Best Of

You guys, I just finished playing a couple hours of the beta, and it is absolutely superb. This is the same feeling of excitement that I last felt when TF2 was new and fresh. Icrontic is going to LOVE this game.

It's weird for me to admit this, but Team Fortress 2 has been stale for me for years. I still love the game, and it's easily one of my all-time favorite games. But I don't play it anymore, not unless Icrontic is filling the server. And even then, I'm having fun playing and yammering on with friends. There hasn't really been a new gameplay element to TF2 in probably five years that's gotten me excited to play it.

Overwatch feels like the exact evolution of what I'd want from a modern TF2 style game. It's a tight, fast, class-based objective-driven shooter that has quick rounds and nonstop fun. It takes so many notes from TF2 - hell, it downright steals from TF2 in some cases (for instance, "engineer" class can build a turret, and upgrades it with "scrap metal" found on the field by banging it with a hammer). There are classic TF2 style game modes, like push cart and cap/defend. A lot of this feels very familiar, and for me, that's extremely good.

Overwatch innovates in the small things, and those tweaks really make the game stand out. The characters are vibrant and unique, and much like TF2, have wonderful banter amidst themselves during matches. But this game is very much all about these characters and how they change the feeling of matchups. Unlike TF2, the characters classes are divided across 4 MOBA-esque roles. Attackers, tanks, support, builders. Super cool. And every one of them have play styles completely unique to them. You rarely find any attacks or abilities shared between characters. For instance, regarding movement abilities, one character might have a sprint ability, while another has a "blink" warp ability, and another has a "fly" ability that pulls them toward another player. When you mix all these characters together and duke it out on a map, everyone has their own thing going on and the fights feel unique and personal.

The visual language is fantastic, too. It reminds me of pre-hat TF2, where the characters all held very specific character silhouettes so that at immediate glance, you could tell exactly what they were and how to react to them in battle. From attacks, to abilities, to shape, and voice, the characters are truly unique and present the player with a lot of visual information.

One really neat feature that I noticed was that this game doesn't have a scoreboard. Sure, you can pull up a scoreboard, see all the players, who's alive and who's dead, but you don't see names ordered on the board based on their performance. In fact, the only K/D style stats I could see were my own. They don't even show you other player K/D stats at the end of game menus. Since I couldn't look at the board and compare myself teammate against teammate, I noticed that it helped me to relax and not stress about my individual performance. It helps the team work closer together, because topping a scoreboard for your team isn't even an option. You're all in it together, and that freaking rules.

This game is going to be HUGE for Icrontic when it releases. I cannot wait to play it with all of you.

Also, Mercy is best hero, but a Torbjörn is fine, too.

Resplendent.

@primesuspect I'm happy to install this on your PC at ICOK so people can check it out if you're willing. Or any other available ICHQ gaming PC for that matter. You guys will flip out.