Over the past couple of weeks, you have undoubtedly heard people talk about a new IP from Blizzard called Overwatch. Blizzard usually has a pretty good track record (World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and The Lost Vikings, to name just a few) so a handful of my friends and I decided to check this game out during the beta. What we did not know at the time was that this weird mash up of Valve's hat simulator, Team Fortress 2, and the snorefest of the MOBA genre would take over our lives so completely.
Overwatch is a typical team based objective-centric FPS with a twist. All of the characters have different abilities that are on cooldowns, similar to a MOBA or like some RPGs. This cooldown helps to balance some of the more powerful abilities, and allows for vastly different play styles between characters. Instead of worrying about a loadout, like so many FPS games have been so fond of, each character has their own weapon and set of abilities, and you only have to customize a few tidbits of cosmetics, like pallet swaps and some extra dialogue choices, which are all earned through "loot boxes" (pronounced "crack"). Loot Boxes are packs of 4 cosmetic items that are dropped for a player at every level up, and during a few other instances. You can also buy them (YAY MICROTRANSACTIONS!!), but since they are cosmetic only, they really have no effect on the game.
Since the bulk of what makes Overwatch great is its roster, I thought I'd take you through each of the main characters and give a few brief thoughts from what I have played so far: