Overwatch Review

Where do we start with this one? Well let's begin by expressing our gratitude to Xbox for the code for this game. Right that's that out of the way...

Overwatch has to be frank, not much of a storyline (or so it seems). For those who think Destiny is light on plot, well this game's tale is this, there was a war and a rag tag bunch of guys and girls were lead by a talking ape in power armour. 

The war ended, the good guys were triumphant and then thirty years later trouble flares up again and Overwatch is called back into action once more.

That's it, an Expendables type story line in some ways but it has to be said it's skimpy on details. Were the enemies alien? A bunch of time hopping, dimension slipping mercs? They don't really say, but one can only assume, that pretty much like Overwatch themselves, they were a rag tag bunch!

The one thing that supports the time travel theory is the collection of heroes and heroines that are selectable. There's Creed, a six gun toting, Clint Eastwood clone (or John Marston if you prefer), there's an Eskimo lass called Mai who uses a Smart type freeze gun on her opponents, a Robot called Bastion and a Samurai, who comes complete with a bow & arrow and a sword. 

Thing is two teams can be assembled by the players and you can mix and match them up how you like, and even duplicate characters on both sides so like I said, it's not clear who the good guys are! But when the action is as fast, colourful and full on as this, then who cares?

Bottom line is this, if you want a deep, involving storyline then look elsewhere. If you want long protracted battles then look elsewhere as each test of arms lasts roughly 10 minutes and is divided into sections. If at the end of the 10 minutes there is a tie, then you get a sudden death play off which brings a kind of Rocket League feel to the proceedings.

Why no solo mode?

That's a good question actually. I would have preferred it if they had given us some sort of solo play mode, because well it might make you feel more attuned to the characters in some way. At the moment they are bright and colourful yes, they can deal damage yes, but they lack personality in some ways. Only their profile details give you some idea as to what makes them tick but the game sadly glosses over that.

OK not every game has to have an Elder Scrolls sized tale to back them up, but the lack of characterisation disappoints me in some ways.

Maps/Arenas

Again these support the time travel theory, we go from the back streets of old London town, to 1950's style Hollywood, to a quaint little Italian town that frankly could be in anytime zone, to an oriental setting, and even Egypt.

However the maps are not huge sandbox arenas, they are concise and multilayered, meaning although there's little width as it were, there is plenty of scope for multilevel combat, from street level to rooftops.

You'll soon get used to the map layouts and for a change, you will also soon learn the best shortcuts to take through buildings to get to the next mission objective. Get to know the lay of the land where you can, it all helps amigo.

Loot/plunder

This works differently from games like Borderlands and Destiny. You are awarded a loot box when you level up and they only grant you taunts, skins and spray paint graffiti logo's that says, hey I was here! They can also give you gold, but that only enables you to buy loot box bundles where you can go mad as you like and customise your girls, guys, robots, ninjas and apes to your hearts content. 

There are no ammo or weapon upgrades here, which may disappoint me, but I actually felt it was a somewhat refreshing change. Customisation and upgrading is all well and good, but even for me, I feel it can slow things down from time to time (especially in Destiny). Here you can upgrade as it were, at your leisure, it doesn't urge you on to do it here and now and hit you over the head to remind you that it needs doing.

Music.

Up tempo where needed and variates according to setting, so in Egypt you get those pipes playing, in Japan little bells in the background and accompanying drums, you get the picture. Not a memorable soundtrack but it does it's job.

Visuals

Colourful comic book style presentation, and it has to be said here, there are no limbs flying, no spurts of pixellated gore, so if you want that load up Doom instead. It's family friendly, well teen age upwards really, with no profanity, innuendo to be had so it's good clean, healthy mayhem!

Summary

Like one of our favourite table top RPG games, it's fast, furious, and fun. It doesn't necessarily tax the braincells but co-op play is fun and with the absence of on screen loot drops, it doesn't mean you are left cursing as someone beats you to a weapons upgrade or ammo cache, and that makes a welcome change.

Oh and camping? Not much of an issue here I've found, even with the new DLC character Ana, who is clearly a sniper, camping is not encouraged because if you stay in one spot you will soon find yourself having to play 'catch up' with the rest of your unit.

This is also a factor when you die, and is a minus point against it. There are times when you re-spawn some distance away from your comrades, so you have to run like the clappers to catch them up. Sometimes the fight can end before you can get there, especially in the dying seconds of the match making you feel, 'heck I missed mop up!' which can cost you some XP. 

All in all it's fun. Is it a must buy? CoD players and Destiny players will probably think not. People who like their sessions to be relatively quick without a mission based grind however may find this more appealing. It all depends on what you are looking for and for some time, I admit the coin was up in the air. I say worth getting but the coin almost fell on the side of must buy. Bottom line?

It comes highly recommended.