We knew something was up. The big, weird gap after the opening ceremony, the closed off section at BlizzCon, the developers tweeting about exciting news things coming… Hype was at an all time high when Chris Metzen took the stage to announce Blizzard’s first new IP in 17 years.
Overwatch is the new game in development by Blizzard and it looks frigging amazing. The concept closely resembles that of Team Fortress 2, whereas you have different classes with different mechanics, very colorful graphics and team based objectives. So far, 2 game modes have been announced. Payload, where the attacking team must move an objective from one point of the map to the other side, while the defenders try to stop them from doing so. The other mode being Point Capture, where your team must control certain areas of the map for the longest to win. 3 maps have also been officially announced. Temple of Anubis and Hanamura for the Point Capture game mode and King’s Row for the Payload game mode.
The cast of characters all seem very interesting and fun, with each of them having a distinct role and abilities. Choosing will be difficult! There are 4 main roles that you’ll get to play in Overwatch, Offence, Defense, Tank and Support. While all the names are pretty self-explanatory, it will be interesting to see exactly what each character brings to the table and how the their abilities interact with each other. From the trailer, it seems the action will be very fast paced and skill oriented, which will make it interesting to master. Playing with friends will definitely be a blast!
I, for one, am very excited to get my hands on this game. Being an avid first person shooter player, I cannot wait to see how the game plays and feels. With Blizzard’s history in eSports, it will be interesting to see if they further develop the title to rival today’s competitive shooters. The game seems fairly advanced for a new reveal, with a playable demo available to the lucky BlizzCon attendees. The general public can expect a closed BETA as early as the beginning of 2015.
For more information and BETA signups, head over to the official Overwatch site.