Blizzard’s Overwatch will arrive in a time where the FPS genre is greatly saturated.
How will it stand apart?
We have some thoughts.
The cats out of the bag (or should that be the gorillas out of the pink bubble?
Someone hey get that…) thanks to the bigDay 1 BlizzCon announcement.
Yeah, you heard me right.
Even the graphics ofOverwatchare different than most FPS games.
Theyre light, cartoon-like, very similar to a Pixar movie or the style ofWildStar.
These are characters that are each a little odd.
As geeks, perhaps that lets us identify with them easier.
Blizzards on to something here, and that statement isnt just the still-reminiscent BlizzCon hype speaking.
Blizzards doing a lot of things very right withOverwatch.
Lets look at five examples:
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1.
Dont get me wrongits not the skimpy clothing thats the issue.
Its the lack of other options.
What about different racial options?
90% of games are still stuck with white male protagonists, and its frankly getting a little old.
WithOverwatch, it looks like thats finally changing somewhat.
The main character used to pushOverwatchs advertising campaign thus far is female.
Of the 12 characters we know about, 7 are male and 5 are female.
We also have some diversity in races.
Sure, the diversity could be better, but for Blizzard?
This pop in of diversity is fantastic.
Players who love tanking can actually tank and lead a charge while shielding away bullets.
The goal forOverwatchis to be less twitchy and less reliant on one-shot kills.
Instead, the devs are hoping for strategy and teamwork to play a larger role.
All of this should draw in more fans.
The games also designed aesthetically so you can attract a larger audience.
Even the games cinematics tell a completely different story than most FPS games.
Be a hero is the message told.
Not Slay the world.
Its a bold statement.
But it works because the FPS genre needs something new.
Something thats not a copy and paste, a 7th expansion, or a re-toldHalo.
Even the match size (6 vs. 6) is similar to that in a MOBA.
Class roles are part of the game, but not mandatory necessarily.
Theyre more in place to help players identify with particular characters.
This is a risky move regarding class balance, but hopefully one that will pan out.
Characters also have unique back stories on top of their already-unique characteristics and defining oddities that give them personality.
Hope can be an objective of war just like destruction and peril can be objectives of war.
It all comes down to what reasons the characters have to fight.
Even the grittiest of single player games tends to have a silver lining.
An equivalent of the giraffe scene inThe Last of Us.
There always needs to be that silver lining, that sliver of hope.
Most FPS games may not have that sliver, but its time some do.
Its well past that time.
Hes right, and with hope, we can get there.
Hope is always needed.
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