With closed beta only a week and a half away, Blizzard is gearing up to show off what they have to the world. In the first Overwatch live stream questions were answered, a new map was unveiled, and we got a very close look at how Overwatch can be played at a competitive level. In depth game play for almost every hero was shown today, as were a variety of team comps and the most important way to win games was shown off - counters and character switching.
The road to (just) Dorado
Several of the games played were on a new payload type map called Dorado. It is the site of a bank robbery in Mexico cause by none other than the two notorious criminals themselves, Junkrat and Roadhog. The objective mirrors that of the other payload maps, where one team pushes the objective forward and the other team tries to prevent them from doing so. And of course, in true Blizzard fashion, the map is dripping with Easter eggs and lore.
Beta blues
We also got a bit more information on what exactly the beta will entail. Unfortunately for folks who don't live in North America, you'll have to wait a bit longer as the first phase of beta testing will be NA only as they test their servers and collect data. While this may be disheartening to international gamers, one of the devs did mention that Blizzard is an international company and they would definitely be hosting servers abroad in time.
They also mentioned periodic stress tests which involve a simpler build of the game but a ton of players to make sure the servers can handle it. It is unknown if invites to these are separate from a normal flagged account or not at this time.
Customizing your characters
A big reveal today was a leveling system that seems to be based on xp earned in game. How the xp is earned is unknown but we do know what it can lead to. When questioned about it, the devs mentioned that character progression was purely cosmetic and you can unlock new tints for your character, 'sprays', and portraits. While skins were not confirmed they mentioned that it is a popular request and they are very interested in them.
Stylin' and socializin'
A few features more focused on social interaction were also shown off. A nifty wrap-up style end game stat screen allows you to vote on which of the four MVPs you felt was most impressive. This is based on set stats like most damage done, best accuracy with a skill shot, highest kill participation and more. Also, while not currently implemented, a 'ping' feature (similar to how Heroes of the Storm does it) was also talked about to easily tell your team what's going on.
The inner workings
Throughout the Q and A portions of the stream, a lot of questions were asked about various hardware and technical aspects of the game. A big topic was minimum requirements and while they didn't give specifics, they did say that there was still work to do on optimization (likely to be helped by the upcoming beta). Controller support is also on the table, but for now the team is focusing on making the game feel great on a PC. And lastly, all servers will be hosted by Blizzard.
So what do you think?
With all of this new information and in depth gameplay, my hype levels are through the roof. Blizzard has made it clear that quite a bit more work will need to be done for the game to be finished, but it seems like things are going well internally, especially if they're ready to show off more gameplay and bring it to the public in beta. I'm personally looking forward to what we see next from Overwatch, and looking forward to playing it for myself.
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