Overwatch is a multiplayer First Person Shooter (FPS) game first released on May 24, 2016. The story of the Overwatch game, created by Blizzard Entertainment, is based on the conflict between robots and humanity. And it’s about a team of strong personalities called “Overwatch” trying to save the day. A lot of futuristic and robotic themes are seen in the game too.
So, what is Overwatch? What kind of game is Overwatch? Is Overwatch still played? We’ll try to answer these questions if you have a plan to start Overwatch.
Overwatch, which reached enormous popularity when it was first released, is still known worldwide like the other Blizzard franchises, World of Warcraft and Diablo. While it still has thousands of players, the hype has somewhat subsided as Overwatch’s sequel is scheduled to come out.
The game is actively played on many platforms such as PC, Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation. The game attracted a lot of attention at the time, as it was not similar to classic shooter games. The game is quite fast, and besides shooting, it was highly appreciated because it was ability-based.
Why Overwatch Lost Its Popularity?
Obviously, Valorant, another shooting and ability-based game popular today, is inspired by Overwatch. With a fantastic universe and gameplay, Overwatch has inspired many games, and many of its characters are still known today, even by those who have not played the game.
Overwatch has lost its popularity and pales in comparison to other games because the game makers haven’t patched the game for a long time. Devoting all their focus to Overwatch 2. So, what is Overwatch 2 everyone is talking about? Overwatch 2 is a mix of PvE and PvP, the team said that there would be no major patches for the first game until the new game is released.
This decision caused many players to leave the game. However, the side that thinks that a game that was so hyped at the time will boom again is superior to the other. So although the game’s release date has yet to be determined, we’ll wait and see what is gonna happen to Overwatch.
How Is The Game Played?
It is a game that is not very challenging. It just requires good reflexes and speed functions. Two teams of six players have to fight for control of a specific objective. We’ll try to tell you what kind of game Overwatch is.
Role changing
There are three roles in the game, called Damage, Tank, and Support, and the players choose the characters in these roles equally. Another nice feature of the game is that you can change your hero when you want, compared to other games. There are no factors in this that affect the course of the game other than resetting the percentage of your Ultimate ability.
Some players even change their heroes every time they return to the base to counter them after seeing the opposing heroes. We can call it conforming to the meta. For example, if there is a sniper hero named Widowmaker in the opposing team, Assassin heroes such as Tracer and Sombra are taken to counter her.
Pure gaming
Furthermore, there is no item system in the game. So when you want to play with a hero, all you have is the hero’s abilities and your skills. To play the game, you must know the abilities and gameplay of each hero. Because in Overwatch without knowing who you are in front of you, you don’t know whether you can compete with them or not and what your component is gonna do.
Ultimates
The game-changer element in the game is the Ultimates. Each hero has their own unique Ultimate, and these Ultimates can enormously change the course of the game if used correctly. When you can use your normal abilities every few seconds, you have to wait for Ultimate abilities to be charged up before usage.
Ultimate charge can accrue slowly on its own, but players can quickly increase it by doing damage or healing their teammates. It’s good for you to win if your Ultimate is ready in every team fight. Since there is no snowball effect in the game, the course of the game can change at any time.
Briefly, Ultimate is the key to winning games in Overwatch. Support heroes’ ultimates are usually on rescuing and protecting players, Tank heroes are usually on engaging or protecting, and Damage heroes are on dealing damage to the opponent, as the name suggests.
Overwatch Map And Game Modes
Another highlight of Overwatch is its maps and different game modes. Overwatch maps are the European, African, American, and Scandinavian countries we all know. There are versions of various cities and countries such as Paris, Japan, Russia, Germany, and more adapted to the game, and they are very detailed and entertaining.
In other words, while you are fighting your enemies in Paris in one game, you can find yourself in the colorful places of Havana in the other game. Overwatch is a game that has developed and made a difference both graphically and thematically.
Apart from that, there are different maps such as a research station on the Moon, maps based on the Overwatch story. Currently, there are 21 different maps in total in the game. Most of the cities have futuristic elements to fit the game’s theme.
There are currently four game modes in Overwatch, with a fifth, Push, on the way in the game’s upcoming sequel, Overwatch 2. Let’s examine these Overwatch game modes together.
Assault
Assault is a type of game where players try to capture two control points on a map in a limited amount of time. Once the offensive team captures both points or runs out of time, the teams switch offense from defense and vice versa. These regions are referred to as “A” and “B.” They first try to capture Point A and then B. To do this, attackers must move defenders away from this checkpoint, i.e., put them on cooldown to kill and respawn.
The percentage of point capture will increase until they come back to defend the point. The team with the most points wins the game. The team with two points wins. If the situation goes 1 to 1, a third overtime match is played. Briefly, the objective on these maps is to attack or defend points. And players choose heroes suitable for being a defensive or offensive team.
Also, the spawn point of defenders and attackers changes each time the capture point changes and becomes farther or closer.
- Assault maps: Hanamura, Volskaya Industries, Paris, Temple of Anubis, and Cologne Lunar Horizon.
Control
In this mode, teams fight to capture a neutral central location and, after capturing, try to keep control. Whichever team has the capture control, the percentage of that team continues to increase until there is no player left from that team. That is, the opposing team must kill every player on the team with the capture control and capture the point.
So, let’s say they destroyed them when the opposing team’s percentage was 70%, this time, their percentage counts, and if the opposing team gets the point again, they will continue at 70%. The round is won when one of the teams reaches 100% progress in capturing an objective.
The first team to win two of the three rounds would win the match.
- Control maps: Nepal, Lijiang Tower, Ilios, Oasis, and Busan.
Escort
In this fun game mode, attackers attempt to move a cart along a defined path by standing on top of it or next to it. And defenders try to stop them from moving that mobile cart, known as payload, at a particular time.
It stops when defenders clear off the attackers or stand next to the payload. Any attacker within range will make the payload move, and having up to three attacking players nearby increases the payload’s movement speed.
There are three checkpoints, and when attackers reach each checkpoint, their respawn points change, and they gain additional time. If the defensive team cannot stop the opposing team until the third point, they lose, and the attackers win.
- Escort maps: Dorado, Havana, Junkertown, Rialto, Route 66, and Observatory: Gibraltar.
Hybrid
This mod is a combination of Assault and Escort. First of all, the match starts with 45 seconds of preparation for the defenders. Attackers have to wait at their spawn points until they take their place. After attackers’ doors are opened, they try to capture a certain point as in Assault mode. Defenders standing ready in that area choose defense-oriented heroes and prevent them from taking over the area.
If they succeed, it’s the defenders’ victory before the game goes to the second stage. But if the attackers capture the first point, the Escort mode kicks in, and the attackers try to move a payload two checkpoints forward. In Assault mode, the area they capture is accepted as a checkpoint, and their respawn points change, and the defenders start the game from behind. If the attackers can advance the payload far enough, they win the game.
- Hybrid maps: Numbani, Hollywood, King’s Row, Eichenwalde, and Blizzard World.
Overwatch Roles And Heroes
Most of the heroes in Overwatch have managed to become quite popular worldwide. For example, you must have heard of the character D.va, she is a famous Korean fighter and singer. The Overwatch squad, which stands out with its character designs and backgrounds, is quite promising.
Also, most of the heroes (non-Robots) come from real-world countries. For example, Widowmaker is French and has many French lines in the game (Ooh La La!), Mei is Chinese, and Hanzo and Genji are from Japan. Details like this make the game more attractive because they speak their native language for most of the game.
Of course, the themes of the characters do not affect the gameplay. There are three roles in the game that you can choose at the beginning. These are Tank, Damage, and Support.
As we said before, you can change your hero whenever you want. But in competitive matches, you have to choose a role before starting the game. So if you started the game as Support, you cannot get a Damage hero or a Tank hero.
In Overwatch, which has 32 heroes, all heroes are playable and easy. If you’re not a ranked grinder, you don’t need to adapt to the meta.
Tank
Like any other game, Tanks are the frontline role that initiates and engages the war. They are physically much larger than others. They have higher health and have many defensive abilities. If a game has no tanks or has a poor tank, it is very difficult to win that game.
- Tanks are divided into two; therefore, two tanks are played in a match. There are tanks that engage, such as Winston, that dive into the opponent and stall them, or tanks like Orisa and Sigma, which stay in the background and protect other vulnerable players with their large shields.
- There are also tanks like Zarya that can protect their team with shields and deal more damage than a Damage hero. Although your popular D.va is a tank hero, she plays as a Damage and is played to eliminate healers on the opposing team.
Tanks are the game’s backbone, so it is recommended to play tanks that perform two different tasks.
Damage
Although it is thought to have the simplest mechanics of the game, all the pressure is placed on Damage (DPS) players when they cannot do their part, which is to kill their opponents. Because of this, Damage is a slightly more challenging role than you might think because most Damage heroes require good shooting.
Most heroes in the game belong to the category of Damage, and Damage is the most preferred role as almost all of these heroes are fun to play.
- Snipers (like Widowmaker and Hanzo) are effective in long-range engagements and can take out an opponent with a single headshot.
- Assassins or flankers (Genji, Sombra, Genji, Echo) sneak up and eliminate their opponents, especially the opposing team’s vulnerable healers and DPS. Apart from these, there are DPS heroes played defensively, Bastion, Torb, Mei.
- And Brawlers like Reaper and Doomfist like close-up fights. Mostly hitscan heroes are played because they are powerful.
Support
And arguably the most critical role of the game, Support. Support determines the fate of a game because in this very fast-paced game, it may take you even 2 seconds to die and Support is the only role that can prevent it in seconds.
- Support heroes protect their allies by healing, shielding, and resurrecting (Only Mercy). Although each Support’s basic abilities have at least one healing, they all have different mechanics.
- In long team matches, the Support hero saves a player from dying hundreds of times. That’s why they’re usually the first to be targeted. But keep in mind that Support heroes can also deal damage.
- A hero named Ana shoots her teammates with her Biotic Rifle to heal them, Mercy uses her magic to heal, and she can resurrect her allies, Brigitte heals her teammates by doing damage to enemies and different mechanics like this.
- When it comes to meta, Support heroes are pretty important. For example, Zenyatta and Baptiste champions, which are played to break the opposing team’s shields, are highly preferred because they both deal damage to the opponent and heal their team.
What Season Is Overwatch On?
If you are wondering what season Overwatch is on, you need to know what Overwatch is first. Unless you’re a regular player of Overwatch, you’re going to miss seasons all the time.
Each new season comes to Overwatch every 3 months. The new season of Overwatch, which is currently in its 31st season, is about to arrive.
What is Overwatch League?
Overwatch has been one of the most seen games in the eSport scene since its debut in 2016. Teams fielded by endemic organizations competed in a tournament circuit primarily run by third-party organizers.
The OWL, which began with 12 teams in its debut season, has grown to 20 teams for 2019 and more with the upcoming years. The league maintains the format of other American sports leagues, with a regular-season followed by a playoff bracket at the end of the season.
Though the structure has evolved slightly throughout the years, several mid-season tournaments are designed to provide frequent matches amongst the league’s best.
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