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Overwatch - Review Thread

Mattenth

Member
It's fine if some reviewers feel this way, but I don't really understand the complaints about grinding for cosmetics. You're not grinding, you're just playing the game normally.

I think it's the pacing. You unlock cosmetic content really slowly for a $40 game ($60 on consoles). It's clear that it's tuned to generate additional monetization.
 

TheYanger

Member
I think it's the pacing. You unlock cosmetic content really slowly for a $40 game ($60 on consoles). It's clear that it's tuned to generate additional monetization.

You do? You cap out at 4 things per 1.5 hours. I actually think it's the PERFECT pace, Every time you look, even at the XP ceiling, you're about to earn another box. Speaking from personal closed beta experience, at least 75% of the time I was about to log off, I'd go 'oh, I'm 80% to a level' and play 1-2 more matches to finish it out and get a box.
 
game-of-thrones-4-05-a-new-king-is-crowned.jpg
 
I don't think I've seen this opinion from anyone yet:

CGMagazine:



Wish I could play Battleborn as a trial to see how it compares to Overwatch. Giant Bomb folks were very critical of Battleborn (including nearly everyone else I've read) and I didn't give it a chance due to already playing so many games.
It's a Very deep MOBA game. I recommend you redbox it. You might be surprised.
 

Arion

Member
A 90+ score for a multiplayer only game is very impressive to be honest. Especially considering the review tax MP only games have to pay for whatever reason.
 

Magnus

Member
This is how half of my games today alone seemed to play out. Great description. Thrilling game:

Game Informer said:
As the clock winds down to zero, you backtrack in time to drop a perfect pulse bomb on the enemy position, blowing apart the greedy robot-turned-turret and his teammate, a slick sniper assassin who was too busy tracking her prey to notice your explosive gift. The game heads into overtime as the payload wagon rests mere inches away from the victory point, but your team has just been annihilated by an enormous magical dragon. Then you hear it: “Heroes never die!” As your one chance, your team’s Mercy hero activates her ultimate ability and brings your entire group back to life for one last stand. After Mei brings a scientifically sound winter to your opponents by freezing them, victory is yours. Moments like these define Overwatch, including amazing victories and last-second defeats. No matter what happens – win or lose – you’re going to have fun.
 
I played the beta, and was blown away by the core gameplay mechanics. Maybe some people are right and the game will end up "overated", though I don't think that's the right term. It might not have enough content in terms of gameplay modes, but the core mechanics are phenomenal. I think that is the most difficult aspect to nail in any game, and Blizzard knocked it out of the park. We'll have to see how it plays out going forward, but the quality of the foundation is far above what most games could hope to achieve.
 

Mugenjin

Member
Wow I would've expected a lower score. Not that I would care but there's bound to be reviews claiming the game doesn't deserve to be full price because it's MP only.
 
I would not have guessed that Blizzard would develop a successful (critically at least) Cooperative FPS just 2 years ago. Crazy how fun this appears for a developer with their background.
 

joecanada

Member
surprised at all the tens already based on this

"I mostly enjoyed my time with Overwatch as it is very easy to pick up and play. The characters are diverse and just as colourful as the levels where battles take place. As a free-to-play title, I’d have no problems with the grinding and micro-transactions, but these mechanics in a feature-lite, full priced title, mar the overall experience for me. Maybe you’re okay with that, but I’m not. No matter how many games do it, I’ll never be okay with it."

the 10/10 people didn't seem to have an issue so it's either become accepted (not by me) or it isn't that prevalent in this game. Will wait for further reviews or LTTP/follow up threads.
 

SirNinja

Member
Agh, now I really wished I played the open beta when it was available. Wonder if there's going to be a Starter Edition down the road so I can actually try it out sometime. Getting strong TF2 vibes from it.
 

oakenhild

Member
Incredible scores so far. I really want to try this out despite being generally awful at competitive multiplayer games.

There's a hero for almost any type of player and skill level. Support heroes are pretty important to winning and the skill cap can be lower on them.
 

daxy

Member
surprised at all the tens already based on this

"I mostly enjoyed my time with Overwatch as it is very easy to pick up and play. The characters are diverse and just as colourful as the levels where battles take place. As a free-to-play title, I’d have no problems with the grinding and micro-transactions, but these mechanics in a feature-lite, full priced title, mar the overall experience for me. Maybe you’re okay with that, but I’m not. No matter how many games do it, I’ll never be okay with it."

the 10/10 people didn't seem to have an issue so it's either become accepted (not by me) or it isn't that prevalent in this game. Will wait for further reviews or LTTP/follow up threads.

All the unlocks are purely cosmetic stuff. Skins, victory poses, sprays, etc. None of them affect gameplay, so it's not as if you're unlocking weapons or something as in CoD. You can't pay for progress. I don't see why it should have an effect on the game's score tbh. It's a nice extra, but not at all relevant to the actual game -- unless the mere existence of them is objectionable to the reviewer as a matter of principle, which I would say is a bit naive in the contemporary videogame environment. There are many issues to be had with some of the microtransaction models out there, but the one used by Overwatch is hardly problematic.
 
No, nobody talks at all actually which is a problem itself. You can learn at your own pace and get into ranked mode, when they release it, for more serious gameplay when you feel ready.

This is the game to get into fps imo.

Okay awesome, will get it
 

meanspartan

Member
The best of games nor the worst of games can avoid the dreaded 8.

So sooo true. Garbage games with metacritics in the 50s or lower will inevitably have some no-name reviewer giving it an 8. On Jim Sterling's recent podcast they opined it could totally be a lesser website wanting to appear on the top of metacritic for attention.

That seems a bit out-there, but I can see why they'd think that.
 
Very nice reviews! Too bad online-shooters are not my thing at all anymore. Too old. :)

If you're worried about being too old for shooters, don't be for this game. Me and all my friends I play with are 30+ years old at this point. During our late teen and early 20's we were all in on things like CS and Battlefield, but for most of the past decade we've been World of Warcraft players. Our skills have atrophied due to age, no doubt, but since we work as a team, we can still consistently do well. We might not have any particularly good snipers, but we understand enough about general gameplay mechanics that we can make things work.
 
I mostly enjoyed my time with Overwatch as it is very easy to pick up and play. The characters are diverse and just as colourful as the levels where battles take place. As a free-to-play title, I’d have no problems with the grinding and micro-transactions, but these mechanics in a feature-lite, full priced title, mar the overall experience for me. Maybe you’re okay with that, but I’m not. No matter how many games do it, I’ll never be okay with it.
Grinding? What? It's all cosmetic. It's meaningless. The gameplay is what matters.

Oh, there's more.
In my 16 hours with the game, I have only earned 430 of the aforementioned currency, which isn’t even half the cost of legendary skins, which go for 1000. I have, however, gotten two legendary skins from loot boxes. 2 down, 82 to go, or around 656 hours of gameplay if I continue to get drops at this same rate. Or, I could buy into the micro-transactions.
...okay? The object of the game is not to collect all the skins.
 
Crazy scores. Well deserved. The game is pretty much perfect.

Only downside is how time just fucking vanishes while you're playing it.

It's scary.
 
the 10/10 people didn't seem to have an issue so it's either become accepted (not by me) or it isn't that prevalent in this game. Will wait for further reviews or LTTP/follow up threads.
Are you there for cosmetics or to play the game?

If these were pay to win features, we'd be making more of a stink, sure. But they're all vanity items.
 
I haven't played it too much, a few hours on the Beta and a few hours tonight, but beyond how cohesive and polished it looks, I love how they managed to make it accessible and yet overwhelming with the large numbers of characters, each with their quirks and an incredible variety of situational synergies.

It works well enough that I'm having fun with random people.
 

TheYanger

Member
For people trying to bring up microtransactions, like that review, either through ignorance, curiosity, or otherwise:

A) The game didn't have anything you could 'buy' at all in the beta. It was still fun. We knew they were going to sell loot crates (they said they were) but they didn't then, and it was stil lfun and rewarding to earn them. Prior to this year, the game didn't have unlocks period. Literally none. No levelling no progression. The game was STILL fun. The basic gameplay hasn't even changed, it's just a fun game.

B) Stop comparing it to F2P titles. There are tons of non-F2P games that have microtransactions in them as ways to just kind of buy extra bullshit. Very few of them have all of said bullshit totally free within the game anyway at a very reasonable rate of acquisition (The cap on XP per level puts it at around 1 box per hour and a half in this game. that's 4 cosmetics every hour and a half).

If the game were ACTUALLY an F2P title, this is how it would work:
Heroes cost either 10 bucks a piece or you can grind 30-40 hours per hero to unlock them with ingame space bucks. You get like 2 heroes for free because fuck your teammates and team comp that's why.
Cosmetics like we get in loot boxes now? Sorry. Cash only. 5 bucks per skin, pay me.

Anyone that can't see the difference between the kind of scheme an actual F2P game uses, and a game that says 'fine, you can buy faster unlocks, and the unlocks don't matter, and they're acquired at a good pace anyway already' are night and day.
 
In case you’re wondering, I think Battleborn is a better game, even though comparing the two is like comparing chess to checkers, sure they might look similar but they play quite differently.

Nothing against Battleborn (I think it's fine), but it's funny that this reviewer made a direct comparison only to go "They are two different games"
 
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