Overwatch (2016)
Overwatch is a 2016 shooter video game made by Blizzard Entertainment and Square Enix.
Two teams of six pick heroes from a roster of soldiers, scientists, tinkerers, and stranger things, then fight over points and payloads on maps set from London to Hanamura. Overwatch is a team-based first-person shooter where every hero plays differently: some soak up hits, some heal, some flank, and winning comes from the mix rather than raw aim. Rounds are fast, comebacks happen, and the colorful cast carries a hopeful world hinted at more in its animated shorts than in the matches themselves. Teamwork tends to beat lone heroics here.
Quick answers
What is Overwatch about?
Two teams of six pick heroes from a roster of soldiers, scientists, tinkerers, and stranger things, then fight over points and payloads on maps set from London to Hanamura. Overwatch is a team-based first-person shooter where every hero plays differently: some soak up hits, some heal, some flank, and winning comes from the mix rather than raw aim. Rounds are fast, comebacks happen, and the colorful cast carries a hopeful world hinted at more in its animated shorts than in the matches themselves. Teamwork tends to beat lone heroics here.
When was Overwatch released?
Overwatch was released on 24 May 2016.
Who made Overwatch?
Overwatch was made by Blizzard Entertainment and Square Enix.
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A few thoughts on Overwatch
The world runs deeper than the maps let on. The art of Overwatch collects the concept work and design behind the heroes and their cities. For a lighter watch in the same competitive-team spirit, Falling Into Your Smile turns pro esports into a romance drama.
First-person shooters with worlds bigger than the firefight
Overwatch hides most of its hopeful world in animated shorts, so these shooters put the story in your hands. Half-Life and Half-Life 2 build dread through level design, BioShock and BioShock Infinite drop you into fallen utopias, and the Portal games turn the shooter into a puzzle.
Cinematic single-player epics to play between matches
Overwatch keeps its narrative thin, so these hand you the character depth it saves for cutscenes. The Witcher 3 and Mass Effect 2 spin long branching sagas, The Last of Us, God of War and Uncharted 4 go for prestige-drama stakes, and Red Dead Redemption 2 sprawls across a dying frontier.
Huge open worlds to lose yourself in
When you want to roam instead of queue, these trade Overwatch's tight maps for open ground. Grand Theft Auto V, San Andreas and Vice City hand over whole cities, Skyrim and Breath of the Wild open entire kingdoms, and Assassin's Creed II climbs Renaissance Italy rooftop by rooftop.