Overwatch: Street Fighter II turned First-Person Shooter

Post by Steve Farrelly @ 02:09pm 13/11/14 | 5 Comments

Blizzard's new team-based battleground FPS is drawing a lot of comparisons to games like Team Fortress 2 and Battlecry, and rightly so, but there's a whole other genre and game style it also pulls from, and it's one many may have missed.

We had a chance to take the game for a spin over a few rounds and play around with the various characters and their abilities, but walked away with a different set of games Overwatch is also borrowing (and bolstering) elements from. We also managed to ask Blizzard's Chris Metzen and Jeff Kaplan a few questions while we were there.

Click here for our full look at Overwatch and chat with the Blizzard chaps.

blizzard overwatch chris metzen team fortress 2 battlecry

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Joaby
Posted 05:44pm 13/11/14

I think what needs to be seen yet is how they balance it. Fighting games regularly have banned characters due to balancing issues, but in a team game like this I wonder if that's something they can do. I can't wait to play it.

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 08:30pm 13/11/14

It's so up your alley man, but they need to increase the speed of the characters on-foot

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Eorl
Posted 10:08pm 13/11/14

As with all Blizzard games I will end up trying Overwatch, but I'm still not completely sold. I expect Blizzard quality as usual so it can't all be that bad.

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nachosjustice
Posted 09:52am 14/11/14

I'm with Joaby on the balancing concerns. I love the idea of every character being different, but that surely presents a hell of a headache for balancing the game. That being said, Blizzard are no stranger to balancing asymmetrical stuff: hello there, StarCraft series.

It's also curious to see that developers are creating the same new sub-genre things at the same time. It must be both a kick in the guts and validating. BioWare had some interesting things to say in that regard when it unveiled Shadow Realms, which instantly made people think of Evolve and Fable Legends.

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Dan
Posted 10:10pm 18/11/14

Had a tab open for a week and finally got around to reading this one :).

I guess I agree that perhaps the root genesis of the characters with distinct abilities and styles element might ultimately be traced back to classic fighting games, but I can't imagine that would have had much bearing on the dev process here. A MOBA influence seems more relevant to me.

It's no coincidence we're seeing a bunch of these types of games emerging all at once. Some MOBAs have found huge success and studios willing to experiment have identified an element that can work in other genres -- hero characters in a multiplayer game with distinct abilities and playstyles.

It also happens to be an element that is perfect for free-to-play business model. Give away the game for free with a few playable hero characters and paywall the rest. If Overwatch doesn't end up being f2p, I'll be incredibly surprised (unless heroes are still paywalled and Blizzard's rep lets them get away with a box price anyway).

Going full circle, this model has already been shown to be a good fit for the fighting genre with Killer Instinct.

Now it's coming to FPS and I have no doubt it will be huge. It's going to be interesting to see who has the highest daily active players in a year or two. With their money printing on Dota 2, and experience in multiplayer FPS, you'd have to think Valve has something similar in the works. Team Fortress 3?

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