I've played a solid 5 hours+ worth of matches today to finally have a good idea and 'feel' about this game. And, so far and overall, it's very fun. I do have a few negative points (slightly so), however. But the game always being 6 Vs 6, to me, is an unfortunate Blizzard-self-imposed limitation (in the name of "The Characters"; it's always about The Characters). Now keep in mind I will repeat myself a few times here... just trying to find the proper way to put in words what I think of on a couple of things:
In Blizzard's mentality, the maps themselves were designed with The Characters in mind first (as it was clearly stated and demonstrated in the short documentary about how Blizzard went from its canceled Titan to making Overwatch; at least the one I've watched from GameSpot). They are very (and rightly so) proud of the game's characters, how much they're individually fleshed-out, and distinguished among each other (and will be even more so over the coming months and certainly years). However, Blizzard also weirdly believes that because each one of their characters are so unique that game modes like Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, and larger maps to accommodate more players for 8 Vs 8, 10 Vs 10 or 12 Vs 12 and so on - somehow - would 'remove' meaning and distinction from them (The Characters). Now, THAT part of their mentality is what I do NOT get.
After playing my matches today, I've had a good bunch of games in which we had two Pharahs, and two Bastions... and others with two of the same 'x' characters. It's not because they go to great lengths to the point of designing their maps specifically for a smoother and condensed 6 Vs 6 play style that - suddenly - two Widowmakers or a total of 3 or 4 McCrees (from both teams) would REMAIN somehow as distinct as if they would have been if there's only ONE (on each team). Not sure if I'm wording this properly, but do you guys get the gist of my points? I mean, why can't Blizzard just plain RESTRICT us to choose from just ONE of each character maximum if they are oh-so proud of them just because they're well designed? Doesn't that sound so... excuse me but... full of themselves? No? Is or that just me? Essentially, what I'm trying to say here is that what Blizzard does not want to see happen to their characters and - to a certain degree - to their maps is ALREADY there. It's almost as if they either don't want to acknowledge it, or if they know about it they probably think something along the lines of " Well, it's happening already, but it's there to such a low extent that it's barely noticeable and we just don't want to exacerbate the problem any further; let's just leave it as is ". Or, am I the only one perceiving the 'issue' the way I am?
So, to reiterate (TL;DR I suppose), my big point is the following:
- Overwatch's characters ARE superbly designed... BUT it's not because you have a game with great characters with fleshed-out stories for each of them, in a detailed world setting, that it means that there's straight up no place whatsoever for more classical game modes with larger maps (to accommodate more players).
- Even though I DO really like the game, overall, I DO feel that I would also have a lot of fun in 8 Vs 8, 10 Vs 10 or 12 Vs 12 games (it doesn't HAVE to be Deathmatch, or Team Deathmatch, it can STILL 'just' be objective-based maps; just larger ones).
- We currently already see same characters being chosen more than once. So what Blizzard seems to want to avoid IS already happening. Am I supposed to look at both Widowmakers on my team and think " Wow! BOTH of them are SOOOO unique! THIS one has a different skin! LOOK! LOOK! " ? ** ** (I genuinely do NOT get that mentality from Blizzard; it just doesn't compute with my brain cells right now). Look, I DO love your characters Blizzard, but I DON'T CARE if I see 6 Winstons in my team in a would-be 10 Vs 10 match. I JUST. DON'T. MIND. ABOUT. IT. As much as I don't mind seeing 4 Scouts and 5 Soldiers in Team Fortress 2 on my team, even though I absolutely love that game's characters and their respective stories. Because... side note Blizzard: Valve also did pretty much what you guys are doing, but just a couple of years earlier; and TF2's characters have NOT sort of "magically lost" their distinction just because we can play 16 Vs 16 24/7 2FORT with Insta Spawn.
So, with all this said (and I suppose that's the most important part, ultimately) do I like Overwatch? Yes. It's a fun game. But I wish we could have more straightforward game modes if we felt like playing those, AND, I also wish that the current objective-based maps (or new ones) could be reworked / extended to accommodate more players for 8 Vs 8's, 10 Vs 10's, 12 Vs 12's. I DO love me some more action on-screen from time to time. And if I wanted to go back to the 'vanilla' 6 Vs 6, then I would. On a side note, does anyone else remember back when TF2 was freshly-released? Because I do. I was there and playing it when the Orange Box was released. And by default, the official servers (for a good while after release) ONLY allowed a maximum of 12 Vs 12 matches (regardless of the maps) ... just saying (TF2 has changed a lot since then, and TF2's characters haven't 'lost' their respective charm have they? I know they haven't for me).