Overwatch preview: The console eSport?

Modern games companies routinely take the lowest-risk approach to production, churning out annual versions of their most successful games franchises, raking in large amounts of cash, and presumably cackling loudly as they transport it to the bank. But not Blizzard Entertainment. 

Everyone knows it as the massively multiplayer online (MMO) company, thanks to its most enduring game, World of Warcraft. Hardcore gamers might also point towards the spin-off trading card game Hearthstone, and the Starcraft real-time strategy games which, directly and indirectly, spawned the biggest phenomena in competitive gaming, such as DOTA and League of Legends. 

But Blizzard doesn't do first-person shooters; nor (with the exception of Diablo) does it make console games. Except it will on May 24, when Overwatch comes out. 

However you look at it, Overwatch is a big departure for Blizzard: it's a squad-based multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS), and will be available on PS4 and Xbox One as well as PC. So, can it live up to the insanely high expectations that come with any game that has Blizzard Entertainment printed on its box?

Related: 5 reasons why Battleborn's multiplayer is a bit different

WHAT IS OVERWATCH?

We recently joined the first group of people to play Overwatch on both PS4 and Xbox One at Blizzard's impressive headquarters in Irvine, Orange County, to the south of Los Angeles. Jeffrey Kaplan, Overwatch's game director, provided the best horse's-mouth description of what it's all about: 

"It's a team-based multiplayer shooter featuring a cast of dynamic heroes. It's an extra-focused game, and its core, heart and soul are the heroes."

WE COULD BE HEROES

When we jumped into Overwatch, it was instantly obvious that he wasn't exaggerating. First, Overwatch keeps things commendably simple – much more so than its competitors, the likes of Rainbow Six: Siege and Star Wars Battlefront, plus longer-standing games beloved by the e-sports community such as Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike Global Offensive. Overwatch has a vast array of heroes from which to choose: there will be 23 at launch, and they all have very distinctive characters, both looks-wise and in the way they play. 

The vast majority have just one weapon (although a couple have two), and each has two abilities that can be triggered via the console gamepad's bumpers, plus an "ultimate" ability that charges up as you progress through each round.

Those heroes belong to four classes: offence, defence, tank and support. Although some blur the boundaries between classes: Lucio, for example, is a support character who can heal team-mates or amplify their abilities, but he can also stay out of trouble thanks to extreme speediness and an ability to wall-run. His Sonic Amplifier weapon, which fires a four-round burst, isn't particularly powerful, but he also has a super-quick melee which does often come in handy.

Blizzard has clearly worked hard to make the support characters, in particular, appealing – wisely since, in order to develop any semblance of teamwork, it's essential to have support characters healing team members with the most powerful attacks, and putting up shields during crucial moments at pinch-points.

At first, the sheer diversity of the heroes seemed a bit bewildering – after more than three hours of hands-on, we didn't manage to play them all. But we had found some firm favourites. In particular Reaper, with his twin shotguns, ability to temporarily dematerialise (although that had to be timed carefully) and especially his ultimate move, in which he pirouetted, unloading both shotguns at a furious rate. 

Torbjorn the dwarf was our favourite builder hero, particularly when we discovered that if you launched his ultimate ability and deployed a turret, that turret would fire rockets. Pharah, with her rockets (and ability to rocket-jump) was very enjoyable, as was the sharpshooter McCree (clearly a homage to the arcade classic Mad Dog McCree). 

But the point is that Overwatch caters for all tastes and play-styles, via the simple process of supplying characters which cover all bases. Whether you like sniping, meleeing, soaking up incoming fire with a giant shield, gunplay, swordplay or keeping your team-mates alive while they do the fast-twitch stuff, you'll find your perfect hero in the game. And whenever you die and respawn, you can switch heroes, which is often necessary when things are going against your team.

BUT WHAT'S IT LIKE TO PLAY?

Fast, breathless, simple and accessible accurately describes Overwatch's gameplay – which already makes it a departure for Blizzard, since previously (with the exception of Hearthstone) its games have been pretty complex. At the start of each round, you're invited to think about the balance of your party (Overwatch will point out, say, a lack of support characters or builders). There are three types of games into which you will be pitched: Assault, in which you have to either attack or defend capture points; Escort, in which one team shepherds a vehicle as it moves through the map, while the other tries to stop it; and Control, which is essentially king of the hill, and takes place on symmetrical maps with capture-points in the middle.

As with the rest of the game, those modes are deceptively simple, although you do come across little embellishments. The hover-car which moves through the Escort maps, for example, slowly heals those around it, and moves faster if up to three defensive players are in close proximity. And you can build turrets on it – Escort, we reckon, is the game's most imaginative mode. But there was a large amount of fun to be had when fighting over disputed areas in the other two modes – and strategy and team balance came into play much more in those. 

Blizzard's policy of restricting the number of weapons to one, providing everyone with unlimited ammunition and adding just two abilities pays off nicely, as it removes any potential for control-system confusion. It lets you quickly get to grips with each character, freeing you up to experiment and find your favourites. And given that the only levelling up which takes place is cosmetic, and doesn't affect any character's abilities, it really does strip everything right back to the player's skill.

The maps are pretty decent, typically presenting rabbit-warrens of streets leading to more open areas in which big scraps tend to take place. And they have a cartoonish feel, being based on exaggerated versions of real cities: the Hollywood map, for example, includes what look like film-sets from just about every movie genre. In general, Overwatch's look is bright, colourful and frivolous – a world away from the blacks and browns of the typical first-person shooter. That may or may not be to your taste, but you've got to admit that it's refreshing.

WILL IT BE THE NEXT BIG ESPORT?

Blizzard clearly hopes that Overwatch will be the game that takes the burgeoning eSports scene onto the consoles – but, quite rightly, it was keen not to tempt fate by saying so overtly. ESports can't be forced – games can only organically develop a presence in the world of competitive gaming by capturing the imagination of those who participate in that world, so it could easily end up being shunned. 

But Overwatch has all the ingredients of an eSport – it's indisputably fun to watch (much more so than, say, League of Legends), easy to grasp but less so to master and it has the inbuilt advantage of being developed by Blizzard. It will be interesting to see how it develops – the world of eSports certainly needs a standard-bearer on the consoles.