Overwatch 2 is in Beta and apparently they’ve changed all sorts! - The Bear and Badger

Knight

I've played a couple of games, switching heroes every death. It's fun.

isanbard

I've seen a lot of PC folks spunking over this for a long time too. It is a gametype that I have very little history with though so it comes to me fairly fresh and I have had only a couple of matches tbh.

It's all kind of front loaded and straight up I guess. Everything for everyone from day 1, bit dull to me but fair do's.
It's just not a style that I've found very compelling in the past but this may have more?

The limited nature I refer to is more the fact that it is a game where you either shoot dudes or defend a thing while shooting dudes in a little map. If you get bumraped 6 times in a row there is no plan B..the chat fills up with weird l33tspeak stuff that means little to me and I just tend to move on to something else if history has proven much.

The idea of becoming the best has not driven me in the past on these things.

The Fov still felt tight though?

TheDJR

Downloading it now, gonna stream some tonight if anyone on PS4 wants to jump in with me.

Tempy

It's a team based game, you'll get dismantled 6 times in a row if you have a bad team. Blizz have tried to aid this with a wide range of attractive characters, and a hero select screen that tells you what heroes are missing from your team comp. That said, the team that adapts or has better co-ordination will nearly always win. I can understand why you'd find the upfront model a but dull, but it has to be like that for the character interaction to work. Plus there are 21 characters with little overlap available from day - that's 3 times what TF2 had, and OGTF2 was basically playable forever.

Knight

You might not find this type of game interesting but it's the only way for a versus team based FPS to function properly. It's meant to be like this. There's no point wanting it to be something that it cannot be, and that other games are already doing. COD decided to do it anyway and then a bunch of other games blindly followed suit (Halo 4) but it's a terrible mechanic for a game like this.

Means it won't be everyone's cup of tea though, those for whom the grind is the fun part! Personally, if the games good enough and there is a decent ranking system to make sure you play people at your level, I think it's worth learning the avatar, map and team dynamic ropes of a game like this. When a game's gameplay itself can carry the bulk of the replayability load you're doing something very right as a game dev.

isanbard

Yeah. As I say it's a model I haven't spent much time with in the past and understand it's very popular. The whole MOBA thing really falls into the same category for me and I can't see myself getting involved in any LoL or DOTA anytime soon.

This has a far better chance and I'll give the beta a good lick to see if a character gels. There are a lot of pretty looking models and well voiced moments that I'm sure will mesh very effectively with each other.

I do like a good grind though.. Got through a 10 Heroic Strike thing for the Dead Orbit in the last day or so and had a fine old time. Loot was got (all fairly shit iirc) low tier mobs went pop, high tier mobs took a lot more shooting, it gave me a little dopamine pat on the head pat the end. I know how that works..

GurtTractor

isanbard wrote:

It's all kind of front loaded and straight up I guess. Everything for everyone from day 1, bit dull to me but fair do's. It's just not a style that I've found very compelling in the past but this may have more?

Personally I'm utterly sick of the 'fake fun' of grinding through shit loads of levels and working your ass off in a game to get more digital guns or whatever. Mostly when I'm checking out a MP game these days and thinking "oh that looks pretty cool, I'll check that out" and then I see that there's stupid tacked-on progression system I just lose all interest. This game is a breath of fresh air in comparison.

The downloader for this is badass btw, super fast and didn't eat up all the bandwidth while trying to watch videos or whatever, unlike a lot of other download clients I've experienced.

GurtTractor

GurtTractor - Add me and such. :-)

Tempy

Anyway, that's all just /opinions. I've got an awful sore throat so I'm going to spend my morning writing this big post about all the characters for you chaps. ENJOY.

OFFENSE

Generally squishy damage dealers that have a high skill cap and a lot of precision attacks and interesting movement.

GENJI

He's a robot ninja with shurikens and a sword who is designed to flank and hit priority targets. He does heavy damage very quickly, but is fragile. His primary is a burst shot, whilst his secondary is a wide shot. He has a dash strike that resets its cooldown on a kill, as well as a reflect which turns him into an invulnerable damage mirror for a few seconds. Good luck hitting him easily due to his great movement, and watch out for his Ultimate which lets him do huge melee damage. Counter him with strongtanks.

MCREE

A cowboy that works as both a mid-range damage dealer, and a close range tech fighter. Single shots are accurate and long reaching, but his alt fire lets him fan the hammer, doing huge burst damage very close. Combined with his roll and flashbang, it lets him outmanoeuvre tanks and cut them down. His ultimate, High Noon, has a long charge time but if he isn't killed before he charges it he can insta-kill everyone in his line of sight.

PHARAH

High flying lady in a robot suit that fires lots of missiles. She has a jump pack which lets her get up high, and a secondary jet pack which lets her float. Rockets do high damage but have low splash radius - her secondary concussive blast knocks enemies back, and can be good for pushing snipers of their perches.. Her ultimate is a rocket barrage which does huge damage to an area but leaves her totally immobile on use. Watch out for her boosting up high before unleashing her payload.

REAPER

Boring angsty gravel voiced grim reaper clone. Has high power shotguns that tear tanks apart at close range. Can turn into a shade and ignore damage for a few seconds, or teleport to key locations to flank the enemy team. His ultimate turns him into a pirouetting death dealer that deals high AoE damage - run away or kill him quick.

SOLDIER 76

Closest to a 'regular' character in the whole game. Has a regular rifle and a sprint, but also a deployable healing aura and a wee tri-rocket he can use to take out turrets and do good armour damage. His ultimate gives him a visor that lets him shoot at targets with auto aim. Very squishy, but will use his high movement to peek and cut you down sharp.

TRACER

Gor blimey love a duck loves she's quick. Tracer has twin SMGs and the ability to blink thrice in a row, on low cool down. Main ability is to re-wind the last few seconds of combat which means she will return to her position a few seconds ago with whatever health and ammo she had - combined with her sticky bomb ult this means she can dash in, drop the bomb, and rewind out. Hard to lock down without a good tank.

DEFENSE

Snipers and area denial characters,- they have mid range health and good utility, even on offence.

BASTION

He's a robot with a bird for a pal that has three modes. Recon has him walk about with a decent gun. Sentry turns him into a stationary gun with insane turn speed, and massive, massive damage output - but gives him a new weakspot on his back (good look reaching it) His ultimate turns him into a tank that fires big shells for huge splash damage. Helluva prick, but even doubly so due to the fact he can self repair with no cooldown. Countered by good Pharas, or smart tanks with medics.

HANZO

Boring auld archer prick with generous auto-aim on his stupidly powerful arrows. Expect to die to them lots. Hie has alt fire types too. One allows him to fire an arrow that works as a sonar for a few seconds, and the other has an arrow head that fragments and bounces on hit. Fire it at squishy heroes feet for a rocket style effect. His ult is a huge twin dragon shot that passes through shields, walls, and health bars with ease. You can hear it coming but a good point blank setup is tough to beat. Able to clamber up walls.

JUNKRAT

similar to the demoman from TF2, fires bouncy grenades around. Can lay a trap which can stun enemies, and a remote mine that he can detonate to launch himself through the air. His ult is a a remote controlled bomb which can be shot to deactivate, but if he uses it to flank it can cause a team wipe. Great on offence and defence.

MEI

The Queen of area denial. Has a gun that freezes opponents with a spray style primary fire, with a slow but strong and accurate secondary. She can throw up a wall of ice to block off entry routes to objectives or knock tanks into the air. Her ability to cocoon herself and heal makes her hard to dislodge, which is scary when her ult allows her to freeze an area and deal huge damage.

TORBJORN

The engineer from TF2. Builds a turret that can be upgraded to level 2 with hammer blows, as well as chucking out armour for his allies if he has the spare scrap. Gun isn't too shaby either. His ult upgrades his turret to level three and buffs his armour and gun. As if he wasn't tanky enough already. Dislodge him with Pharah, or make his turret kill itself with Genji's reflect.

WIDOWMAKER

Femme fatale sniper. Has a grappling hook to get to annoying perches, and a rife that charges up to high damage in a second or two of scope time. Is able to drop a poison gas mine to protect her blind spot, as well as use her rifle as an SMG when not scoped. Her ultimate reveals all enemies on the map as silhouettes that everyone on her team can see. Incredibly useful for Hanzo.

TANKS

They're big and hard to move, but often lack damage output.

D.va

Tiny South Korean girl who compensates for her fragility by walking around in a big robot. The mech has weird twin shotguns that do ok damage at range and meaty damage up close, but they never need to reload which lets you lay down suppressing fire. Her boosters give her a huge burst of 3D movement for a few seconds which lets her get up to sniper perches, or alternatively her defense matrix lets her block damage in a frontal arc for a similar amount of time. If her mech dies, she gets to run around sans-kit. Her pistol is fairly accurate and recharges her ultimate very quickly. Her main ultimate is self destruct, which turns her mech into a time bomb. You can activate it after activating her boost, giving you a powerful one-shot nuke.

REINHARDT

A huge, simple man who loves nothing more than slowly walking forward. He has a hammer with decent reach, and a recharging firey burst which deals damage in a straight line, but you'll usually just be walking foward behind your huge damage shield. Allies can shoot through it, enemies cannot, but concentrated fire will wither it away. A L4D2 style Charger dash lets you pin and ruin out of position enemies, and his ult knocks down enemies in a wide frontal area.

ROADHOG

Fat ugly Pudge style character. He has a very close range but high damage flak cannon, that has an alt fire which is more concentrated but slightly longer distance. His main draw is the HOOK. He can use this to grab enemies from range, pulling them close and stunning them. Against most enemies this results in a confirmed kill as his zero-range damage is massive. Good hooks make snipers and annoying Offence heroes very vulnerable. To go with his huge bulk he also has a massive healing buff with a low cooldown, and his ultimate sees him fire non-stop for a 8 seconds, with massive knockback on his shots. With a healer he's a nightmare.

WINSTON

It's Beast from X-men in a robot suit. Surprisingly squishy for a tank which is alleviated by his quick movement. His low cooldown leap lets him traverse the map very quickly, or deal damage to a group of clustered enemies when he lands. Couples well with his weapon which is an autofire lightning gun that can hit multiple targets. His AoE damage shield is useful for covering allied advances but breaks quickly. His ult turns him huge and red and lowers his jump cooldown significantly, as well as upping his melee damage and removing his gun. Importantly it fully restores his health on use so it is good for prolonged distractions.

ZARYA

Buff Russian lady who likes pink and particle cannons. Another slightly squishy tank, but with a twist. She can errect a damage absorbing shield on herself, or on allies (for a shorter time) that in turn buffs her main weapon: the particle cannon. The synergy here is to walk out and eat a ton of damage before using the secondary fire to lob massive energy grenades at the enemy. Primary fire is a close range beam which can ruin tanks and Reinhardt's shield. Her ultimate is the Graviton Pulse - a grenade based black hole that draws enemies to one spot. If you can get your damage output up high and pop this off you can effectively wipe a team with good placement. Probably my favourite tank.

SUPPORTS

They usually heal, but often combine it with other perks, apart from Symettra who is bin-tier.

LUCIO

Jet Set Radio reject who buffs his team with area based music. He has a speed boost and a health regen which he can swap between with a button press, and he can also boost the buff output for a short amount of time. His weapon is mosty useless - slow moving burst fire or short range shotgun blast, but he makes up for this with mobility and a ludicrous Ultimate that gives all nearby allies meaty shields.

MERCY

The regular medic. Has the ability to dash to allies in sight (even if they're off the ground) and then float around delivering health from above. Primary fire on her staff is a heal much like the TF2 medic, secondary fire is a damage boost. Her alternate weapon is a pistol which is decent in a pinch. Don't underestimate how much health she can output, or how quickly she can charge her ultimate, which is an AoE revive that can bring back all dead team mates - amazing on objectives. Priority target, public enemy number one, whatever - just murder her if you see her because she makes tanks impossible to kill.

SYMMETRA

Weird utility hero that is probably best avoided unless you are confident with your push. Primary fire is a close range weapon with auto-aim that increases its damage over time whilst connected. Good, but not great. Secondary fire is a slow moving charged pulse that goes through shields. Good against Bastion. She can place up to six turrets around the map, but they work best in clusters as they deal low but continuous damage. Her ultimate is a teleporter, but it only works for 6 goes before it pops. Very hard to use well.

ZENYATTA

Weird monk support with the lowest health in the game and zero movement perks. Primary fire lets him launch powerful orbs at enemies that hit really hard for a support, alternate lets him charge up 6 of them for a rapid burst. His primary skill is an orb that heals over time, whilst his secondary is an orb he can fire at enemies that debuffs them, increasing the damage they take. Great in conjunction with his high damage, as it lets you nuke down tanks alarmingly fast. His ultimate makes him invincible as he dishes out an AoE super heal. If you can get close to him, he's probably dead.

Tempy

Added that to the OP too.

Kernowgaz

Woah, great post Tempy.

I'll try this on the Bone tonight when the wife is out

Paul the sparky

Cheers for that Tempo, hardly a duffer among them and a lot I want to try out.

Dan, you have to be the world's number one Symmetra player before you can try anyone else.

Tempy

Some general tips as well

AMMO IS INFINITE SO NEVER STOP SHOOTING. Seriously, bar Mercy, you nearly always want to be gunning at folks. Chip damage might not look worth it, but you can't run out of ammo, and dealing damage is one sure fire way of generating your ultimate quickly.

THE OBJECTIVE ON PAYLOAD HEALS YOU - so stick by it. A tank next to it that is also getting healed is going to be super hard to dislodge.

FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE CHARACTER SELECT SCREEN - if it says that your team needs a tank, don't pick Widowmaker or Tracer, pick a Tank. Whilst I imagine good offence can really turn the game, team comp is super important and the basic comp for offence and defence isn't worth tinkering with too much IMO. If it ain't broke...

CHANGE CHARACTERS IF IT ISN'T WORKING - stubbornly refusing to repick is the death of this game. Lots of people don't seem to get it, especially randoms. Unlike DOTA or LOL, you aren't locked in to Tracer, so if you're dying over and over again as her, just pick someone else. Every situation has a tool that can be brought to bear on it - don't be the one who refuses to change from Bastion even though you're getting flanked by a Reaper every time you spawn.

IT'S AN OBJECTIVE GAME SO PLAY THE OBJECTIVE - this gets my goat more than anything. STAND ON THE DAMN POINT IF YOU'RE A TANK. No use in skirting the edges of an objective zone. Like TF2 momentum matters more than kills - you might be on defence and getting lots of kills as Genji, but that wont matter when a Reinhardt and a Mercy walk into your objective and take it uncontested because you couldn't catch the Pharah killing your defence team members.

NEVER PICK SYMMETRA IF THE GAME SAYS PICK SUPPORT - probably more of a personal bee in my bonnet this one, but I think Blizzard need to make a separate healer/support category because Symmetra is effectively useless on defence and mildly irritating at best on offence, but still gets picked a lot when the game suggests the team needs a support. I'd take the average Mercy player over Symmetra any day of the week.

fullspectrum

Whoa Tempy going in

Nexx

Lucio is easily the best support. I like Symmetra too though, you can put her sentrys in some very irritating positions. Good utility with the shield and teleport too.

TheDJR

Tempy, not fancy going ps4 beta too? I wanna play with you

Tempy

I'd pick Mercy over Lucio in a bunch of situations but I agree he is overall probably the most balanced pick of the 4. I can see that Symmetra has utility, but the teleporter having a 6 player limit and people generally being shit with her makes me pray I never see her again. You can put her turrets on the payload though which is fun.

isanbard

Was poking about and this definitely has dedi servers on PC but I can't find much of any info on the console structure.

If it has more laggy host PSN/Live stuff then I might try it on PC instead and see how the masterace thing works out.

The enthusiasm alone is infectious enough.

Edit: Oohh and the normal version is only 30 notes on PC too.. Hmmm

Bollockoff

Maybe I like sexy Indians.

Curtis

Seems pleasant enough. Kills are really easy. I was capping too before you tell me i'm playing it wrong.

Bastion is easy mode, so i went for that little girl in the robot. I then played a couple of poor games that were part-way lost when i joined so took the opportunity to try out some of the other characters. Support and Medic classes really aren't for me (at least not in this game). Not tried any of the DPS toons yet, but i've never been a front-line kinda player.

Regardless, it hasn't swayed me. I wasn't buying it before and i'm still not. Because like TF2, as good as it is, its too 'one-note' for my tastes, and i get bored very quickly.

Tempy

Yeah even tanks end up with around 10+ kills minimum in this game, it's very generous with them.

Nexx

Eliminations aren't kills either, they're essentially kills+assists. There's a separate stat for actual kills.

Tempy

The emphasis on them is a nice touch.

digi

Downloaded, when does this beta end?

Tempy

9th

digi

Cheers its fun, but quite easy i think.
So many charecters though

tigersgogrrr

Will download overnight. Who is the most pr0 character for someone like me to use? You know l, the most technically challenging.

Tempy

Tracer or Genji

Nexx

Tiger is obviously just going to play the Korean girl

Tempy

Truuuuue. You on Xbox with this instead of PC then Nexx? Not seen you on battle.net (thought I had you on from Hearthstone)

Last few games I played were a real mixed bag. Matchmaking might not be fully implemented yet, or they might have loosened it for the open beta. Lots of level 2-3 players in with the regular low 20s I've been playing with. Makes for odd fights where some players clearly have no idea what to do and others do, so situations go awry really fast.

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