Release Date: 24/05/2016
Played On: Win
Available On: PS4 / Win / XBO
Time Played: 58h
Progress: Level 71
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
I think I might be able to pinpoint the moment when I lost all interest in online multiplayer. Well, maybe not the exact moment, but it would be whenever voice chat became the norm. Back when I played Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, and Quake III religiously, voice chat was the exception and text chat was the rule. Turns out hearing strangers yelling into their low-quality microphone didn't add much to the online gaming experience.
In fact it basically killed all interest I ever had in online gaming. For the next decade or so, the only multiplayer I ever got involved in was at LAN parties, or the best form of multiplayer: local couch multiplayer.
It's always disappointed me that I no longer found online multiplayer enjoyable, as I honestly believe that gaming is made much more fun with friends. Actually, anything is more fun with friends, that's why they're friends. I'm sure I'd rather watch the grass grow with friends a whole lot more than if I did it on my own. So the point is kind of moot, but still explains how disappointed I have been to lose any enthusiasm for online gaming.
It even got to the point where I played online multiplayer games without interacting with any other players. I've played through just about all of the big MMOs, but I've done them all solo. Even games that are supposed to be multiplayer like Payday: The Heist, I've struggled through on my own, because I dislike playing with strangers as much as I do.
In the real world, I don't have a lot of friends who play video games as much as I do, so playing with friends all the time isn't much of an option. Even the ones that do play games either aren't interested in the same games as me, or they already have a group of gamer buddies to play with and there's no room for anyone else.
I don't illustrate this out of self-pity or anything of the like, as these are simply the reasons why I am so reluctant to partake in online multiplayer experiences. Primarily because it always breaks down to whether or not I want to listen to a ten-year-old kid yell racial slurs and homophobic insults at me via their crappy headset mic that constantly distorts and clips. The reality is that I don't think I'm alone in trying to avoid playing with strangers, but unfortunately that is often the only avenue available to me.
Hence why I never tried Overwatch when it was released, and I had every intention of avoiding it forever. That is, until it was bundled into the Humble Monthly Bundle of games, which is incidentally an excellent deal for anyone wanting cheap bundles of quality titles.
I tend to try everything I unlock in a bundle at some point, so Overwatch ended up being no different. I had already seen some friends playing it, so I knew it would probably be decent enough quality-wise, but I was still apprehensive about the online community aspect. Sadly, on both counts I quickly learned that I was correct to make these assumptions.
That is to say that Overwatch deserves all of its praise, as it turned out to be an excellent game that I have since spent a lot of time playing. However, the reality of playing with strangers is still something to be reviled. I mean, in my first game (before I went into settings and turned off all voice-related communications) I had a kid literally yelling at me for not playing my character properly. Oh, and that was after a game we won by the way.
In case anyone is still in the dark, Overwatch is a six-a-side first person multiplayer shooter. There are a number of different mission types, but they all involve two teams fighting each other in order to control an objective within an amount of time.
Actually, one of Overwatch's weaker points is the lack of variety in game types and maps. Once you've played a handful of matches you'll have seen just about everything there is to see in the game. They regularly add and rotate other game types like deathmatch and capture the flag, but at the end of the day you'll no doubt find yourself playing the two main game modes; escort and domination.
Escort tasks the attacking team with escorting a payload from one end of the map to the other. Meanwhile the defenders are there to try and prevent them advancing. It's a simple mode we've seen in other games, but it works well in Overwatch and it's clear that a large part of the game was designed with this game mode in mind.
The domination game type is a basic king-of-the-hill variant, where both teams attack a central location and accumulate points based on how long they are able to keep the enemy team out of the area. Again it feels like this was one of the modes that kicked off the character design, but it still doesn't fit as well as the escort missions, which we'll get into later.
The thing is though, that these two game modes are the only ones that really seem to make sense in Overwatch. Deathmatch is a nightmare and has huge balancing issues, while special seasonal events are gimmicky, and other modes like CTF feel a little forced and out of place. As someone who cut their teeth on old school FPS deathmatches and the like, it seems a little weird that these core game modes are some of the worst in an online multiplayer shooter.
Of course, I'm speaking from the position of someone who has spent most of their time in Overwatch playing random pick-up matches. I've played a couple of games with friends, but I've never played ranked mode or in any configuration that allows for actual teamwork and coordination. Hence, I reserve the right to be wrong about any of these impressions, because I'm sure that the game plays entirely differently when you're working as a complete team and executing strategies and plays that are virtually impossible to coordinate with randoms.
At this point you might be thinking that Overwatch doesn't sound all that different to any of the other multiplayer games that have put me off in the past, and you'd be right. The real genius of Overwatch, and the thing that sets it apart from the rest, is the detail that's been put into the selection of heroes available to play. It's as if Blizzard took some queues from MOBAs and realised that if they filled their hero roster with interesting characters that have different and enjoyable abilities to use, players will have a good time.
These heroes are far from the typical class selections of something like Team Fortress, unless you consider each hero as their own class. Although, Overwatch hasn't strayed too far from the formula, as they still use a 'holy trinity' approach to team composition, and each hero has been labelled as tank, damage, or support.
However, the idea of a good team composition probably hasn't been done much in first-person-shooters before, so the idea of balancing roles is relatively unique to the genre. Most of the time, each team of six players will feature at least one tank and one healer, with the rest filled by damage dealers. This way there's someone to soak up most of the damage from the other team, and someone to keep everyone alive, while everyone else throws all they have at the opposition.
These are just generalisations though, as there are many different team compositions that work in different situations. However, each hero is different enough that often playing with strangers will result in others picking the hero they want to play, instead of the hero that compliments the rest of their team.
It's the catch of having heroes that are so much fun to play and who play so differently. One of my favourite heroes is Mercy, who is a straight up support character with very little offensive abilities. She's arguably the best healer in the game, and can also buff her team's damage output, but her only other weapon is a relatively weak pistol that doesn't do a lot when it comes to offense.
Alternatively, I also like playing Mei, who has a bunch of ice-themed abilities at her disposal. Her primary weapon can freeze enemies in place, or fire icicles at them for damage. She also has the ability to create a huge wall of ice, which can block enemy routes and lines of sight. Plus, Mei's ultimate is an area-of-effect freeze that will stop every enemy in range in their tracks, making them vulnerable to damage. While Mercy is a straight up support character, Mei takes more of a crowd-control role.
Different again is a tanky character like Reinhardt, who has a lot of health, but can only attack with his large melee hammer. His main ability is a large shield that he can deploy in front of his teammates to block all incoming damage. Often you'll see Reinhardt at the front of the pack standing relatively still with his shield out, as his team sits just behind him firing from safety.
Those are just three of the many heroes available in Overwatch, and the rest play just as uniquely. Sombra can turn invisible and rush behind the enemy to capture points, while Widowmaker stays far away with her sniper rifle and ability to see through walls. Torbjorn plants sentry turrets and fires molten metal at the enemy, while D.Va's mech can self-destruct foe a devastating explosion.
Each and every hero feels different to play and has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, which goes a long way to make every match enjoyable. What's more, there are new heroes being added regularly over time, which means there's always a fresh way to play and something new to try. This is perhaps Overwatch's greatest strength, as I find myself playing different heroes depending on what mood I'm in and what sort of experience I'm after. Turns out that having a few choices means that I don't have to put up with the same kind of gameplay every time I jump into a match.
I mentioned earlier that the game modes have clearly been designed with the character compositions in mind, and the examples above should illustrate why heroes might not work in every scenario. For instance, playing Mercy in a deathmatch scenario is virtually suicide, as her only offensive ability is her pistol, which will almost always lose when up against others like Soldier 76's high damage assault rifle.
Additionally, someone like Reinhardt seems pretty useless in a capture the flag scenario. He might have some use as a tank protecting his own flag, but his slow movement and melee weapon wouldn't hold up against someone quick like Tracer, who could blink in and run away before Reinhardt even noticed.
The limited game modes seem to be an unfortunate result of the game's initial design, as it appears to be built as some kind of FPS/MOBA crossover. The downside being that some of the classic FPS game modes are terrible for MOBA heroes who are designed for fighting in a team instead of holding their own against multiple enemies. So while Overwatch works well most of the time, it will probably always be limited to its main match types. At least until someone comes up with another game mode that suits such a mix of characters with obvious and varied strengths and weaknesses.
With all that in mind though, Overwatch quickly managed to draw me back into online multiplayer gaming after so many years of avoiding it in earnest. I suspect that aside from the interesting characters that bring a variety of different gameplay styles, the other factor has been relatively short matches. In fact, there have been many times where I've been stuck in a match with someone who spends the whole time complaining and whining about every little thing, but I know it will be over soon.
It turns out that even with voice-chat turned off entirely, some players will still find a way to air their grievances to everyone else. Happily though, this is something that Blizzard have put a little bit of effort into dealing with, and there are ways to block and mute other players easily. My favourite button in the game is the 'avoid as teammate' button, which will ensure that you're not matched up with a particular player again. It's a great way to filter out toxic players, but for some reason there's a limit to how many people you can block in any given time period.
Considering that just about every match I've played has involved another player who is rude and/or offensive in some way, it's kind of annoying that I can't block everyone I want to. Instead I'm limited to a certain amount every week or so (can't remember the actual number), which is helpful, but annoying when so much of the community is terrible.
I often wonder how responsible developers are for the toxicity of their communities, as I'm kind of torn on the issue. On one hand I know it's a huge task to try and guide the cultural growth of a large online community, but then on the other hand I've seen other developers actively encourage and punish certain behaviours that shape how their players interact with each other. While Blizzard have a few little tools that let you block and mute other players, there isn't a whole lot else available to influence the community's behaviour. Perhaps it's just the result of having such a large population, but it doesn't change the fact that Overwatch is full of salty players who will happily abuse you, even if you played well in their match.
However, as mentioned before, the biggest saving grace for having such an awful community, is that most games are over within about ten minutes or so. It might sound silly, but I suppose I can put up with anything for ten minutes, as I know I'll soon get another chance at having a good time. Compare this to the 2hr+ games of Team Fortress Classic that I used to get involved in, and you can hopefully see how the quality of your teammates doesn't matter so much when you'll be rotating into another team in a measly ten minutes.
So even though Overwatch is far from the perfect online multiplayer experience, there's enough there to keep me interested and mitigate the bits that turn me off. Short matches means I never get all that annoyed with other players, while the variety of heroes means there's always a way to change up the experience and play a different role.
It would be nice to see some old systems implemented to help players like me who never use voice chat in game. I'd love to see a waypoint/ping system implemented, like the one from Unreal Tournament or Tribes, which had a bunch of pre-determined communications that would relay info to the rest of your team. Being able to press a few keystrokes to let everyone know that there's an enemy hiding in a particular section of the map would go a long way to helping strangers coordinate better.
Having said that though, I don't go into a random game of Overwatch thinking that I'll be able to coordinate and work well with my random teammates. Instead I know that there's enough there to keep things entertaining for a quick match every now and then. In fact, playing Overwatch made me think about playing other online multiplayer games and led me to Quake Champions, which I've been playing and enjoying even more.
So I suppose there isn't really a formula to making a game appeal to someone like me, who has a specific list of dislikes when it comes to online experiences. However, some games seem to be getting it right, and I'm always open to having fun in ways I didn't think were possible anymore. If Overwatch is going to do anything worthwhile, then getting me back into online multiplayer games is good enough for me.
If you've been sceptical for similar reasons, then maybe it's worth having a crack after all. Thankfully this is one game that doesn't require that much coordination for a team to have a good time. Unfortunately there's no avoiding toxic people when the internet's involved, but at least it's fairly easy to step around them in Overwatch and focus on having fun.
UPDATE
Thanks to Blizzard’s stance on the 2019 Hong Kong protests, I have made the decision to stop playing any of their games. I have uninstalled Battle.net and will no longer be playing Overwatch, or any other Blizzard/Activision title that is delivered through their proprietary platform.