TF2?
    Its like comparing hero's of the storm to dota 2
    The thing that really bothered me was how unoriginal the engineer dwarf thing was. FFS the sentry gun upgrades 3 times and looks very similar to tf2(level1 has one barrel, level 2 has 2 barrels, level 3 has 2 barrels and device to shoot rockets). The only thing that separates it is the hero powers? They seem kind of broken, not sure how that will be balanced at all. A sniper with heat vision? Does the gun aim itself and shoot for you also?
  1. Stacie's Avatar
    Chris Metzen is only doing one voice in this game.

    Best news about it.. Now tell us about DLC and the "credit" system that you use real life money for to get upgrades and stuff plz...
  1. subanark's Avatar
    I assume non-twitch options means the game will be more about strategy than how fast you can react. Instead of "you have streaming options other than twitch.tv"
  1. mmocc4c5ae3643's Avatar
    not a game for me then..bleh =/

Site Navigation