Best Of

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I in no way shape or form think Overwatch is a bad game. I actually quite like it. That doesn't mean I don't have some problems with it. It's pretty obvious that I play games a little differently than the rest of IC. When I like I game I want to get the most out of it. I want to break it. I want to show I love creating a challenge out of shit. It's why I have close to 5000 hours int TF2. There is a massive amount of depth to a game so simple (I think some of what I am talking about will be shown below), and I wanted to perfect each challenge even though I am not sure I am really there with TF2 yet.

I think that's what made TF2 such a great game it had something for everyone. If you just love getting drunk and shitting around with friend, I know I do, TF2 is great. If you really want to dive deep into game theory and mechanics and coming up with new ways to doing things TF2 also had that. There is no right or wrong way to enjoy games. I am not saying that I am in some way "hardcore" and just better than anyone else because of how I derive enjoyment out of video games. It's just different.

Shit I already have the game preordered. I will enjoy it plenty. I don't think it will ever be a 5k hour game for me. Again THIS DOES NOT MEAN I THINK IT'S BAD. However, I definitely think it could be better.

I will try to explain what I mean by wanting it to be harder. Lot's of TF2 comparisons upcoming because that's what everyone else seems so keen to do.

Movement:

So in Overwatch like TF2 controlling the high ground is an important aspect. In TF2 you have the soldier who dominates the high ground. They have to rocket Jump to actually get there. To actually do this you have to damage yourself. There is a risk reward to this. I can survive better on the ground level getting med packs and the like. However, being up on the high ground I am able to pump more damage at put the other team on their heals since they aren't prepared for it. If they are however I am fucked I self-damaged and one rocket down going into any fight. This is just with a basic Rocket Jump, just to the high ground (think first point Thundermountain). However, I can also use rocket jumps to speed my way to the fight as soon as possible. This requires chaining together a bunch of jumps. THIS IS FUCKING HARD. Look at this shit.

Notice how there has to be multiple rocket jumps in a row.

There is an obvious advantage to getting someplace faster especially in the beginning of a game. Seal shit off and harass. However, you are there in front of your team so you have no back up less ammo and if you're unlucky no health.

I can't iterate enough Rocket Jumps are awesome, fun, and stupidly challenging. I am generally pretty okay at TF2, I fucking suck at rocket jumps. And it's not for lack of trying it's just actually challenging. Look at this other dude doing crazy shit with Rocket Jumps.

So overall, you get increased mobility through some difficult series of actions, and you damage yourself, all for a better height advantage.

In Overwatch there is the tf2 soldier wannabe Pharrah. I hit lshift and I have the high ground, no damage done.

There is also Demo jumping. Demo has to deal more damage to himself than soldier to achieve further jumps but they can do some crazy ass shit.

Junkrat kind of has the same mechanic (actually the most fun I had) with his concussion mines. I can't really tie them together though. So i can use it once to get some place but I may need two of them back to back to get to the actual flank that I am trying to get to. Therefore I just don't have the kind of mobility to really play with some of the strategy I would want. I dunno have it to damage to himself but then be able to tie them together.

Now let's talk about our fast in and out players. Scout and Tracer.

It's no secret I fucking love scout. It's the best class in tf2. There is a substantial risk reward for him. He hits hard and can evade like the dickens. However, each evade takes some "skill" okay so I have two jumps, a regular jump and a crouch jump. I can chain two of them together at a time. I can jump to left than crouch jump-back to the right real fast. Or do two regular jumps in a row. If I fuck up and do a crouch jump i can't do a regular jump back. Just a little challenge. Other classes can also nullify me hard. Say a soldier hits me up into the air. There is now some game theory going on. When should I jump he knows I only have one jump left so if he just waits a second to see which way I jump he can throw a rocket to right where I am going to land. I can take on any class one on one but if I don't get every dodge and every hit against a good soldier or heavy I am dead almost instantly.

All in all the challenge is nice.

Tracer, while not anywhere near as egregious as Pharah, is just a little simpler than scout. I lshift to the left lshift to the right and what not. And as far as I can tell I can't really be nullified in the act. Her going back in time thing also means it's way easier to recover from fucking up.

Let's talk about the engine itself. It seems to hate vertical travel. So, I talked about wanting high ground a lot earlier it's damned important, Blizzard knows that. That's why there's a whole bunch of interesting fun ways to do some Vertical travel. Yet, unless it's a perfectly flat rooftop you can't be on it. The number of times I fell off a slanted roof while trying to fly as Pharah was ridiculous. The engine just seems to force you done on to the ground to fight there. It's kinda boring that way.

Characters that can do too much:

So Blizzard seems to want to create this paradigm where there's one of each kind of Hero for each round. (It's ineffective in general imo) However, the player roles don't seem well defined. Mei for instance. She can control the battlefield with her walls of ice. She can freeze people pretty quickly. She can go invincible and regenerate. Those aren't really bad yet her main's alt fire is also stupidly strong. You can get headshots with it and one shot a lot of people. All in all she can just do too much for it really fit inside this predefined meta Blizzard wants to achieve.

There are also three characters very good at healing others. I don't see why it was necessary to give so many of the other characters their own self heals. Looking at you Bastion, Solider 76, and Roadhog.

The ultimates:

Some ultimates are just too strong and don't really require much to do it. Hanzo's giant ass dragon and Widowmakers ability to give everyone on the team the ability to see through walls. And on a personal level I hate things that have auto aim for you. So, I genuinely dislike soldier 76's and McRee's ults. It's a fucking shooter you should at least have to aim to shoot.

I dunno maybe they should make the ultimate meter thing restart on death, and slightly increase the rate at which it charges.

Aiming and the widowmaker problem:

I have no idea what it is about Overwatch but aiming seems too easy. Like the hit boxes are giant. I swear if you are just in the general vicinity it counts as a hit. I think the players in general all move very slowly on average. Even Tracer when she isn't jetting around appears to move very slowly. This leads to Widowmaker being like the lowest skill capped sniper I have ever played in a game. Every character is incredibly easy to hit, she does an absurd amount of damage for hitting really easy to hit targets, and she can FUCKING SHOW WHERE EVERY CHARACTER IS. I felt legit dirty playing Widowmaker.

The Battle:

This part may change not sure I can't tell at this point. In TF2 the medic can basically control the whole fight. A good Uber can completely stop any attack the other team may be launching. A good Kritz can win an attack. That's why in comp games the medic is the number one target, kill it and the whole momentum swings your way. It doesn't feel like Overwatch really has that kind of lynchpin. Yeah there are healers but the TTK is so low that they aren't really mission critical.

The Maps:

Okay these maps are fucking gorgeous. However, They seem designed to prevent flanking and promote a constant funnel into one direction. Or at least that's what it seems like. Many times I'd got to flank around only for the map to drop off and disappear and force you back into one place. Looking at you Greece map.

I have a few other nitpicky things I don't really care for. Gorgeous game and they are already trying to ruin it with some ugly ass skins.

Sorry if this doesn't read well my head hurts and I don't wanna proof read.

But to answer your question @primesuspect A game can be harder when not just playing better competition but by allowing players to derive their own challenges, faster ways to get places, better places to flanks so and so forth. It is never just 1v1 it's always 1v1vGame. But when you reduce what a lot of complex things would come down to, to 1 button clicks you lose that complexity. The game in turn feels easy.

These are clearly my opinions. I don't particular care if you think I am right or wrong. I am just trying to frame where I am coming from.

//end