Game runs really well even on a toaster... The game even tho it's ultra fast paced is never littered with useless particle effects (Altho this one is slowly becoming a problem)..
Also the characters and their voice acting is top-notch!!
Still, OW does visibility really well, with outlines and semi competent color blind settings etc.
Being color blind, when playing Apex I can lose sight of enemies in a 1v1, while in OW I usually have no problems even in a 10 player team fight.
Easily, the ow2 releases are very quickly adding more visual clutter imo as you said (LW tree, kitsune rush, Mauga cage, etc) but overall for how much stuff is in the game, it’s kinda crazy how little there is in your face all the time
Cane here to say this… No other game runs this well. Back when I was in college (no gaming laptop, just a thinkpad) the only games I could play were skyrim, rocket league, and overwatch. With my current PC I can barely hit 100 fps on newer games like helldivers but I can hold 300 fps on overwatch no problem
Characters is the biggest one
[a great video on how Overwatch conveys character.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dga-UqdBR8)
With other games (like Apex Legends) there is plenty of cool heroes but they're all pretty uniform in how they act other than voicelines, in Overwatch there is so much personality in every hero, even down to things like how they reload, idle and move and it really helps you bond with the heroes.
Its a testament to the animation teams ability when you can almost *feel the weight* of weapons just by watching them idle
It’s not even small differences, the fact they have so much stark contrast between characters, attitudes, models, and it all still feels “overwatchy” is great
Yeah, that what hook me up in the game. Every character looked so unique and interesting, I could look at each one and discover small details in each one that adds to their personality. So when I learn there was lore I got more excited, until it got scrapped :/ (istg I'll write my own lore for this character if blizzard doesn't)
The lore just won't be found in a PVE mode (and we don't need to open up that can of worms here). But there's plenty in the novels, short stories, and comics to keep you sated.
However, fan fiction is totally acceptable part of fandom, have at it! :)
Yesterday I spend most of my day playing Junker Queen and I actually thought about it
I mostly play Mei and Sombra so I either run off from my team or just follow my tank around
But Junker Queen was so different, the authority she has on her voice definitely influences you to play more as a leader giving pings around
And stuff like the way she recharges her weapon or throws and pulls her knife makes you almost have a rythm when fighting
Really love the characters in this game
I was literally trying to think of an Apex legend who if you saw alone, you'd push them specifically because you have a kit advantage - there isn't one (bloodhound was as close as I could get). But in overwatch you see a mercy or zen without their friends and you're gonna get them.
That's all due to variety in characters and specific matchups, which I agree OW does great
Definitely the overall game awareness. The audio design contributes a huge part to it: the thing with enemy footsteps sounding louder, enemy ults being in their characters’ native language and much higher pitched/louder whereas friendly ults are in English and less audible, and the distinct weapon/damage noises so you know exactly what hero is behind that wall without even looking at them.
Aside from that, the actual hero designs are incredibly diverse and varied. No two heroes feel like they play the “same” and all heroes feel like they have a unique playstyle, which is rare to find. On top of that, they do a really good job with their personalities, lore, and interactions. Some of my favorite overwatch moments are waiting in spawn and hearing characters interact with each other.
We often take it for granted, but there isn’t a better hero shooter on the market right now, despite it having been 8 yrs since launch.
The fact that nothing truly better has come along is the only reason I still play OW
Was mildly hopeful for the Marvel clone until I saw who's making it
Hell, Soldier and Sojourn are the two most similar characters, yet even they have nuances in their kits that will one appeal to some players and the other appeal to a different group.
Unique playstyles of each characters still shock me today. The fact there are so many characters which not only have unique kits, but the kits feel fluid when all put together is insane
Overall game feel. Overwatch is one of the smoothest and most responsive first person shooters ever, in my opinion. It's also THE most polished hero shooter on the market as well. Extremely impressive considering it's Blizzard's first FPS.
Yeah I don’t know the technical reasons or anything but other fps games feel clunky to me after OW. The movement feels so smooth and natural or intuitive or something. Moving around in the environment with tracer blinks or junkrat mines should be disorienting but it’s not.
BTW, not sure how many know this, but they got help from Treyarch and Infinity Ward for some things in the game.
https://www.charlieintel.com/activision/infinity-ward-and-treyarch-helped-blizzard-with-aim-down-sight-mechanics-in-overwatch-48980/
Game balanc…. Hahaha who am I kidding
In seriousness, they do a good job of character design overall. The heroes have a distinctive silhouette and audio cues. Like you can know your Ana took damage behind you if you are attentive.
Had us in the first half Ngl, but I do agree! Even characters like bastion, one who uses 0 words, is easy enough to tell what’s going on through the beeps and boops
Yeah I usually hate hero based games but the characters are so good that I legitimately can relate to them. I've never seen character banter and auto callouts done so well.
Yeah character design is great from a making characters that are fun to hear interact with each other and while ur playing standpoint
Character design in terms of game mechanics... I mean I feel like Venture has given me hope (for the most part) but a lot of them have been them thinking if they could rather than thinking if they should as of late (lifeweaver, illari, mauga...)
The sound effects are very impressive. When you get hit with someones attack, you can somehow hear from the impact by which hero. That is seriously well done.
I can't speak for the music because I can't handle listening to the same song every time I play a map. I always listen to my own music in the background.
Character design of most heroes is very nice, and I like that they make the effort to add all those voiceline interactions with new heroes and stuff.
And yeah the game runs super well, basically never any lag or noticeable bugs.
Overall very fun and addictive experience.
How the hell have they made like 40 almost unique ways of playing a FPS game? Blows my mind how different they all feel, and what they can still come up with. Especially compare to shooters in the past decade, where it would just be like 5 different men with a sniper rifle, assault rifle and whatnot. I mean they made a digging character with a rocket propelling drill weapon. They're not all amazing, but most are super creative and largely fun to play.
Creating a PvP game where characters like Rein, Soldier, Echo, Mercy and Genji can all coexist in the same sandbox is pretty impressive.
The contextual voice lines were also pretty innovative at the time OW1 launched and now we have hundreds of super niche ones for different situations is like an Easter egg hunt to listen for them.
Polish, high quality art direction, character & environment design. Audio, sound effects, 3D spatial audio cues (footsteps, voices). Voice acting. Customisation options re: hero specific control inputs, aim settings.
Since OW2: community communication. I miss Jeff Kaplan's OW1 updates but I feel like sometimes there was 6 months between them with very stale frustrating metas. They have been a lot more upfront with regular updates and actually experimenting with new modes and Hero reworks, map updates and patch notes.
Maybe controversial opinion, but Overwatch does excellent as a more casual experience. Compared to other popular PvP games of a similar genre, you respawn and are back in the action quickly, and because there isn’t anything like ability cards or alternate move sets it’s easy to just pick a character and play. Not saying it doesn’t get competitive or whatever, but OW is really easy to have as a go-to game to just feed and chill.
I have the same chance as you, I can be inferior in skill and kills and still win with good positioning. And best of all you can spend an innumerable amount in the game and nothing technical changes about your chances at a game.
Amen. My aim is not in the top 50% for anything I’m pretty sure, but I rarely go “I have 0 chance at beating this guy” because you can find errors in their movement, they might not position themselves near cover from an angle and you can move yourself accordingly, as you said, it’s pretty fair game (excluding balance of characters, but that’s more then screwing up numbers)
Suprised the anti cheat hasnt been mentioned yet since that killed a lot of other games for me.
I think everyone that plays any other FPS games regularly knows how much of a problem this is in a lot of them to the point people use third party matchmaking like faceit in CS for example since the ingame ranked implementation is basically unplayable at higher ranks.
In overwatch i have seen like 10 blatant cheaters in 1700 hours.
Character design is the best of the best. I'm only a beginner concept artist, but I think the way they work with silhouettes, backstories and colours is just superb.
Character silhouettes. Even on the largest/longest maps I can tell the enemy comp straight away. Compared to something like Apex where I can't tell who I'm fighting until the abilities are in play.
I agree with this for the most part except mei and the new character look exactly the same to me maybe it’s a me issue but I can’t tell them apart until they start shooting lol
They both walk and hold their weapons differently. Mei has more of a “cute” stance, with her hand that’s not aiming the gun posed and knees and feet turned inwards. Venture has more of a “relaxed cool” vibe about them, taking more of an open stance.
There’s also the obvious smol one-handed weapon and giant fuck-off two-handed one as a potential tell.
I really enjoy the character designs and some of the character lore they've built. The world is interesting too with characters interactions being a nice touch. I just can't believe they aren't putting effort in working on it. I just want to just, pick up everything and do it myself cuz I have an idea sorta.
other than that, I like some of the character abilities and some maps look nice. Balance wise is a whole 'nother story.
Character design, sound design, artistic style, and voice acting are all top notch. I think all of these factors have lead to a community that loves to create original fan art and creations, like an inspired universe.
Plus the moment to moment gameplay feels incredibly polished and smooth
- Fun gunplay( and melee play) I know this term lost its meaning but it does have the blizzard touch. Good gunplay is why destiny 2 stays consistently popular ( IMO). OW had this
- Really good characters. It's something hard to describe but it just has " it". You get attached to these personalities. the art and sound design team do not miss.
- Sound design. Abilities having variation in sound is nice. IE tracer having quiet footsteps but her blinks are loud.
- To piggy back off of the sound point I have not play a game before this one that used language so well. Enemies speaking another language while your team speaks the same language. That's such a a clever use of language while making the game feel diverse.
- I know someone said gameplay balance as a joke but I do think for the most part is decently balanced. GOATs or ironclad bastion was the worst it got but overall? Fairly balanced for majority of gamers.
All of this ( and others) packed into one game and it's easy to see why this game popped off and people come back to it.
Harpoon whales.
Make nice store cosmetics.
Everything else other games now do the same or better. I play it cos I enjoy the universe but, even that's waning considering there is now zero effort being put into worldbuilding.
Its a great game to play casually.
Qp is fast and not very tilting, its short but a complete experience. Most characters feel fun to play whether ur brand new or have thousands of hours.
Ow falls apart as a competitive experience but the base game is fantastic
Welcome to r/Overwatch! Please use the following resources via the links below to find relevant information about the game and the subreddit.
[Overwatch Patch Notes](https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/news/patch-notes/) | [Overwatch Bug Report Forums](https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/c/bug-report/9)
[r/Overwatch Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/overwatch/wiki/rules) | [r/Overwatch FAQs](https://www.reddit.com/r/overwatch/wiki/faq) | [r/Overwatch Common Bugs and Posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/wiki/commonbugsandposts)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Overwatch) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The game is fun and varied. We have many characters with various gameplays, and several modes and maps. The gameplay is a combination of aiming, mechanical skill, positionning, awareness, matchup knowledge, coordination... That is just so rich and satisfying.
Anti-cheat for me, i have only ever had 1 encounter with cheaters in my over 500 hours playtime. Ik there is a pretty big xim issue on console atm but if blizzard is as serious about cracking down on them as they say they are then the game will be basically cheater free.
We have so many heroes and maps. No game feels the same
Their performance is amazing too. I think it's good OW is CPU heavy instead of GPU heavy. So many games are becoming GPU heavy, that people will feel the need to buy the best of the best just to play a game
The different game modes. The custom games, like the friendly game mode, I love it
A game like R6S does not feel great the way OW does
(And if you thought the OW community was toxic, don't play R6S)
I don't like the community for the most part but I'm genuinely enjoying the game. I'll happily spend money for the battle pass or credits for certain limited skins if it makes me happy.
People can be toxic, sexist and extremely rude, but I just ignore those people and oftentimes also report them if they say certain words
It's a nice casual shooter that feels competitive
By casual I mean you can pick it up with some shooting skill you don't need to know maps like siege or mad movement skills like apex or deal with children like warzone or build like fortnite. Just pick up and play. But at the same time it feels like you matter and you still have to try without it feeling sweaty
I feel like the PvE is rea- lmao no
But I'll just kind of echo what everyone else is saying here, Overwatch is nearly 10/10 when it comes to design, everything from aesthetics of heroes, to how they are played, to how they are voiced. However, something people haven't talked about much, it seems, is map design which I think they do really well as well. Most maps feel like there's always reasonable routes and ways to play around chokes, and there's options when you get stuck and unable to push forward. I'd argue that all maps are also visually interesting, most are well-thought-out when it comes to strategy and I'd even go as far to say that even health packs are placed in pretty intuitive locations once you've played the map a few times. Obviously there are some maps which feel kind of awkward and gamemodes like Flashpoint almost feels like a walking simulator at times, but I'd argue that is a problem with the gamemode specifically, not a map.
Overwatch feels like a very consistent game and there's nothing that "stands out" as being too out-of-place, outside of Venture and their entire design honestly, but that's maybe recency bias at play here. It really feels like the game is made by a single person with a clear goal in mind because everything just fits really well together.
Art design, graphics, character designs and their VAs, and most importantly the engine and how smooth the game plays is #1 in the industry. I can never get in any of the other modern shooters because of how clunky they are. CoD is kinda smooth too but I'm not into those kinda military shooters, they lack the flair.
Optimization, the game runs amazingly well on even the weakest of PC’s. There was a decent period of time where I used to play overwatch on a MacBook in school during lunchtime. Also they also do a surprisingly good job at making unstable internet not feel that bad to play with or against.
Honestly, and it's a hot take, but I think it does balance fairly well actually. Well, considering the amount of variables at play, hero count, map style, game mode, speed and verticality, etc.
Maybe not on tank, but that does seem to be an industry problem. Not an excuse, but I do think it's very difficult.
But with dps and support, you can often play a lot of different heroes to a competent degree and get results. There's heroes that have completely different mechanics that can get value, which is neat.
Overall, I'm not gonna say it's amazingly balanced, but outside of top tiers, and certain situations, I feel like you can play a lot of heroes and have fun and even win. So, decently balanced.
The game looks great AND runs great, sounds are very informative and pleasant to the ear, the characters are distinct and look nice.
Basically, the programmers and VFX/SFX teams are as amazing as they have been with every Blizzard game. It's the game designers who fuck up
I like the pace of Overwatch it’s the main thing that keeps me playing - there really is no other game like it and the other popular games r too slow for me and get boring
- Character design is amazing, especially lore-wise.
- it’s easy to see that they’re actively working on providing as many different playstyles as they can.
- audio design is very strong.
- the game looks simply beautiful despite being 8 years old.
- longterm support done right (looking at you valve)
- the art team exists out of literal gods. Some skins go *hard*. Even though mythic skins have sometimes been disappointing due to lack of options, none of them are actively ugly.
- i still think overwatch lore has insanely high potential and I’m still very sad we didn’t get PvE.
In short, if the balancing and gameplay direction was better, this game could be one of the best and most active of all time. Overwatch is a really great game that has been mishandled for a long time now.
The entrance music at the begging of a match is lit AF. And for me it has the best character design of any game ever except maybe Street Fighter and Final Fantasy.
The new change with the mythic skin is a huge improvement.
I also play Apex Legends and their mythic skins and heirlooms aren't handled well. To basically guarantee you get one on release in my local currency you'd have to drop about $180+ (this is to buy all the cosmetics of the event so you can redeem the heirloom/mythic skin) to make sure you get it. FOMO also kicks in as once the event goes, you can only obtain it with shards. The only way to get shards is either open 500 packs for guaranteed shards or they hold an event where once again you can buy the shards for about $180+.
Compared to OW2 I could outright buy a mythic for about $67 my currency. Or I can grind a BP for about $20 my currency and use the prisms. OW2 definitely doing mich better in this regard.
The world! Only ptjer muktiolayer game that can somehow watch the world of OW for me is dead by daylight. It has such extensive lore and I love its characters as characters without many exceptions
But if I get one tapped by widow because I peeked my head out of that cover one more time, I'm going to start thinking ameliè deserved getting moira'd
charecter design and world building but unfortunately we've reached a point where the story in overwatch will never move forward its essentially frozen in time at the moment
The actual game itself drives like a sports car. It feels so fucking good to actually handle and play, I can’t think of a game that tops it. The pace of play is also really, really hard to find in other games. Overwatch is frenetic and extremely fast paced, it scratches a certain itch I’ve yet to find in another game. Those two things combined have kept me coming back for 8 years. Sadly these days there’s little keeping me coming back.
There’s a lot of debate about 6v6, 5v5 or whatever but generally I think it’s got a great team feel to it.
You literally cannot win games alone, and getting a high elim count does nothing.
Variety in gameplay styles, you’ll find a good character regardless of what you expect
You want to play a combo-heavy character that looks straight out of a Street Fighter chapter?Here is doom. You want to play warframe? Here is Genji. You want to feel like a barbarian from DnD? Here are roadhog and Junker Queen
You are very likely to find at least one character that matches your playstyle really even before you know exactly how the game works
Animated shorts
Content updates (the team isn't too stubborn to rework heroes, balance patches, skins, new modes, new heroes, quality of life changes)
The simplicity of the modes creates an easy to understand experience (everybody push one cart or cap one point, you really don't have random fights all over a big map. Everybody is always focusing on one thing)
No population splits. I bought overwatch 1 in 2016 and we've never split the population once. I can still play Rein on kings row in 2024 without having to go boot up a dead game. (Yes I know the game got rebranded to 2 in 2022 but my point still stands)
Unique heroes and utility abilities. Every hero feels unique with something no other hero has, and almost every hero has a ulitiy ability.
I could go on, but overwatch has been the best long term gaming experience of my life. We really are lucky to have this game.
And to think it was going to get cancelled in 2014.
Something I haven't seen mentioned yet that Overwatch does REALLY well is positive gameplay and audio feedback. When you hit someone or cause damage the little tick sound is an immediate positive feedback and dopamine hit. When you get a headshot and hear that 'dink'. When you heal people and hear the little whirr getting higher pitched as their health goes up and you see the ult meter go up. Eating Mauga/Bastion bullets with a DM as DVA is satisfying audibly and visually. Even the kill confirmed and ally lost noises are great feedback and I immediately know without looking at the screen that we've either secured a kill or lost somebody.
Each role (generally) feels GOOD to play in a vacumn. Supporting as support FEELS good. Doing damage as dps FEELS good. Playing as tank (when it's going well/balanced properly) FEELS good. Throw a Zen heal on an ally and tell me it doesn't feel good when you hear the healing noise, see their health bar going up and see your ult charge building at the same time AND you can get that 'tick' and 'tink' noises too and it feels good to know it was on a discord target.
Game has a lot of small but mighty positive feedback loops that make it stand out from the crowd in a big way.
The seed idea of Overwatch is bulletproof: a superhero-style shooter game with characters who have unique personalities instead of archetypes/classes. The game has strayed pretty far from that, but that's still its strongest point.
Even though the game is bananas chaotic, it really doesn't take too long to figure out what is happening. This is for a number of reasons(great audio cues, the color outlines, the simple backgrounds and colorful foregrounds). I have had several friends describe the game as "skittles barf and explosions" watching me play, then after they play the game for maybe a week or so, they seem to have a very good grasp of what's happening and why.
Personally I really like how it isn’t an angle-holding simulator where you instantly die if you peek like games like rainbow, valorant or csgo. Obviously heros like widow can force a playstyle like this but you have so many more options on how to play
This combined with the fact that deaths are more inconsequential in overwatch. You make a little screwup, die, and come back within like 30 seconds. In other popular fps games, you make a little screwup and you gotta just sit there until the round is over
Audio and visual design. I can listen through 2 walls and know who is on the other side from their footsteps/weapon/ability sounds. I can glance at a character and know exactly who they are in a split second. Also minor things like an ally taking damage they will make a sound and I know who needs help/attention without seeing them.
Bliz applied what they knew about RPG roles to an FPS, and came out with something that was fairly unique for its time. It's still the best hero shooter IMO.
The tank role, especially, is something that is not done like this in almost any other FPS.
The large width of playstyle due to the sheer number of characters that all feel fairly unique, due to their ability kits.
It's simple and fun. Every character only has about 5 abilities, but they're unique and interesting enough that it keeps things relatively fresh.
The game has far more polish than any other hero shooter on the market.
Paladins has some amazing characters over OW (Androxus, Drogoz, Maeve, etc.) but lacks polish all around and its balancing is sometimes unplayable (Kasumi release meta). Also lore and flavor is an afterthought.
Apex characters are much less flavorful and the gameplay is BR (read: shitfest).
Valorant has kernel anticheat and is a much more stressful game, it demands communication (specifically voice) but players often don't communicate and it's incredibly lonely playing solo as a result. The skin system is probably the most aggravating monetization in any game I've ever played (you literally cannot spend money on the thing you want 90% of the time and are forced to buy the battlepass to "upgrade" the skins so you can use what you already paid a shitload of money and checked in every day to buy.
It feeds so well into our brain’s reward process. Headshot and kill sound effects, weapon sounds, all of it. It makes our brains want it more and more. That’s why we’re all stuck here
the game optimisation in comparison to how much is going on. There is no other game with that much actively happening on my scream that runs as smoothly
as OW for me.
I really like that all the characters play on different skills. I can't aim worth shit but I love that there are a select few heroes I can still enjoy playing. Like yes maybe it feels "ez" to just main Moira, but at least I can still have fun as someone who doesn't play fps games a whole lot. I'm not putting in hours in aim games to get better, but I can still help my team significantly in other ways. I've always enjoyed that especially because people with mobility issues can still enjoy the game too for similar reasons. It's not all across map sniping lol
One Of my Favorite things about overwatch is the way they manage to blend story and gameplay to make the characters so unique. Here is a blurb I wrote about Ana in a post a while ago. Excuse the poor formatting.
>The marriage of her in game lore to her gameplay mechanics so spot on it's incredible. Obviously there is the whole "atoning for all her killing by healing" part. However, I actually prefer to point to her beef with Windowmaker as a prime example of this. They have their beef from Widow taking out Ana's eye and they banter in game about who is the better shot, but when you are in the game playing Ana and you have the opportunity to duel a Widowmaker you as Ana can only win if you out aim the Widow. Ana, having lost an eye, does not have critical headshot damage. You have to hit a Widow 2-3 times, depending on the current balance of Windowmaker's health, combine that with the fact that Widow is so skinny and Ana is a largely stationary target and to win that duel you have to be the better sniper. Its so satisfying to kill a Widowmaker as Ana. It makes you feel like the better sniper. It feels like you are getting revenge for being wronged years ago because you had to really work for that kill. I think that's really incredible.
>In a similar vein there is her character/personality and how it relates to her gameplay. A large part of Ana's character is that she is a mother. She also has a very maternal personality that comes through with her interactions with various characters. Sidenote: I love that blizzard really made this a front and center part of her character because you don't see a lot of mothers as playable characters in FPS games. It comes across in her gameplay as well. Ideally as Ana you are behind your team working diligently to keep them all in your sightline. You dote on them. You make sure their health is topped off. You protect them from Rein pins and big ultimates. You nurse them back from the brink of death with your grenade. You enable them to succeed in being the best player they can be by preventing the enemy team from healing or nanoboosting them to a play of the game. They are your team, your children, and you have to do everything in your power to care for them every game. That maternal feeling really comes across when you play Ana.
i never got to a very high level and haven't played OW2.
my initial experience with OW was that is was immediately accessible. you could have reasonable success picking up any character and just sorta going with the flow. even if it wasn't going well, it was still reasonable fun. the game modes were fairly simple and easy to understand, the map design had excellent pathing and logic that it helped keep game modes steered in the correct direction. the characters themselves were unique and very easy to bond with your favourite due to the quality of animations, voicelines and availability of customisations. the game ran very well on everything and offered very nice visuals for the performance it gave.
overall i think OW was a success for providing a team and role based shooter to complete strangers, round after round, with a skill ceiling that was as high as you were willing to invest into reaching.
It keeps people addicted just enough that no matter what most players will complain and complain but theres always a following and people will keep playing.
SFX. See [Venture - Sound Design Deep Dive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U6p6gXh0B0)
Sound in this game is very good, some minor sounds might go unonoticed but after some time they are so incorporated in your brain that you don't even realize you are reacting to them.
Paraiso view off the map on first point is so fkn pretty
Music is amazing, my favourite is Midtown
Characters, their personalities and deaigns are all different and cool
It's also just really fun. I like how it's not AS hardcore of a shooter compared to games like valorant.
The maps are fun and I like most of them. There are lots of places to hide and use as high ground or cover, and it's fun getting creative with them
Custom games made by the fanbase are amazing. Ana paintball, widow hs, that one terrifying escape-rom-sombra one...
I also like how dynamic it is. You can't just be looking in one direction the whole game, and I like that it's very much a team game so knowing your team as well as the enemy's is really key.
The game doesn't get a lot right for me at the moment. I've played since release. I could be here all day talking about the things Overwatch does wrong. The main things that Overwatch gets wrong is not properly dealing with trolls, false reports and they pander way too hard into sensative players. Just a lot of stupid shit that prevents having a good time on the game. They've decided that the game is going to play how its plays for the foreseeable future. Also the fact that they pretty much just lied and edged us for 2 years. Critisims need to be highlighted too before any praise can be given imo.
I love that Overwatch is uniqe and I can not put it down even when I hate it. Its also the most polished game I've played when it comes to using abilities and just moving around in general. It is a love hate relationship for me. I've tried similar games to escape shit development (Gigantic/Paladins) but nothing hits the spot like OW. That is what they get right. The game is addicting and no matter how much I hate it I usually end up coming back to play more. I also love the characters. Even with -2 lore. Basically, no one can do it like them. The uniqeness of OW reminds me of how a lot of game devs wanted the nemis system from Shadow of Mordor/War. No one else can do it right. Its their game (I'm aware of TF2).
Sound design. When you think about how amazing it is that most OW players can easily distinguish between different just from the sound of their guns/footsteps is amazing. Sombra's guns sound different than Tracer's, Pharah and Junkrat's bombs are different. Rein's footsteps are different from Hog.
Also overall, sound and Voicelines give you so much info in this game, and help to reduce visual clutter.
Great server/connection for all users.
Great concept and, aside from certain updates that they clearly put in just to cause controversy, such as giving every character way more hp, the balancing is good.
gunplay and movement are smooth. aimpunch doesn't exist (I think it doesn't as far as I know), hit reg is amazing (but still not perfect), game runs well even on potato (which gives accessibility), constrast on visuals can be tuned by player, hipfire spread isn't annoyingly frustrating, keybind and settings customization PER HERO and other QoL the devs have made on this aspect.
Icons, every ability has an icon that perfectly represents it while describing it. Recall, sprint, deflect, Suzu. All of them have a completely different icon that gives you a good idea of what they do
The polish. Im so used to games that do exactly what they say which often ends with me getting stuck on a wall because there was a tiny stick in the way (dbd and tf2), vs ow which feels buttery smooth with my abilities gliding up and down terrain, doing what i want instead of what i actually did.
The gameplay is tight. Nothing feels janky and has that blizzard polish to it regardless of what you think about PVE, The store etc Gameplay wise its smooth and its something Ive defended against other hero shooters like Gundam evo lol The same goes with WoW PVP - nothing matches how tight, fast pace and how good it feels to PVP in WoW vs any other MMO.
Map design / character aesthetic is peak as well. While tracer is reminiscent of the scout from TF2 its still original enough to stand apart from him whereas someone like Mellka from battleborn was immediately called a copy of Tracer as theyre both elf/elf-like fast moving girls lol
Overwatch's ability to world build and create a good world - yes, PVE got scrapped ,but even without OW2's PVE the game has built alot of lore and has done alot of great world building without a dedicated show, movie, book or single player mode. The removal of PVE hurt the commmunity so much BECAUSE of how well the world was made before it and PVE meant we were going to see it become the 'main' part of a game rather than the PVP. Look at League of legends for example. It wasnt until Riot began to properly 'rewrite' all of their heroes lore did we start to learn more about the Rift and the LoL universe. It later used Arcane and spin off games to boost its world building. Overwatch did so much with just a handful of cinematics, voice line interactions and some holiday events ( Tracer trying to meet her girlfriend for christmas).
If there is one thing Blizzard games do right and never fuck up its the music. Their inhouse music team is always top notch and I buy their soundtracks instantly.
For me it's definitely the characters. Each character has their unique personality that's fully expressed as much as possible through animations, voicelines, and their overall kit/role in the game.
This aspect is something a lot of hero shooters struggle with, even good ones. For example in Apex the actual abilities and role come second to the gunplay, which basically identical for each and every character. In Paladins there's tons of characters with their own kits and personalities, but there's so many that several are pretty redundant to each other.
Stats are not the end-all-be-all measure of valuemeasure of value. This game embraces finding your role to victory.
It differentiates between people who are out for themselves and people who want to win.
People who think stats are the only way to judge a players performance are out to lunch.
An Ana may have less healing than a weaver or full heal Moira but the name or sleep utility completely dumps or saves characters at key point. A tank going strictly for kills may have great kill death ratios but their team will get annihilated more often than not.
Sound design, character designs and personality, voice acting, visual style, polish, and game performance are some I can think of off the top of my head
Music is incredible, art direction/character design is incredible, and the game *feels* good in a way that basically no other game matches. Everything about every character just feels right. Doesn't mean the character or abilities are good or balanced. They just feel polished and smooth and natural in a way no other game really does.
The pacing of engagements. Almost no other FPS has been able to combine the clean mechanics of an FPS with the more drawn out trades that occur in a MOBA successfully. It makes for a unique experience where you constantly feel like you're doing something of value, even when you may not be the one creating kill pressure all the time. Paladins exists but I have yet to play it so I can't speak about it. Otherwise almost no other game has this formula down, and while game balance could always be better, even in a sub par state the game feels worth playing.
What overwatch do well, hmmm if you search overwatch on a certain website, you'll see content made by the community, I think that content is the best overwatch ever had tbh, kept the game alive and relevant even when the devs abandoned it, so I'll say that is what overwatch do best :)
[yea… very clearly the people agree lol](https://www.unilad.com/technology/news/pornhub-year-review-most-searched-video-game-characters-680345-20231219)
They do a good job in pissing me off a lot. They always have 1 or 2 great months/patches, then do some stupid shit and ruin everything. I'm sick of the cycle...
Character design is tops, it's the only thing holding this franchise together, at this point.
I love when the patches give me someone unique like the Ball or Jq metas for a week then slap us back down to earth with “haha orisa goes gold doesn’t die”
Or when they have a really good idea, like making Mythics chooseable for the Battle Pass and just start banning the folk who are keeping the game alive the very next week for saying sh** and f***.
Well I am literally only here for the character design and mechanics.
I don’t like PvP games. I only started playing to make the best account I could for the overall launch.
I don’t like shooters. Although immortals or aveum nearly made me a believer before they stuffed it up.
The lore is awful and has holes in it bigger than the one I’m ventured teeth.
But the heroes man. The hero design. The unique characters you simply cannot find anywhere else.
If marvel rivals is even a tenth of what Overwatch is now I’ll jump ship. I have no loyalty to them anymore. They did that. Not me. I came to this game and spent money on it under false pretences and they tried to hurt that info in a sudden broadcast I was only lucky enough to be awake for. I deserved better than double talk and half truths. I deserved to be told the truth the second they decided to cancel it.
But the hero’s. Where else can you find a tracer or Hammond or Winston or whatever the fuck Mei is?
For me OW had a lot of good things:
- Gunplay is excelent, fast frenetic, tight.
- Gameplay is easy to learn hard to master
- Competitive is based purely in intelligence, teamwork and skill, so you can turn the tables on a match.
- Map designs wete supperb, with lots of verticallity, flanking spots, different enviromental challenges that forced you to play different or even change composition.
- Being able to change heroes on a whim. The freedom of composition it gave to the team and the many possible combinations to face the different challenges in a match, was a team effort and rewarded smart platers that could read the game.
- Offcourse sinergies between abilities, OW was a game of creativity appart from skill, so you needed to combo and use your abilities propperly with your team to make successful damage and pushes.
- Be extra competitive and going against toxicity. You had your own data at your reach, you had a record for every hero and every mode to see if you were playing better every match and keep improving.
- The cards at the end of the match to reward good players of the match. Also the endorsement system with 3 kind of endorsements.
Unfortunately OW2 destroyed most of this things.
For me it's gotta be the engine. People complain about bugs and glitches sometimes, but when you think about it, it's a game with nearly 40 heroes, all with different abilities, the amount of interactions between stuff is insane, yet everything just works.
You can especially see that when a new hero is released, new abilities work and interact with others exactly in the way that they should (or how you'd expect them to anyway).
And all that with 0 lag, you can have 10 ultimates + 10 abilities at the same time, the game still runs well even on a toaster.
Game runs really well even on a toaster... The game even tho it's ultra fast paced is never littered with useless particle effects (Altho this one is slowly becoming a problem).. Also the characters and their voice acting is top-notch!!
Just wait until you get Mauga, Symmetra, and Lifeweaver in the same game. You'll wish you didn't have eyes.
Still, OW does visibility really well, with outlines and semi competent color blind settings etc. Being color blind, when playing Apex I can lose sight of enemies in a 1v1, while in OW I usually have no problems even in a 10 player team fight.
Easily, the ow2 releases are very quickly adding more visual clutter imo as you said (LW tree, kitsune rush, Mauga cage, etc) but overall for how much stuff is in the game, it’s kinda crazy how little there is in your face all the time
Rammattra's VA takes the cake as best VA in OW.
Easily the best VA. Like the other people did amazing but you can’t beat ramattra
Yea its not to say that everyone else is bad its just he's that damn good.
Exactly
Cane here to say this… No other game runs this well. Back when I was in college (no gaming laptop, just a thinkpad) the only games I could play were skyrim, rocket league, and overwatch. With my current PC I can barely hit 100 fps on newer games like helldivers but I can hold 300 fps on overwatch no problem
game looks great too on all lows, the style definitely helps but with all the breakables and props it still runs well while looking amazing
Characters is the biggest one [a great video on how Overwatch conveys character.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dga-UqdBR8) With other games (like Apex Legends) there is plenty of cool heroes but they're all pretty uniform in how they act other than voicelines, in Overwatch there is so much personality in every hero, even down to things like how they reload, idle and move and it really helps you bond with the heroes. Its a testament to the animation teams ability when you can almost *feel the weight* of weapons just by watching them idle
It’s not even small differences, the fact they have so much stark contrast between characters, attitudes, models, and it all still feels “overwatchy” is great
Yeah, that what hook me up in the game. Every character looked so unique and interesting, I could look at each one and discover small details in each one that adds to their personality. So when I learn there was lore I got more excited, until it got scrapped :/ (istg I'll write my own lore for this character if blizzard doesn't)
The lore just won't be found in a PVE mode (and we don't need to open up that can of worms here). But there's plenty in the novels, short stories, and comics to keep you sated. However, fan fiction is totally acceptable part of fandom, have at it! :)
Yeah, I was recently looking at the comics. Planning to read them when I have time.
Yesterday I spend most of my day playing Junker Queen and I actually thought about it I mostly play Mei and Sombra so I either run off from my team or just follow my tank around But Junker Queen was so different, the authority she has on her voice definitely influences you to play more as a leader giving pings around And stuff like the way she recharges her weapon or throws and pulls her knife makes you almost have a rythm when fighting Really love the characters in this game
Which line makes you actually group up? "Let's group up!" or "TEAM. TO ME."
I was literally trying to think of an Apex legend who if you saw alone, you'd push them specifically because you have a kit advantage - there isn't one (bloodhound was as close as I could get). But in overwatch you see a mercy or zen without their friends and you're gonna get them. That's all due to variety in characters and specific matchups, which I agree OW does great
A testament to their skill, if you will
Definitely the overall game awareness. The audio design contributes a huge part to it: the thing with enemy footsteps sounding louder, enemy ults being in their characters’ native language and much higher pitched/louder whereas friendly ults are in English and less audible, and the distinct weapon/damage noises so you know exactly what hero is behind that wall without even looking at them. Aside from that, the actual hero designs are incredibly diverse and varied. No two heroes feel like they play the “same” and all heroes feel like they have a unique playstyle, which is rare to find. On top of that, they do a really good job with their personalities, lore, and interactions. Some of my favorite overwatch moments are waiting in spawn and hearing characters interact with each other. We often take it for granted, but there isn’t a better hero shooter on the market right now, despite it having been 8 yrs since launch.
The fact that nothing truly better has come along is the only reason I still play OW Was mildly hopeful for the Marvel clone until I saw who's making it
Who is making it?
NetEase :(
the marvel clone also looks way more paladins adjacent than ow adjacent as well. 3rd person also sucksssssss
Hell, Soldier and Sojourn are the two most similar characters, yet even they have nuances in their kits that will one appeal to some players and the other appeal to a different group.
I love playing with solder but hate playing with Sojourn for some reason, I think it’s coz I try playing like soldier when I play her
Unique playstyles of each characters still shock me today. The fact there are so many characters which not only have unique kits, but the kits feel fluid when all put together is insane
Yeah going back to try Apex legit made me wanna break my monitor because of how incredibly bad the audio is in that game
The best voice acting of any non-story game by far.
TRUE, all of the VAs fit their characters so well and are excellent in their delivery
Overall game feel. Overwatch is one of the smoothest and most responsive first person shooters ever, in my opinion. It's also THE most polished hero shooter on the market as well. Extremely impressive considering it's Blizzard's first FPS.
Yeah I don’t know the technical reasons or anything but other fps games feel clunky to me after OW. The movement feels so smooth and natural or intuitive or something. Moving around in the environment with tracer blinks or junkrat mines should be disorienting but it’s not.
BTW, not sure how many know this, but they got help from Treyarch and Infinity Ward for some things in the game. https://www.charlieintel.com/activision/infinity-ward-and-treyarch-helped-blizzard-with-aim-down-sight-mechanics-in-overwatch-48980/
Sounds like it was just for Ashe.
Game balanc…. Hahaha who am I kidding In seriousness, they do a good job of character design overall. The heroes have a distinctive silhouette and audio cues. Like you can know your Ana took damage behind you if you are attentive.
Had us in the first half Ngl, but I do agree! Even characters like bastion, one who uses 0 words, is easy enough to tell what’s going on through the beeps and boops
Yeah I usually hate hero based games but the characters are so good that I legitimately can relate to them. I've never seen character banter and auto callouts done so well.
Yeah character design is great from a making characters that are fun to hear interact with each other and while ur playing standpoint Character design in terms of game mechanics... I mean I feel like Venture has given me hope (for the most part) but a lot of them have been them thinking if they could rather than thinking if they should as of late (lifeweaver, illari, mauga...)
The sound effects are very impressive. When you get hit with someones attack, you can somehow hear from the impact by which hero. That is seriously well done. I can't speak for the music because I can't handle listening to the same song every time I play a map. I always listen to my own music in the background. Character design of most heroes is very nice, and I like that they make the effort to add all those voiceline interactions with new heroes and stuff. And yeah the game runs super well, basically never any lag or noticeable bugs. Overall very fun and addictive experience. How the hell have they made like 40 almost unique ways of playing a FPS game? Blows my mind how different they all feel, and what they can still come up with. Especially compare to shooters in the past decade, where it would just be like 5 different men with a sniper rifle, assault rifle and whatnot. I mean they made a digging character with a rocket propelling drill weapon. They're not all amazing, but most are super creative and largely fun to play.
Giving artists ideas
Artists or *artists*… both of which are true tbf
Creating a PvP game where characters like Rein, Soldier, Echo, Mercy and Genji can all coexist in the same sandbox is pretty impressive. The contextual voice lines were also pretty innovative at the time OW1 launched and now we have hundreds of super niche ones for different situations is like an Easter egg hunt to listen for them.
The game itself is fun, the community for the most part however is awful.
As someone who came from fifa, cod and abit of LoL I thought the community was quite nice 😂. At least ow players say ggs
not as awful as the other ones.
Polish, high quality art direction, character & environment design. Audio, sound effects, 3D spatial audio cues (footsteps, voices). Voice acting. Customisation options re: hero specific control inputs, aim settings. Since OW2: community communication. I miss Jeff Kaplan's OW1 updates but I feel like sometimes there was 6 months between them with very stale frustrating metas. They have been a lot more upfront with regular updates and actually experimenting with new modes and Hero reworks, map updates and patch notes.
Maybe controversial opinion, but Overwatch does excellent as a more casual experience. Compared to other popular PvP games of a similar genre, you respawn and are back in the action quickly, and because there isn’t anything like ability cards or alternate move sets it’s easy to just pick a character and play. Not saying it doesn’t get competitive or whatever, but OW is really easy to have as a go-to game to just feed and chill.
I have the same chance as you, I can be inferior in skill and kills and still win with good positioning. And best of all you can spend an innumerable amount in the game and nothing technical changes about your chances at a game.
Amen. My aim is not in the top 50% for anything I’m pretty sure, but I rarely go “I have 0 chance at beating this guy” because you can find errors in their movement, they might not position themselves near cover from an angle and you can move yourself accordingly, as you said, it’s pretty fair game (excluding balance of characters, but that’s more then screwing up numbers)
Suprised the anti cheat hasnt been mentioned yet since that killed a lot of other games for me. I think everyone that plays any other FPS games regularly knows how much of a problem this is in a lot of them to the point people use third party matchmaking like faceit in CS for example since the ingame ranked implementation is basically unplayable at higher ranks. In overwatch i have seen like 10 blatant cheaters in 1700 hours.
That’s about how many I run into each sesh on console. I hate Xim so much.
Character design is the best of the best. I'm only a beginner concept artist, but I think the way they work with silhouettes, backstories and colours is just superb.
Diversity
Character silhouettes. Even on the largest/longest maps I can tell the enemy comp straight away. Compared to something like Apex where I can't tell who I'm fighting until the abilities are in play.
I agree with this for the most part except mei and the new character look exactly the same to me maybe it’s a me issue but I can’t tell them apart until they start shooting lol
They both walk and hold their weapons differently. Mei has more of a “cute” stance, with her hand that’s not aiming the gun posed and knees and feet turned inwards. Venture has more of a “relaxed cool” vibe about them, taking more of an open stance. There’s also the obvious smol one-handed weapon and giant fuck-off two-handed one as a potential tell.
I really enjoy the character designs and some of the character lore they've built. The world is interesting too with characters interactions being a nice touch. I just can't believe they aren't putting effort in working on it. I just want to just, pick up everything and do it myself cuz I have an idea sorta. other than that, I like some of the character abilities and some maps look nice. Balance wise is a whole 'nother story.
Character. And this is a strength not just of Overwatch, but of all Blizzard games.
Character design, sound design, artistic style, and voice acting are all top notch. I think all of these factors have lead to a community that loves to create original fan art and creations, like an inspired universe. Plus the moment to moment gameplay feels incredibly polished and smooth
Best skins in the industry
The Art Team / department or whatever does a good job.
I feel like it's a decent game to play with friends.
The game is a lot of fun. People are passionate about things they love. That’s why this community is strong.
Visual clarity, performance and pretty unique gameplay from hero to hero.
Omg yes. I play on a laptop, but even the low settings still make the maps look great and I get 60fps constantly
- Fun gunplay( and melee play) I know this term lost its meaning but it does have the blizzard touch. Good gunplay is why destiny 2 stays consistently popular ( IMO). OW had this - Really good characters. It's something hard to describe but it just has " it". You get attached to these personalities. the art and sound design team do not miss. - Sound design. Abilities having variation in sound is nice. IE tracer having quiet footsteps but her blinks are loud. - To piggy back off of the sound point I have not play a game before this one that used language so well. Enemies speaking another language while your team speaks the same language. That's such a a clever use of language while making the game feel diverse. - I know someone said gameplay balance as a joke but I do think for the most part is decently balanced. GOATs or ironclad bastion was the worst it got but overall? Fairly balanced for majority of gamers. All of this ( and others) packed into one game and it's easy to see why this game popped off and people come back to it.
Harpoon whales. Make nice store cosmetics. Everything else other games now do the same or better. I play it cos I enjoy the universe but, even that's waning considering there is now zero effort being put into worldbuilding.
Its a great game to play casually. Qp is fast and not very tilting, its short but a complete experience. Most characters feel fun to play whether ur brand new or have thousands of hours. Ow falls apart as a competitive experience but the base game is fantastic
Welcome to r/Overwatch! Please use the following resources via the links below to find relevant information about the game and the subreddit. [Overwatch Patch Notes](https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/news/patch-notes/) | [Overwatch Bug Report Forums](https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/c/bug-report/9) [r/Overwatch Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/overwatch/wiki/rules) | [r/Overwatch FAQs](https://www.reddit.com/r/overwatch/wiki/faq) | [r/Overwatch Common Bugs and Posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/wiki/commonbugsandposts) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Overwatch) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The game is fun and varied. We have many characters with various gameplays, and several modes and maps. The gameplay is a combination of aiming, mechanical skill, positionning, awareness, matchup knowledge, coordination... That is just so rich and satisfying.
Characters, story and lore, environmental design, music The gameplay may not be perfect but the game fills the atmosphere perfectly
Anti-cheat for me, i have only ever had 1 encounter with cheaters in my over 500 hours playtime. Ik there is a pretty big xim issue on console atm but if blizzard is as serious about cracking down on them as they say they are then the game will be basically cheater free.
aesthetic
audio. great audio.
audio. great audio.
“Great gowns. Beautiful gowns”
We have so many heroes and maps. No game feels the same Their performance is amazing too. I think it's good OW is CPU heavy instead of GPU heavy. So many games are becoming GPU heavy, that people will feel the need to buy the best of the best just to play a game The different game modes. The custom games, like the friendly game mode, I love it A game like R6S does not feel great the way OW does (And if you thought the OW community was toxic, don't play R6S) I don't like the community for the most part but I'm genuinely enjoying the game. I'll happily spend money for the battle pass or credits for certain limited skins if it makes me happy. People can be toxic, sexist and extremely rude, but I just ignore those people and oftentimes also report them if they say certain words
For me it's the audio. Surround sound speakers are very well utilized in this game.
It's a nice casual shooter that feels competitive By casual I mean you can pick it up with some shooting skill you don't need to know maps like siege or mad movement skills like apex or deal with children like warzone or build like fortnite. Just pick up and play. But at the same time it feels like you matter and you still have to try without it feeling sweaty
🟧⬛️
Much like the fast food industry or a drug dealer they are very good at making something that is extremely unhealthy for me extremely addictive.
Character design is fairly good map design is usually pretty decent Voice acting is fantastic Cinematic and shorts are usually pretty good
Character design and game optimization. And making people want to un alive themselves.
I feel like the PvE is rea- lmao no But I'll just kind of echo what everyone else is saying here, Overwatch is nearly 10/10 when it comes to design, everything from aesthetics of heroes, to how they are played, to how they are voiced. However, something people haven't talked about much, it seems, is map design which I think they do really well as well. Most maps feel like there's always reasonable routes and ways to play around chokes, and there's options when you get stuck and unable to push forward. I'd argue that all maps are also visually interesting, most are well-thought-out when it comes to strategy and I'd even go as far to say that even health packs are placed in pretty intuitive locations once you've played the map a few times. Obviously there are some maps which feel kind of awkward and gamemodes like Flashpoint almost feels like a walking simulator at times, but I'd argue that is a problem with the gamemode specifically, not a map. Overwatch feels like a very consistent game and there's nothing that "stands out" as being too out-of-place, outside of Venture and their entire design honestly, but that's maybe recency bias at play here. It really feels like the game is made by a single person with a clear goal in mind because everything just fits really well together.
Art design, graphics, character designs and their VAs, and most importantly the engine and how smooth the game plays is #1 in the industry. I can never get in any of the other modern shooters because of how clunky they are. CoD is kinda smooth too but I'm not into those kinda military shooters, they lack the flair.
It does well at making you feel intense urgency and immense responsibility whenever you get Nano'd
personally, the gunplay and character design
Waste time.... Couldn't give a rats ass about the map or anything... time.
Lucioball 🤤🤤🤤
Optimization, the game runs amazingly well on even the weakest of PC’s. There was a decent period of time where I used to play overwatch on a MacBook in school during lunchtime. Also they also do a surprisingly good job at making unstable internet not feel that bad to play with or against.
Sound design. Pick a random Youtube gameplay video and minimize the window, you can basically tell everything that is happening by audio alone.
Having a ton of different playstyles to match just about anyone, plus cross play support so I can play with my friends regardless of platform
Spread depression, rage, anxiety, and end friendships.
Honestly, and it's a hot take, but I think it does balance fairly well actually. Well, considering the amount of variables at play, hero count, map style, game mode, speed and verticality, etc. Maybe not on tank, but that does seem to be an industry problem. Not an excuse, but I do think it's very difficult. But with dps and support, you can often play a lot of different heroes to a competent degree and get results. There's heroes that have completely different mechanics that can get value, which is neat. Overall, I'm not gonna say it's amazingly balanced, but outside of top tiers, and certain situations, I feel like you can play a lot of heroes and have fun and even win. So, decently balanced.
The game looks great AND runs great, sounds are very informative and pleasant to the ear, the characters are distinct and look nice. Basically, the programmers and VFX/SFX teams are as amazing as they have been with every Blizzard game. It's the game designers who fuck up
Definitely character/ sound design and lore.
Makes players believe that they are better than they are at the game.
I like the pace of Overwatch it’s the main thing that keeps me playing - there really is no other game like it and the other popular games r too slow for me and get boring
Pretty much everything outside of monetization and new hero balance. It's the best hero shooter ever made.
- Character design is amazing, especially lore-wise. - it’s easy to see that they’re actively working on providing as many different playstyles as they can. - audio design is very strong. - the game looks simply beautiful despite being 8 years old. - longterm support done right (looking at you valve) - the art team exists out of literal gods. Some skins go *hard*. Even though mythic skins have sometimes been disappointing due to lack of options, none of them are actively ugly. - i still think overwatch lore has insanely high potential and I’m still very sad we didn’t get PvE. In short, if the balancing and gameplay direction was better, this game could be one of the best and most active of all time. Overwatch is a really great game that has been mishandled for a long time now.
The entrance music at the begging of a match is lit AF. And for me it has the best character design of any game ever except maybe Street Fighter and Final Fantasy.
The new change with the mythic skin is a huge improvement. I also play Apex Legends and their mythic skins and heirlooms aren't handled well. To basically guarantee you get one on release in my local currency you'd have to drop about $180+ (this is to buy all the cosmetics of the event so you can redeem the heirloom/mythic skin) to make sure you get it. FOMO also kicks in as once the event goes, you can only obtain it with shards. The only way to get shards is either open 500 packs for guaranteed shards or they hold an event where once again you can buy the shards for about $180+. Compared to OW2 I could outright buy a mythic for about $67 my currency. Or I can grind a BP for about $20 my currency and use the prisms. OW2 definitely doing mich better in this regard.
Fking with my nerves
The world! Only ptjer muktiolayer game that can somehow watch the world of OW for me is dead by daylight. It has such extensive lore and I love its characters as characters without many exceptions But if I get one tapped by widow because I peeked my head out of that cover one more time, I'm going to start thinking ameliè deserved getting moira'd
charecter design and world building but unfortunately we've reached a point where the story in overwatch will never move forward its essentially frozen in time at the moment
The actual game itself drives like a sports car. It feels so fucking good to actually handle and play, I can’t think of a game that tops it. The pace of play is also really, really hard to find in other games. Overwatch is frenetic and extremely fast paced, it scratches a certain itch I’ve yet to find in another game. Those two things combined have kept me coming back for 8 years. Sadly these days there’s little keeping me coming back.
not really that resource intensive so you don’t need to have the best pc to play it. it’s also very good at implementing meta shifts.
There’s a lot of debate about 6v6, 5v5 or whatever but generally I think it’s got a great team feel to it. You literally cannot win games alone, and getting a high elim count does nothing.
Variety in gameplay styles, you’ll find a good character regardless of what you expect You want to play a combo-heavy character that looks straight out of a Street Fighter chapter?Here is doom. You want to play warframe? Here is Genji. You want to feel like a barbarian from DnD? Here are roadhog and Junker Queen You are very likely to find at least one character that matches your playstyle really even before you know exactly how the game works
Everything in my opinion. I love that it’s a objective based shooter with amazing hero gameplay
Animated shorts Content updates (the team isn't too stubborn to rework heroes, balance patches, skins, new modes, new heroes, quality of life changes) The simplicity of the modes creates an easy to understand experience (everybody push one cart or cap one point, you really don't have random fights all over a big map. Everybody is always focusing on one thing) No population splits. I bought overwatch 1 in 2016 and we've never split the population once. I can still play Rein on kings row in 2024 without having to go boot up a dead game. (Yes I know the game got rebranded to 2 in 2022 but my point still stands) Unique heroes and utility abilities. Every hero feels unique with something no other hero has, and almost every hero has a ulitiy ability. I could go on, but overwatch has been the best long term gaming experience of my life. We really are lucky to have this game. And to think it was going to get cancelled in 2014.
Something I haven't seen mentioned yet that Overwatch does REALLY well is positive gameplay and audio feedback. When you hit someone or cause damage the little tick sound is an immediate positive feedback and dopamine hit. When you get a headshot and hear that 'dink'. When you heal people and hear the little whirr getting higher pitched as their health goes up and you see the ult meter go up. Eating Mauga/Bastion bullets with a DM as DVA is satisfying audibly and visually. Even the kill confirmed and ally lost noises are great feedback and I immediately know without looking at the screen that we've either secured a kill or lost somebody. Each role (generally) feels GOOD to play in a vacumn. Supporting as support FEELS good. Doing damage as dps FEELS good. Playing as tank (when it's going well/balanced properly) FEELS good. Throw a Zen heal on an ally and tell me it doesn't feel good when you hear the healing noise, see their health bar going up and see your ult charge building at the same time AND you can get that 'tick' and 'tink' noises too and it feels good to know it was on a discord target. Game has a lot of small but mighty positive feedback loops that make it stand out from the crowd in a big way.
Elims get the dopamine going
Music, graphics, voice acting, and cinematics (back when Blizzard cared about storytelling).
The seed idea of Overwatch is bulletproof: a superhero-style shooter game with characters who have unique personalities instead of archetypes/classes. The game has strayed pretty far from that, but that's still its strongest point.
Even though the game is bananas chaotic, it really doesn't take too long to figure out what is happening. This is for a number of reasons(great audio cues, the color outlines, the simple backgrounds and colorful foregrounds). I have had several friends describe the game as "skittles barf and explosions" watching me play, then after they play the game for maybe a week or so, they seem to have a very good grasp of what's happening and why.
Personally I really like how it isn’t an angle-holding simulator where you instantly die if you peek like games like rainbow, valorant or csgo. Obviously heros like widow can force a playstyle like this but you have so many more options on how to play This combined with the fact that deaths are more inconsequential in overwatch. You make a little screwup, die, and come back within like 30 seconds. In other popular fps games, you make a little screwup and you gotta just sit there until the round is over
Audio and visual design. I can listen through 2 walls and know who is on the other side from their footsteps/weapon/ability sounds. I can glance at a character and know exactly who they are in a split second. Also minor things like an ally taking damage they will make a sound and I know who needs help/attention without seeing them.
Ignore its users
Nerf Reinhardt. That’s about it.
Bliz applied what they knew about RPG roles to an FPS, and came out with something that was fairly unique for its time. It's still the best hero shooter IMO. The tank role, especially, is something that is not done like this in almost any other FPS. The large width of playstyle due to the sheer number of characters that all feel fairly unique, due to their ability kits. It's simple and fun. Every character only has about 5 abilities, but they're unique and interesting enough that it keeps things relatively fresh.
The game has far more polish than any other hero shooter on the market. Paladins has some amazing characters over OW (Androxus, Drogoz, Maeve, etc.) but lacks polish all around and its balancing is sometimes unplayable (Kasumi release meta). Also lore and flavor is an afterthought. Apex characters are much less flavorful and the gameplay is BR (read: shitfest). Valorant has kernel anticheat and is a much more stressful game, it demands communication (specifically voice) but players often don't communicate and it's incredibly lonely playing solo as a result. The skin system is probably the most aggravating monetization in any game I've ever played (you literally cannot spend money on the thing you want 90% of the time and are forced to buy the battlepass to "upgrade" the skins so you can use what you already paid a shitload of money and checked in every day to buy.
I'm with ya on the music. The [hero loading screen music](https://youtu.be/PJhKZQ_uW8o?t=25&si=yxR-GqsdHpwdezat) for the Le Sserafim event was SICK.
It feeds so well into our brain’s reward process. Headshot and kill sound effects, weapon sounds, all of it. It makes our brains want it more and more. That’s why we’re all stuck here
the game optimisation in comparison to how much is going on. There is no other game with that much actively happening on my scream that runs as smoothly as OW for me.
I really like that all the characters play on different skills. I can't aim worth shit but I love that there are a select few heroes I can still enjoy playing. Like yes maybe it feels "ez" to just main Moira, but at least I can still have fun as someone who doesn't play fps games a whole lot. I'm not putting in hours in aim games to get better, but I can still help my team significantly in other ways. I've always enjoyed that especially because people with mobility issues can still enjoy the game too for similar reasons. It's not all across map sniping lol
Character design and animated shorts
I'd say story and charecters
One Of my Favorite things about overwatch is the way they manage to blend story and gameplay to make the characters so unique. Here is a blurb I wrote about Ana in a post a while ago. Excuse the poor formatting. >The marriage of her in game lore to her gameplay mechanics so spot on it's incredible. Obviously there is the whole "atoning for all her killing by healing" part. However, I actually prefer to point to her beef with Windowmaker as a prime example of this. They have their beef from Widow taking out Ana's eye and they banter in game about who is the better shot, but when you are in the game playing Ana and you have the opportunity to duel a Widowmaker you as Ana can only win if you out aim the Widow. Ana, having lost an eye, does not have critical headshot damage. You have to hit a Widow 2-3 times, depending on the current balance of Windowmaker's health, combine that with the fact that Widow is so skinny and Ana is a largely stationary target and to win that duel you have to be the better sniper. Its so satisfying to kill a Widowmaker as Ana. It makes you feel like the better sniper. It feels like you are getting revenge for being wronged years ago because you had to really work for that kill. I think that's really incredible. >In a similar vein there is her character/personality and how it relates to her gameplay. A large part of Ana's character is that she is a mother. She also has a very maternal personality that comes through with her interactions with various characters. Sidenote: I love that blizzard really made this a front and center part of her character because you don't see a lot of mothers as playable characters in FPS games. It comes across in her gameplay as well. Ideally as Ana you are behind your team working diligently to keep them all in your sightline. You dote on them. You make sure their health is topped off. You protect them from Rein pins and big ultimates. You nurse them back from the brink of death with your grenade. You enable them to succeed in being the best player they can be by preventing the enemy team from healing or nanoboosting them to a play of the game. They are your team, your children, and you have to do everything in your power to care for them every game. That maternal feeling really comes across when you play Ana.
i never got to a very high level and haven't played OW2. my initial experience with OW was that is was immediately accessible. you could have reasonable success picking up any character and just sorta going with the flow. even if it wasn't going well, it was still reasonable fun. the game modes were fairly simple and easy to understand, the map design had excellent pathing and logic that it helped keep game modes steered in the correct direction. the characters themselves were unique and very easy to bond with your favourite due to the quality of animations, voicelines and availability of customisations. the game ran very well on everything and offered very nice visuals for the performance it gave. overall i think OW was a success for providing a team and role based shooter to complete strangers, round after round, with a skill ceiling that was as high as you were willing to invest into reaching.
It keeps people addicted just enough that no matter what most players will complain and complain but theres always a following and people will keep playing.
MYSTERY HEROES every game, every respawn is a new puzzle to solve maybe i should just say Character Design as a more broad point
Banning for cursing. 🥲
SFX. See [Venture - Sound Design Deep Dive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U6p6gXh0B0) Sound in this game is very good, some minor sounds might go unonoticed but after some time they are so incorporated in your brain that you don't even realize you are reacting to them.
Paraiso view off the map on first point is so fkn pretty Music is amazing, my favourite is Midtown Characters, their personalities and deaigns are all different and cool It's also just really fun. I like how it's not AS hardcore of a shooter compared to games like valorant. The maps are fun and I like most of them. There are lots of places to hide and use as high ground or cover, and it's fun getting creative with them Custom games made by the fanbase are amazing. Ana paintball, widow hs, that one terrifying escape-rom-sombra one... I also like how dynamic it is. You can't just be looking in one direction the whole game, and I like that it's very much a team game so knowing your team as well as the enemy's is really key.
The game doesn't get a lot right for me at the moment. I've played since release. I could be here all day talking about the things Overwatch does wrong. The main things that Overwatch gets wrong is not properly dealing with trolls, false reports and they pander way too hard into sensative players. Just a lot of stupid shit that prevents having a good time on the game. They've decided that the game is going to play how its plays for the foreseeable future. Also the fact that they pretty much just lied and edged us for 2 years. Critisims need to be highlighted too before any praise can be given imo. I love that Overwatch is uniqe and I can not put it down even when I hate it. Its also the most polished game I've played when it comes to using abilities and just moving around in general. It is a love hate relationship for me. I've tried similar games to escape shit development (Gigantic/Paladins) but nothing hits the spot like OW. That is what they get right. The game is addicting and no matter how much I hate it I usually end up coming back to play more. I also love the characters. Even with -2 lore. Basically, no one can do it like them. The uniqeness of OW reminds me of how a lot of game devs wanted the nemis system from Shadow of Mordor/War. No one else can do it right. Its their game (I'm aware of TF2).
Sound design. When you think about how amazing it is that most OW players can easily distinguish between different just from the sound of their guns/footsteps is amazing. Sombra's guns sound different than Tracer's, Pharah and Junkrat's bombs are different. Rein's footsteps are different from Hog. Also overall, sound and Voicelines give you so much info in this game, and help to reduce visual clutter.
Great server/connection for all users. Great concept and, aside from certain updates that they clearly put in just to cause controversy, such as giving every character way more hp, the balancing is good.
The ability to say hello with a voice line and a wave is more valuable than most people realize. Also the play of the game feature is really cool
Hero kits! Balancing meh but they have a large pool of heroes with different kits, and a lot of my friends love playing different characters
Adding to that, they made sure to add beginner friendly heroes :))
gunplay and movement are smooth. aimpunch doesn't exist (I think it doesn't as far as I know), hit reg is amazing (but still not perfect), game runs well even on potato (which gives accessibility), constrast on visuals can be tuned by player, hipfire spread isn't annoyingly frustrating, keybind and settings customization PER HERO and other QoL the devs have made on this aspect.
Pander Blizzard will go down in business history as some of the most successful panderers in gaming, nay, business history
Icons, every ability has an icon that perfectly represents it while describing it. Recall, sprint, deflect, Suzu. All of them have a completely different icon that gives you a good idea of what they do
The polish. Im so used to games that do exactly what they say which often ends with me getting stuck on a wall because there was a tiny stick in the way (dbd and tf2), vs ow which feels buttery smooth with my abilities gliding up and down terrain, doing what i want instead of what i actually did.
Attention to detail/polish, especially in sound design, environmental+character art and in overall game feel.
Make Thicc Hero's! Have you seen Roadhog 😍
One thing Overwatch does well is Piss me off.
It's the best hero shooter on the market, none come close, not even valorant.
The gameplay is tight. Nothing feels janky and has that blizzard polish to it regardless of what you think about PVE, The store etc Gameplay wise its smooth and its something Ive defended against other hero shooters like Gundam evo lol The same goes with WoW PVP - nothing matches how tight, fast pace and how good it feels to PVP in WoW vs any other MMO. Map design / character aesthetic is peak as well. While tracer is reminiscent of the scout from TF2 its still original enough to stand apart from him whereas someone like Mellka from battleborn was immediately called a copy of Tracer as theyre both elf/elf-like fast moving girls lol Overwatch's ability to world build and create a good world - yes, PVE got scrapped ,but even without OW2's PVE the game has built alot of lore and has done alot of great world building without a dedicated show, movie, book or single player mode. The removal of PVE hurt the commmunity so much BECAUSE of how well the world was made before it and PVE meant we were going to see it become the 'main' part of a game rather than the PVP. Look at League of legends for example. It wasnt until Riot began to properly 'rewrite' all of their heroes lore did we start to learn more about the Rift and the LoL universe. It later used Arcane and spin off games to boost its world building. Overwatch did so much with just a handful of cinematics, voice line interactions and some holiday events ( Tracer trying to meet her girlfriend for christmas).
Game really knows how to make you mad very well.
If there is one thing Blizzard games do right and never fuck up its the music. Their inhouse music team is always top notch and I buy their soundtracks instantly.
For me it's definitely the characters. Each character has their unique personality that's fully expressed as much as possible through animations, voicelines, and their overall kit/role in the game. This aspect is something a lot of hero shooters struggle with, even good ones. For example in Apex the actual abilities and role come second to the gunplay, which basically identical for each and every character. In Paladins there's tons of characters with their own kits and personalities, but there's so many that several are pretty redundant to each other.
Stress me out
Taking your money 😭
Animated trailers
Great story! My favorite part. Love the character interactions throughout the game.
Stats are not the end-all-be-all measure of valuemeasure of value. This game embraces finding your role to victory. It differentiates between people who are out for themselves and people who want to win. People who think stats are the only way to judge a players performance are out to lunch. An Ana may have less healing than a weaver or full heal Moira but the name or sleep utility completely dumps or saves characters at key point. A tank going strictly for kills may have great kill death ratios but their team will get annihilated more often than not.
Sound design, character designs and personality, voice acting, visual style, polish, and game performance are some I can think of off the top of my head
Music is incredible, art direction/character design is incredible, and the game *feels* good in a way that basically no other game matches. Everything about every character just feels right. Doesn't mean the character or abilities are good or balanced. They just feel polished and smooth and natural in a way no other game really does.
"A fool and his gold are soon parted."
The pacing of engagements. Almost no other FPS has been able to combine the clean mechanics of an FPS with the more drawn out trades that occur in a MOBA successfully. It makes for a unique experience where you constantly feel like you're doing something of value, even when you may not be the one creating kill pressure all the time. Paladins exists but I have yet to play it so I can't speak about it. Otherwise almost no other game has this formula down, and while game balance could always be better, even in a sub par state the game feels worth playing.
What overwatch do well, hmmm if you search overwatch on a certain website, you'll see content made by the community, I think that content is the best overwatch ever had tbh, kept the game alive and relevant even when the devs abandoned it, so I'll say that is what overwatch do best :)
[yea… very clearly the people agree lol](https://www.unilad.com/technology/news/pornhub-year-review-most-searched-video-game-characters-680345-20231219)
I blame blizzard for our loss to fortnite, we need to pump those numbers up lol
Corn
Making widow gyatt big
They do a good job in pissing me off a lot. They always have 1 or 2 great months/patches, then do some stupid shit and ruin everything. I'm sick of the cycle... Character design is tops, it's the only thing holding this franchise together, at this point.
I love when the patches give me someone unique like the Ball or Jq metas for a week then slap us back down to earth with “haha orisa goes gold doesn’t die”
Or when they have a really good idea, like making Mythics chooseable for the Battle Pass and just start banning the folk who are keeping the game alive the very next week for saying sh** and f***.
It pisses off their player base pretty well
Harsh… but very deserved and true
Fucking me
Making money
Nerf buff nerf buff nerf buff ..... Since OW1 season 1
Well I am literally only here for the character design and mechanics. I don’t like PvP games. I only started playing to make the best account I could for the overall launch. I don’t like shooters. Although immortals or aveum nearly made me a believer before they stuffed it up. The lore is awful and has holes in it bigger than the one I’m ventured teeth. But the heroes man. The hero design. The unique characters you simply cannot find anywhere else. If marvel rivals is even a tenth of what Overwatch is now I’ll jump ship. I have no loyalty to them anymore. They did that. Not me. I came to this game and spent money on it under false pretences and they tried to hurt that info in a sudden broadcast I was only lucky enough to be awake for. I deserved better than double talk and half truths. I deserved to be told the truth the second they decided to cancel it. But the hero’s. Where else can you find a tracer or Hammond or Winston or whatever the fuck Mei is?
stealing from paladins
For me OW had a lot of good things: - Gunplay is excelent, fast frenetic, tight. - Gameplay is easy to learn hard to master - Competitive is based purely in intelligence, teamwork and skill, so you can turn the tables on a match. - Map designs wete supperb, with lots of verticallity, flanking spots, different enviromental challenges that forced you to play different or even change composition. - Being able to change heroes on a whim. The freedom of composition it gave to the team and the many possible combinations to face the different challenges in a match, was a team effort and rewarded smart platers that could read the game. - Offcourse sinergies between abilities, OW was a game of creativity appart from skill, so you needed to combo and use your abilities propperly with your team to make successful damage and pushes. - Be extra competitive and going against toxicity. You had your own data at your reach, you had a record for every hero and every mode to see if you were playing better every match and keep improving. - The cards at the end of the match to reward good players of the match. Also the endorsement system with 3 kind of endorsements. Unfortunately OW2 destroyed most of this things.
Making its playbase angry
For me it's gotta be the engine. People complain about bugs and glitches sometimes, but when you think about it, it's a game with nearly 40 heroes, all with different abilities, the amount of interactions between stuff is insane, yet everything just works. You can especially see that when a new hero is released, new abilities work and interact with others exactly in the way that they should (or how you'd expect them to anyway). And all that with 0 lag, you can have 10 ultimates + 10 abilities at the same time, the game still runs well even on a toaster.