I spent most of last week trying to decide between two topics, but I ultimately decided I didn't have enough thought put into either of them yet to make one interesting post. While I don't really like skipping a week of writing, we got rewarded with a couple of exciting new heroes for Overwatch. Fall 10th is quickly approaching and every announcement and preview for Blizzard's newest IP reminds us that it can't come soon enough. Last week we got two new faux news posts via the Overwatch Twitter referencing a couple of fugitives wanted for among other things, a bank robbery.
My initial though upon seeing the wanted poster was "So Professor Putricide and Fat Bane are our next heroes". I was excited about the possibility of new heroes obviously, but there wasn't much there providing any depth. But when the heist map came out I got a lot more excited. The map gives a little insight into the kind of characters we are dealing with. The comedic relief is there in a way we haven't really seen yet.
By no means is Overwatch a super-serious or hyper-realistic game based on what we've seen so far. But all we have been given insight into is the a global robot crisis and a eventually sabotaged world organization striving for redemption. We haven't seen the breadth of possibilities in a world based on our own. One of the greatest benefits of a game based on future Earth is how easy it is for players to relate to the places, characters, and issues. An ongoing struggle between Orcs and Humans, or a race of Alien locusts a million strong threatening to consume all life in the galaxy are fantastic worlds to experience and make for amazing games, but there is something cool about the possibility of people and places you can truly relate to. Every time a new hero is previewed, there are comments on Reddit posts and twitter about how awesome it is to have a medic from Switzerland, or an activist DJ from Rio de Janeiro. Fighting through King's Row and seeing Big Ben, or making your way to a capture point in Hanamura and seeing cherry blossoms, both give a feeling of being somewhere you can really relate to. Whether is on the internet or in person you have seen those things. They are iconic parts of the world we live in today. I think this map is our first glimpse into the humor of the world of Overwatch, and I think it's really important to the immersion into it's universe. But enough about the world. Let's talk about these heroes.
Tuesday we got our introduction video for Roadhog and Junkrat and in my opinion they are both really exciting. These guys both look like they came straight out of Mad Max. Hailing from the now irradiated Australia (as if the Outback need to be more dangerous), they are on a robbery spree spreading from England to Japan to California. They have visual aesthetics and, at least from what we can tell from Junkrat's ability preview, personalities like nothing we've seen from Overwatch so far.
Roadhog is our next Tank hero and his kit is really strong. His main weapon is a shrapnel shotgun with both short and slightly longer range fire mode, which really really promotes an in your face style of play. His longer range fire looks devastating in choke points or narrow corridors. That up close style combines perfectly with his Shift ability. Rather than a skill to increase his movement speed to get to some hard to reach location, Roadhog has a Chain Hook he can use to pull enemies to him. This type of ability has been used in all kinds of games and has been ridiculously strong every time when used properly. His E ability "Take a Breather" heals him for 300 health, half of his total health pool, on a 6 second cooldown. That kind of healing is nothing to scoff at and it will be invaluable considering he has no real escape mechanism or shielding ability like other tanks. Finally, his ultimate ability "Whole Hog" sprays scrap in a frontal cone for what seems like an eternity, knocking back everyone it his with each shot. While I don't think the scenario from his preview video where he knocks 3 players back about 20 yards and off a cliff will ever realistically happen, this ability will be very strong when it comes to controlling an area like a capture point or payload, or perhaps interrupting any channelled abilities that come out as the game grows. Overall I think Roadhog is a nice contradiction to some of the other tanks currently in the game. He will want to be on the front lines actively pushing against the other team as opposed to a Reinhardt or Winston excelling at defending a location.
Junkrat is a new Defense hero, and he brings a lot to be excited about. He is probably the closest we will get to Team Fortress 2's Demoman with his grenade launcher as his basic fire. As you would expect, these grenades bounce off of walls which will allow Junkrat to flank and harass defensive set ups from a position of safety. His Shift ability, Concussive Mine, serves as both a mobility tool and a disruption ability for the other team. He tosses out a mine, and then has the option of when to activate it and send whoever it hits flying. We will have to wait and see how difficult it will be to use the Mine as a reliable way to get around a map, but the fact that it can be used that way will allow skilled players to make awesome plays with it. His E ability tosses out a trap that will immobilize the first opponent to run through it as well as deal a small amount of damage. This is another useful took for zone control, which remains the main theme for these two heroes. I really like how there is a visual indicator on the UI whens someone triggers the trap. This will allow Junkrat to toss a trap in a strategic location, focus on defending another area with his grenades and concussion mine, and then when his trap is triggered, turn and try and secure a kill. Not having to babysit the trap, but still be able to take advantage of it is really nice. I might even like to see something similar for Symmetra and her Sentry Turrets. Junkrat's ultimate ability, "Rip-tire", is really unique and will be really useful in the right hands. You take control of a bomb-rigged tire and can drive it into enemies where it explodes on the first target it hits. The ability will be really useful when it comes to breaking through defenses. We have seen the strategy of setting up a Bastion and/or Torbjorn turret in a choke point or a capture point used in a couple of the preview videos. The Rip-tire gives us the option to send it along a wall or around a corner and explode on top of this set up potentially giving us the window we need to break through. From the video it looks like the tire has a 50hp health pool. This suggests that the tire is killable by the enemy team. If that's the case it will require good driving in order to make good use of the ability. I also want to know what Junkrat's status is while he is controlling the tire. Is he immobile and attackable, or does he become immune while it's out similar to Abathur's Ultimate Evolution ability in Heroes of the Storm. His passive ability causes his grenades to explode after he dies, potentially finishing off whoever he got into a skirmish with, but I expect once players have a chance to Junkrat has a really fun personality and what seems to be a really high skill cap. I'm really excited to see what the top players will be able to do with him once we finally get a crack at this game.
Both of these heroes get me even more excited for the kinds of characters Blizzard can bring into this game. I also expect the bank heist map to be one of the next maps we see, but given the origin of these guys, a radioactive area of Australia including a disheveled Sydney Opera House would be amazing. Blizzcon is quickly approaching and if we don't see a beta announcement at the European Road to Blizzcon event (where Overwatch will be playable), that's where we will find out when we can finally get off the hype train and into the game. I expect Blizzcon to be heavily focused on Overwatch, a Diablo expansion, and Legion details, but I will get into that in another post leading up to November 6th.
Thanks as always for reading. Let me know what you think about these heroes or what you would like to see from future heroes. Also, let me know what you expect to see at Blizzcon!
Till next time,
Chris
No comments:
Post a Comment