Overwatch open beta - What are your impressions?

[irish286]

It's fun. But this game is going to stagnate quick. They're going to need to release new characters on a regular basis to keep things interesting.

 

[go-10]

my only complaint is that they allow the same character to be chosen in the same team. Playing against all Reinhardt or Bastion teams while not extremely difficult it's really boring, I pretty much just quit the match when I see it's a clone team, it's not going to be fun playing as or against them.

 

[Weresquirrel]

my only complaint is that they allow the same character to be chosen in the same team. Playing against all Reinhardt or Bastion teams while not extremely difficult it's really boring, I pretty much just quit the match when I see it's a clone team, it's not going to be fun playing as or against them.

I played in an all Winston team earlier. We knew we were destined to lose, but we put up a good fight.

 

[RJ 17]

-Snip-

I'd take buying a game like Overwatch at retail price over the "free-to-play" model Hearthstone has any day. You summed up my thoughts on that game perfectly. As for Overwatch, you actually unlock things at a reasonable pace and have access to everything that actually matters right off the bat. Everything you unlock is aesthetic, so balance is unaffected. As it should be.

My favorite thing about the unlock system is that yeah, you get to thank the RNG Gods for getting skins and animations and such from time to time, but you also get the in-game currency from time to time. So if you're looking for a specific animation/skin/what-have-you, you can save up that in-game currency and to buy a specific item rather than waiting on a blessing from the RNG.

 

[Glongpre]

Genji has a short dash on a cooldown. Without that, I've chased him down with Reinhardt, unless he has a wall to run up handy (fortunately perhaps, I'm still in lower matchmaking tiers, and no one seems to know the maps well enough for that sort of thing to be commonplace). Even as his deflect goes, I just shoot deliberately at the wall next to him to make him use it, then unload after he's defenseless.

I don't know how you compare him to Tracer. Who can teleport basically instantly across half the map, or backwards while healing.

I find that good Genjis are as annoying as tracer. The dash is pretty far, and they always dart in and out of combat. He also has a long primary attack unlike tracer, and a burst really close one. Although it is hard to aim because they are projectiles.
He has a pretty big learning curve I find, I still suck ass with him, I just can't get him to work.

Mcree has the problem of having a job, but being outperformed at it. As a sniper he's outranged by Widowmaker, and outdefensed by anyone with a mobility or heal. As a burst guy, Roadhog has the same trick, with tank hp and healing. Even Lucio can achieve the effect by push gunning a guy while super-speeding around him to avoid the hit and dumping his clip in him (which empties at the same speed, and will also kill with even basic accuracy).

I mean, its the attack class in general that kind of suffers. They gave the Tanks (for the most part) high damage abilities to force people to focus on them, rather then being ignored in favor of squishy targets and useless at their role. Then throwing in some of the Defense guys having huge damage potential (Widowmaker, and Junkrat (since you can throw and detonate his mine as an instakill grenade). Toss in objective based gameplay, and you're mostly team-fighting around a small area. Tanks are soaking damage, defense are shooting back, and support is healing. Attack is theoretically operating outside the pocket, which leaves them without tanks or defense or support healing/shields. Without the ability to get back in the pocket, or self-sustain, they're basically fodder for trades, at best.

Mccree is apparently top tier according to amount played by pros. His pistol is really accurate from a distance. I find his ulti is pretty lacklustre, because of the charge time. Too situational, you really need to use it in open areas behind a Reinhart or something to really have it wipe. Mostly just have to use it on the flank on a couple guys, if they don't turn and kill you first!!
Lucio is really good.

Roadhog certainly doesn't outperform Mccree at dps if that's what you mean. He is Pudge, just in Overwatch form, a pickoff artist.

 

[Adamantium93]

Have been curious about it, but not hyped up. Its a lot of fun, more fun than Team Fortress 2. The wide variety of characters and playstyles is nice.

That said, I'm worried about the future: will the limited objectives and maps eventually get boring? I think more objective variety wouldn't go amiss here, and maybe even more heroes somewhere down the line. For the price of a full game, its just a little too thin at present. That said, it is still in beta, so we'll see how it goes.

I also disagree with "Play of the Game", because it often goes to the person who did an insane amount of damage that one time, meaning that support characters are almost never on it even though we know that Reaper who pulled off his ult in the middle of the enemy team would have been dead if there wasn't a Mercy on a nearby roof healing him.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I originally didn't care, and didn't even plan on trying out the Beta.

Then I said "why not" and I just played it a bit yesterday night and this morning. I like it. I like it a LOT.

Sadly, the beta is ending and I won't have time to play with my friends until it comes out in like 2 weeks, at which point summer classes will be full-on-insane. ;_;

Basically, it feel like TF2, but with Superheroes instead of psychotic mercenary humans.

Even though I'm really not that into online multiplayer games, I'm probably going to drop my birthday money on this, as it's pretty damn good.


Have you pre-ordered?

No YET, but I might by the time the day is up.

Do you find the price reasonable?

39 bucks? Eh, sure.

What do you like or dislike about the game?

Like: The characters all have their own unique style to them. Also, I LOVE that "play of the game" thing after each match. Seeing yourself wiping the floor with 5 people with one ult, or seeing your friend jump in at the last second with a full-team-revive, clinching the match, is AMAZING.

Dislike: Due to how important team composition is, it's hard to get the character you want unless you want to gimp the team. That and if someone's not doing their job right, things can do south INSANELY fast. In fact, sometimes so much crap is going on that I'm just firing at random, hoping to hit something hostile. That and as much as I wanna play Tracer (I love time-bender characters), she's REALLY freakin' hard to use. I'm going to stick with the Cowboy and the Fat Pig Guy.

(At what pricepoint would you consider buying the game)

40 bucks is juuuust reasonable for me.
30 would be an instant buy.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Speaking of Reaper, the attack heroes seem to be a tad over-squishy for the mobile ranging role. Not Reaper himself, who has a teleport ability that lets him go sniper, and a potent defensive/movement ability. But Genji and Mcree especially seem to lack in defensive options to really hold their own in a gunfight. Both rely on abilities that give them a tiny window of defense, not really enough to make an escape. Genjis isn't even functionaly against various heroes that don't use bullets. Compared to Tracer just warping out (and potentially healing completely), Reaper becoming invulnerable and flying off at boosted speed, or even 6's not-spectacular but basically effective sprint and self-healing, they feel like they're hung out to dry when the bullets start flying.

Honestly, I feel like McCree is more of a defensive hero to play. The guy is a hard counter to a lot of squishy offensive champions who rely on flanking and hitting hard at close range like Tracer, Genji, and Reaper. Just tag them with your flashbang to stun and Fan the Hammer does the rest. They're almost always dead before they can escape.

Besides, your revolver has such a long effective range, you can hang back and plink away at the team until an enemy makes the mistake of getting into Flashbang range.

I don't know about Genji, though. I'm no good at him, so I don't ever play him.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

I can only give an incredible "meh". It has a lovely look and Tracer is probably one of the most likeable characters Blizzard has ever made, but the game is just bland.

Unless you play in a full team everything is just even more chaos than your average Moba - and even those are usually very chaotic even in Diamond leagues.
And most combatants just don't feel unqiue alot. Sofar i've to say TF2 still does it best.
In Tf2 you've 9 dudes, doing diffrent things so it works. In OW you've 3-4 characters basically doing the exact same thing, so they're sitting ontop of each other.

I just have a question: Will OW be Buy2play or Free2play? Because if it's the former i'd recommend people playin' either TF2 or Tribes, because neither Battleborn nor OW are worth a fullprice game for basically a reskin-mod on the exact same thing.

 

[Frankster]

I had a fun enough time that I'd consider getting this when it comes on sale.

Favorite overall character: Pharah. She certainly isn't my best character, I'm a horribly average Pharah that gets easily gunned down once discovered and good Widow players destroy me despite Pharah apparently countering them but I love the whole flying around and flanking mind set and love her design both for her looks and for her character with her mannerisms and demeanor, spent all credits earned in loot boxes to unlock goodies for her xD Strongly considering having a Pharah gif as avatar pic if I can figure out how to. Had tons of fun playing as her and biggest reason I'd want to buy Overwatch at some point.

Regarding other characters, as someone who gravitates towards supports, Overwatch has kept me super busy and I alternate between having Mercy and Lucio as my main depending on team makeup and situation.
As someone who played a lot of engineer in tf2 though I don't enjoy the dwarf builder as much as I'd have thought, simply because it feels like a step down from tf2 in that you can "only" build a turret with 2 levels, 3rd if you have your ulti but other then knowing good spots to build then I don't feel like there's a big skill ceiling with him and no chance to really shine with a flashy play even when you do well. The one time I got end of match highlight with this character it was just 5-6 seconds of me repairing a turret whilst in ulti form then firing a bit and accidentally killing an enemy, totally MLG material.

Normally enjoy playing tanks as view it as part of the support role (aka being the glue that enable rest of team to survive and get kills), but I suck hard with them in this game and being a horrible tank seems more detrimental to your team then being a so-so pharah or support because you have other people relying on you to cover them but you don't and then get horrible sensation of letting down everyone

Heroes/things I found annoying:
-Genji. A bit like that ninja from Dirty Bomb, this is an annoying character who is all about melee in a game with otherwise ranged characters. Except he is super duper fast and mobile and also has great range, those shruikens are nasty and can act like a mini Tracer by constantly shuffling around you and poking with them.
Doesn't help that every single game I've been in when there was some dude twice the level of anyone else in the game (so lvl40+ in a game when everyone else is sub 20), they always seem to go this dude..

-Bastion. The setup time to become turret is far too short considering how much dakka it gets.
*me as a Pharah soaring and gazing above the chaos of a contested capture point* Ok should I focus on..Their Widowmaker, their supports or just spam rockets at objective to make it harder for the enemy to move around? Wait is that a Bastion? Oh fuuu it's setting up, evasive actio--*dead followed by deaths of team mates* I don't mind how killy he is, but he setups far too quickly for what he does. Once in turret mode you can kill anything at any range in the space of seconds and are tanky enough to survive some light focus fire.

-Eva's self destruct. If the Eva player know what they are doing then you simply won't see it coming even if you know it's on its way. It'll come via rocket jump and over a piece of terrain and the radius on that thing is insane.

 

[VincentRollsRoyce]

It is indeed incredible.

But if I was fully honest with myself - it felt like I was playing Team Fortress 2 all over again. Just with new enhancements and characters and "real" locations.

Did anyone else get this vibe? Or am I just crazy and can't see that Overwatch is entirely different?

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Damn, I didn't expect the response to be this overwhelmingly positive. I am turned off by the $40 price tag, but given the reviews it might be worth looking into.

I hear that there aren't a lot of people playing support. I love support, it's a strong contender for my favorite role. Are people not playing support because the support classes aren't fun, or just because people generally don't like playing support?

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I absolutely suck at the game.

And I couldn't be happier that I bought it. I'm just having fun. Pure, unrelenting fun. That's all anyone can ask for.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Having had some more Overwatch gameplay experience, I have a few more thoughts to add.

The tank class needs a balancing pass, badly. Right now, the only two tanks that are worthwhile are Reinhardt and Winston, the former because he's far better at soaking damage and protecting teammates than any other champion, and the latter because his weapon ignores Reinhardt's shield. D.Va has very niche use in dealing with turrets (and is almost useless otherwise), Zarya is simply outclassed by Winston and Reinhardt, and Roadhog is terrible at his designated role. He can land a clutch hook on an ulting Reaper or something, but more often than not, the Roadhog player simply throws hooks at the Reinhardt's shield and barely contributes outside of a few odd kills and maybe pushing the enemy team off of an objective once or twice. Basically: if you're not playing Reinhardt or Winston on your team, you're doing it wrong.

Support characters could use a balancing pass as well. Symmetra has tons of utility, but she has difficulty using it with her severely limited offensive capabilities. She basically has to set up a network of sentry turrets and hope that someone wanders into it. If she wants to do any kind of damage, she has to put herself in harm's way, and that's not how a support champion should work. If Symmetra can't heal outside of her tiny little shield, she needs to be able to charge her ultimate faster than she does.

And then there's Zenyatta. This guy basically trades his utility for damage, which means that he sucks at everything. A well-played Zenyatta can be devastating, but it is really, really, really hard to play him well and the loss of utility means your team suffers for it. His piddly little heal and his debuff just aren't good enough for him to fulfill the support role while his ultimate (which is awesome, however) is down. There's very little reason to play him when Mercy and Lucio have so much more utility than him.

These, however, are the only really glaring flaws in the game's balance. Offensive characters all have their own uses, and the defensive characters are all worth playing. The game's tanks and supports, however, need a lot of work before the game launches.

 

[soufiria]

Having had some more Overwatch gameplay experience, I have a few more thoughts to add.

The tank class needs a balancing pass, badly. Right now, the only two tanks that are worthwhile are Reinhardt and Winston, the former because he's far better at soaking damage and protecting teammates than any other champion, and the latter because his weapon ignores Reinhardt's shield. D.Va has very niche use in dealing with turrets (and is almost useless otherwise), Zarya is simply outclassed by Winston and Reinhardt, and Roadhog is terrible at his designated role. He can land a clutch hook on an ulting Reaper or something, but more often than not, the Roadhog player simply throws hooks at the Reinhardt's shield and barely contributes outside of a few odd kills and maybe pushing the enemy team off of an objective once or twice. Basically: if you're not playing Reinhardt or Winston on your team, you're doing it wrong.

Support characters could use a balancing pass as well. Symmetra has tons of utility, but she has difficulty using it with her severely limited offensive capabilities. She basically has to set up a network of sentry turrets and hope that someone wanders into it. If she wants to do any kind of damage, she has to put herself in harm's way, and that's not how a support champion should work. If Symmetra can't heal outside of her tiny little shield, she needs to be able to charge her ultimate faster than she does.

And then there's Zenyatta. This guy basically trades his utility for damage, which means that he sucks at everything. A well-played Zenyatta can be devastating, but it is really, really, really hard to play him well and the loss of utility means your team suffers for it. His piddly little heal and his debuff just aren't good enough for him to fulfill the support role while his ultimate (which is awesome, however) is down. There's very little reason to play him when Mercy and Lucio have so much more utility than him.

These, however, are the only really glaring flaws in the game's balance. Offensive characters all have their own uses, and the defensive characters are all worth playing. The game's tanks and supports, however, need a lot of work before the game launches.

Having played the Open Beta for a few days and playing with most of the characters, I can say I agree with the Tanks needing a huge balance upgrade. However, I do feel like maybe the issue might be that some characters are being classified as tanks when they're not, specifically D.va and Roadhog. I feel like D.va and Roadhog need to be in their own class separate from tanks, as they feel more like what LoL refers to as Bruisers. They're great when they can get up in your face, especially towards the squishier characters that like to hide up in sniper's nests or behind the enemy team.

I played D.va more than Roadhog, and I can firmly say that anytime a Widowmaker was on the enemy team I was practically their worst nightmare. Her shield which blocks all incoming frontal damage and remains activated even while you're boosting, so you can activate the shield, boost to Widowmaker and there's nothing she can do about it since she can't do any damage as you charge her, and you out damage her easily once you're in her face. Her traps basically do nothing to the mech. The same goes for Hanzo, Junkrat, and even Pharah, though firing in bursts and then moving around to dodge Junkrats and Pharah's explosives is probably advised. She has some trouble against Tobjorn, but you can usually kill him before he kills you provided he's not ulting. His turret might be able to take out the mech, but he'll be dead and I usually found it pretty easy to run away from the turret or finish it off after her mech is destroyed. Then of course you've got her ult, which if it doesn't kill anyone will at least send the enemy team scrambling if you've positioned it right, and basically gives you a reset to your life bar(as you spawn a new mech once it explodes). Her true counters are probably Bastion and Mei, but that's where I'd pick Roadhog.

Roadhog again is someone who excels at putting people out of position and getting in someone's face to be effective. However rather than going to them like D.va, she brings them to him with his hook. A good hook on a Mei or Bastion is basically a one hit kill, as you force Bastion into the center of your team for them to wail on him(especially when he's in turret form) and you can stop Mei from focusing down someone by bringing her to you and basically pumping her full of shots(since it's also really easy to time your hook for when her ability that makes her stationary and immune to damage ends.) His self heal allows him to charge through to the back line and push people out of position(especially when helped by a Mercy or Zanyata), and his ult again, even if it doesn't kill anyone, will send the enemy team scrambling as they try to get out of the way. His hook again can also put someone out of their ult, especially someone like Pharah or Reaper.

The problem is that these two play styles are....not really the play styles of a tank. Yes, they can take a hit, but both of them have laughable damage resistance compared to Winston or REinhardt(Or even Zarya who can shield herself), and they don't have any way to support or take damage for their team with the exception of D.va's front shield, which really is then only good for stopping something like a Pharah or Reaper ult, as I think ults which can specifically target a character can't be stopped by something like D.va's shield(at least I never noticed it stopping them), nor can Hanzo's ult be stopped by it, since it attacks from all sides technically I think. Also, as stated, they're not great at taking damage, at least not from a whole team. From a single target yes, which is why they excel so well at disrupting someone out of their zone or area. Even if Roadhog has a ton of HP he has no way to actually block the damage, simply sustain through it if possible, and D.va's got a huge critical hit box in the front of her mech, even though she has the most armor in the game(The yellow bars, which are stated to take less damage from attacks than normal HP). As stated, they don't feel like or even play like tanks, they're something else entirely and I think Blizzard is doing them a disservice by trying to put them into roles that they just frankly don't feel like they belong in. I don't know what kind of role I'd call them, but I wouldn't call them tanks.

 

[WonkyWarmaiden]

I wasn't interested in playing Overwatch because I've never really liked any games put out by Blizzard but I eventually decided to try out the beta and holy fuck am I glad I did. Overwatch is great, it's quick, it's gorgeous and I haven't had this much fun with a shooter in a long time. Soldier 76 is the main character I play but I also really enjoy Pharah and a few others.

I only had one game that I was looking forward to this year and that's Dishonored 2 but after playing the Overwatch beta I definitely want to buy it when the full game releases.

 

[The Madman]

D.Va has very niche use in dealing with turrets (and is almost useless otherwise)

Having been playing D.Va a lot in the past few days, I think the major mistake a lot of people make with D.Va is thinking of her as a tank in the same light as Reinhardt or Winston. She's not a straight up bruiser, she has neither the durability nor the damage for it. What she does excel at however is disrupting the enemy team either by attacking from the sides or via her ult.

When I'm playing at my best I tend to zoom around the map a lot, picking off enemy stragglers before attacking their team from an unexpected direction and causing enough mayhem while doing so for the rest of my team to wipe them out. And while the dream is obviously wiping the enemy team with her ult, in reality is far more consistently useful for zoning the enemy team to or away from where you want them. Are they bunkered up hardcore on defense? Then one ult will send them all either scrambling or dying as you team (hopefully) takes the opportunity to push past the now scattered team.

Honestly I find her ridiculously fun to play. She's surprisingly turned out to be probably my favourite character so far, despite the fact she's not really the sort of character I'd normally play.

 

[Zhukov]

Having had some more Overwatch gameplay experience, I have a few more thoughts to add.

I agree that Reinhardt is the best at straight up damage soaking. I mean, it's his job. I imagine you'd always want one on an offensive team if you were playing seriously.


However, I disagree on Roadhog, Zarya and DVa. They're not hard tanks, they're more like brawlers. You'd want one of them in addition to a hard tank, not instead of.

Roadhog is great defensively for his ability to snatch key enemies out place and one-shot them. (If you're throwing your hook at a Reinhardt shield then you're doing it very, very wrong.) His hook has a low cooldown and counters many enemy ults, including Mcree, Reaper and Pharah. It will also pull a Bastion out of turret mode. Also he can deal shotgun damage out to medium range with his alt fire. Plus, while he can't tank in a sustained manner like Reinhardt he can soak up bursts of damage then pop around a corner, use his massive heal and be back on the firing line way faster than a Reinhardt shield can regenerate or even a Mercy can heal. His ult, which has a low cooldwon, can clear a point single handed or blunt an enemy push.

I usually rack up kills like crazy as Roadhog, "on fire" for most of the round. Frequently top of the team in raw damage as well.

Zarya is really good at dipping in and out of combat thanks to her regenerating shield ("blue health") and her forcefield. With correctly managed exposure she can stay in the fight unsupported for a stupidly long time. She can protect allies from damage bursts (for example a Pharah or Mcree while they're ulting, or an ally who has been hooked by an enemy Roadhog). Her ult can combine with many other heroes ults for easy team wipes. Plus she does some scary damage if she gets decently charged up.

DVa I'm not so hot on. However she does make life hell for enemy snipers. Her ult is great area denial and her defense thingy swallows up enemy ults if timed correctly. She's also a hard counter to Winston since his size means he takes a lot of damage from scatter guns and her armour (yellow health) means she laughs at his gradual damage.

Zenyatta is a supplemental support, not a main healer. Similar to above, you want him around in addition to a main healer, not instead of one. His basic attacks in conjunction with his debuff allow him to do very respectable damage from range. Said debuff makes life very miserable for enemy tanks. Granted, I'm not entirely sold on his ult.

I sorta agree with what you said on Symmetra. She has to be very opportunitic with her primary weapon. However it is worth noting that she actually counters Reinhardt. Her secondary fire goes through shields. She can charge up that sucker and either put serious hurt on the slow-moving shield bearer or force him to drop the shield in order to dodge her sluggish projectiles.

Honestly, Winston is the only character I struggle to see a use for. His shield dome used to have twice as much health, now it gets burned down in a couple of seconds. His damage is poor and short ranged. His ult is great disruption but I don't know what you'd want him for the rest of the time. Then again, I may well merely be bad at playing him.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

However, I disagree on Roadhog, Zarya and DVa. They're not hard tanks, they're more like brawlers. You'd want one of them in addition to a hard tank, not instead of.

The problem is, no one gets this concept. Every time I say that our team needs a tank, they always, ALWAYS switch to Roadhog...and it pisses me off to no end when what we really need is a Winston or Reinhardt.

No champion should be auto-include in every team comp. We really do need more options than just Reinhardt if we need someone to soak damage for teammates.

Maybe they'll un-nerf Winston's bubble; it already has a 12 second cooldown.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Honestly, Winston is the only character I struggle to see a use for. His shield dome used to have twice as much health, now it gets burned down in a couple of seconds. His damage is poor and short ranged. His ult is great disruption but I don't know what you'd want him for the rest of the time. Then again, I may well merely be bad at playing him.

Winston is a Tank Disruptor, like you said. The best use of Winston I've seen is usually in conjunction with Rein. 3 or 4 people are trying to bring down the shield, Winston jumps in and smashes up those people who were so busy thinking about Rein, the rest of us swoop in and shoot up the leftovers.

If you don't kill everyone, you at least have everyone so severely damaged that they usually break ranks to look for healing.