You've seen or probably heard of Overwatch from someone, somewhere, but what exactly is it? Let's dive into what makes this video game great.
This article will give you a breakdown of what Overwatch exactly is. You'll get a brief summary of its story, gameplay features, development and finally, the esports scene. Esports plays a significant role in making Overwatch what it is today! Let's begin!
What is Overwatch?
The game named Overwatch is a team-based first-person shooter developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment! Yes, that's the same company that made World of Warcraft and plenty of other well-known titles. Overwatch puts players into two teams of six, with individual players selecting their roles which are divided into four different categories:
- Offense
- Defense
- Support
- Tank
Do you enjoy healing and keeping your team alive? Consider playing support, or if you prefer to go in guns blazing, consider the offense position. Each house, if you will, has a wide selection of heroes to choose from (31, to be exact, at the time of writing)! Do consider testing and trying other roles if you are the curious kind. Overwatch has its own practice area where you can always try out something new.
The main objective in Overwatch is to work together, as a team, to secure and defend particular control points on a certain map or escort a payload across the map within a limited amount of time. In addition, Blizzard Entertainment will often dabble in events revolving around a particular theme such as the Lunar New Year. You can check out our other Overwatch pieces that cover such events.
The story
Overwatch comes with its own story. Think of Marvel's SHIELD, only in a video game. Sadly, there isn't an equivalent of Iron Man (okay, we have Orisa for that). In summary, the name Overwatch refers to a global task force team that was created to keep peace and unity worldwide. As time progressed, rumors and accusations spread that caused Overwatch to become illegal and thus, the team had to completely disband.
One of the original members of Overwatch, Winston, brought the team back together to face a new threat called the Omnic Crisis. Omnics were sentient robots built in Russia to help mankind but eventually rebelled until a truce was reached and the Omnics began to live among humans. Now, another Omnic Crisis has begun and the team needs you, yes you, to help restore peace once again.
Gameplay features
As mentioned already, the core of Overwatch is to secure and defend particular control points on a certain map or escort a payload across the map within a limited amount of time. This isn't all, however. All the heroes have individual skills, abilities, and ultimates which can be game-changers if used correctly, and significantly impact the gameplay. It is these skills and the way you use them that make Overwatch the game that it is.
Speaking of Ultimates, did you know we at EarlyGame produced a video on the best Ultimates in Overwatch? Give it a watch!
Development
The development of Overwatch followed after Blizzard Entertainment canceled a hugely ambitious game, Titan. Titan had already been in development for over seven years back in 2007. Jeff Kaplan, game director for the now successful Overwatch, said that the core gameplay for Titan had become: "very cluttered and confused" until they got to the point where it was completely canceled in May 2013.
Jeff Kaplan created the concept of Overwatch that had borrowed elements from the hugely popular first-person online shooter Team Fortress 2 and also from Blizzard's Titan, to further solidify the concept that would eventually become the game we know and love today.
"We wanted to make a game in a genre that we have always been passionate about" - Jeff Kaplan at BlizzCon 2014
Overwatch esports
It was clear that in the early development stages of the game, esports was not a top priority as Blizzard wanted to focus on the first-person team-based shooter first and foremost. However, they did eventually recognize that Overwatch had the potential to work well within the esports scene. During the beta testing, developers caught wind that individuals were hosting ad-hoc events and mini-tournaments. Those became pretty popular in the small community it had at the time before its official release.It was in 2016 that the very first professional esports event was organized by ESL. Called Overwatch Atlantic Showdown, it came just a few months after the game's initial launch and had a $100,000 prize pool for players. In November 2016, Jeff Kaplan formally announced the Overwatch League at BlizzCon. Its inaugural season took place in 2018 and a whopping prize pool of $3.5 million was given to participating teams that year.
Conclusion
We hope this has given you a small sample of just how big Overwatch has become, where it began and the multiple directions it has explored since then. Right now, with the recent developer updates, it's absolutely something worth experiencing for all of you brand-new players.
One last thing absolutely worth watching is Blizzard's absolutely breathtaking animated shorts for Overwatch. Think Pixar for video games. We'll recommend our favorite for you at the end, but you can find a full list of the animated shorts here.
