Meet the Team! Er, Blizzard’s Overwatch Team, That Is
Blizzard, for the first time in thirty-seven years, has announced a brand new IP today. Overwatch is a vibrant 6v6 first-person shooter that walks, admittedly, a very Team Fortress-y line.
It’s got itself an artistic bent that calls Pixar’s style to mind and incorporates unique personalities with class specific traits like healing, flying, and even time bending. You’ll wage colorful warfare across real world locations given a near future makeover like Egypt and London.
Blizzard promises their “easy-to-learn, hard-to-master” design theory will perfectly transfer to the fast paced, trigger happy realm of FPS. They’re not exactly sure how they want to sell it, though – free-to-play is king on PC these days despite the company’s (once) massive success with subscription models. PC is a guaranteed platform; console, not so much at the moment.
The gameplay looks fantastic. Fun and responsive is the foundation of any shooter, and the out there characters paired with their unique abilities could make the experience a blast to revisit. But the zany FPS genre ain’t exactly virgin soil – Team Fortress 2 has enjoyed a cult following since 2007 and Gearbox’s upcoming Battleborn looks to meld MOBA and shooter into one for both PC and console players next year.
If there’s anything that pushes me into Overwatch’s arms, though, it’s this fucking amazingly crafted CG trailer. Sure, I want to play the game. But I want to see a movie based on that trailer even more. Don’t know if that’s what Blizz wants to hear: “Whatever. You’re ripping off Team Fortress. But the studio you got behind that trailer? Goddamn. They deserve 90 minutes of screen time!”