FPS arena multiplayer game takes some of Team Fortress art style and adds a little bit of Blizzard magic, and the fun will start in 2015.
FPS arena multiplayer game takes some of Team Fortress art style and adds a little bit of Blizzard magic, and the fun will start in 2015.
BlizzCon 2014 has just kicked off and Blizzard has dropped a bomb on the FPS scene by announcing their newest title: Overwatch.
Based on totally new IP outside of the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo, the footage available for Overwatch shows a First Person Shooter set in the near-future but with a Pixar-esq cartoony visual aesthetic distinct from most in the genre. Comparisons are already being made to Team Fortress, but the gameplay will likely aim to differentiate itself from Valve’s free to play titan.
Later clarification on the Overwatch discussion panel indicates that team of up to 6v6 are the order of the day, whilst maps appear to be objective-based arenas similar to those we’ve seen in Heroes of the Storm. Character classes are set, with an interesting mix of RPG archetypes – Defense, Offense, Tank and Support – in an FPS setting. Heroes are at this stage set characters within the game world, rather than ‘build your own’.
Most surprisingly, the game is far further along than one might think: it’s playable at BlizzCon and has a Beta scheduled to start in 2015. Given recent Blizzard efforts this may in effect be a soft-launch ahead of a full retail launch, or it may retain a fremium model.
More information and Beta sign-ups are available at PlayOverwatch.com.
