Looks like early access purchases have not been extended, after all.
beatbandito wrote:So is this actually tf2 or is it super monday night combat?
SMNC was apparently MOBA-esque? If so, this is decidedly more TF2. There's a training mode where you have drones to shoot at, but every game mode that I tried only involved direct player versus player, using TF2-inspired objective maps like control points and payload.
If you've been following this game as poorly as I had been prior to getting into the stress test weekend, Overwatch has 21 playable heroes currently, and like TF2, there's nothing stopping you from having more than one per team or switching mid-battle. They're divided into four categories of Offense, Defense, Tanks, and Supports, although in practice some heroes blur or overlap the lines somewhat. They generally have a primary attack (sometimes including an alternate fire mode or alternate weapon), a special action, some kind of movement modifier, and an ultimate à la Medic's ubercharge.
OFFENSE ROLES: -
Genji is
Raiden a cyborg ninja who either throws stars in rapid succession or in a horizontal arc, uses short-range iaijutsu-style sword lunges on a short cooldown for massive damage, can periodically deflect projectile attacks, and whose ultimate pulls out his katana for samurai chopping action. His speed, mobility, and wall-climbing action feels a lot like the Scout.
-Continuing the Metal Gear parallels,
McCree is Revolver Ocelot played straight: a cowboy with a revolver whose ultimate lets you set up more one-shot kills the longer you stand facing the enemies. He also has a flashbang which momentarily staggers enemies and the ability to empty his revolver in a single salvo of bullets, or to reload by doing an evasive roll.
-The main face of the game so far (both its promotional materials and its butthurt gamebro controversy) is
Tracer, the spritely British test-pilot who blinks around a lot and can briefly rewind time to undo damage and revert to an earlier position. She uses two pulse pistols in semi- or full-automatic firing, and her ultimate is a timed explosive that I've gotten really good at blowing myself up with.
-
Soldier: 76 is the archetypal shooter character, featuring an automatic rifle, the ability to sprint, rocket attacks, and a healing field. His ultimate ability lets you face in the general direction of your enemies and let an aimbot worry about lining up your shots for you.
-For all the edgelords in the audience, Blizzard is introducing
Reaper, who combines dual shotguns, a "wraith form" in which he is fast and intangible, a short-range teleport, the ability to regenerate by collecting drops from his kills, and an ultimate that is literally just spinning around and shooting anybody nearby. I only sound this dismissive because I could never do well while trying him during the stress test.
-
Pharah is Blizzard's take on the Soldier: damage rockets, knockback rockets, and an ultimate that pours rockets everywhere she looks. Instead of doing rocket jumps, though, she uses jump jets to fly or hover for a little bit, because Pharah's rockets do no damage to herself. But don't let her armorlike suit fool you: she's a total glass cannon.
DEFENSE ROLES: -
Torbjörn is TF2's Engineer by way of a dwarf from Warcraft. He has the turret, he collects scrap, he shoots a pistol or hits things with a hammer. Instead of a dispenser or teleport, though, ol' Torbles builds armor packs for his teammates to pick up. His ultimate, "Molten Core", supercharges his damage and building ability, enabling his sentry to be upgraded to Max Level + 1 for the duration.
-Demoman is here adapted into
Junkrat, an anarchic Aussie with a modified moveset. He's got bouncy grenades and a (single) sticky bomb that enables bomb-jumping, but he can also drop an oversized steel trap. Once he's caused enough mayhem, he can rev up his "RIP-tire", a motorized tire bomb that you can drive around or over obstacles in order to detonate in the perfect position. If he's killed, he drops live grenades! I took out Tracer so many times this way.
-In contrast,
Mei is an inversion of the Pyro: she has a frost-thrower that can freeze enemies in place, or she can launch icycles to headshot frozen foes. She's got frost mages' Ice Block for temporary invulnerability and regeneration, or she can raise a temporary ice wall, elevating players in its area of effect and blocking bullets and enemies. Her ultimate is a blizzard drone, slowing and damaging enemies in the area.
-
Widowmaker is a Sniper. If you've ever played a videogame, you've probably played a sniper, and Widowmaker plays basically the same as that—except you don't need to noscope headshot, since her gun works great as an automatic. She can plant a toxic mine to cover her flanks, and she's got a hookshot for better mobility. Her ultimate makes enemies visible through walls for everybody on your team.
-If you were more of a fan of the Huntsman, then
Hanzo might be a better option. His arrows gain power the longer you aim. He's also got a "scatter arrow" if there's a hero or two hiding around a corner, or his "sonic arrow" can temporarily mark foes to track them through walls. His ultimate arrow launches dragons that pretty much annihilate anything along their path, and they go right through walls. He can climb a ways up vertical surfaces.
-Finally,
Bastion is a robot with a gun who can transform into a stationary turret. He's got a self-repair mode, and his ultimate turns him into a tank. That bird on his shoulder
looks harmless, but rumors say that if you ever accidentally hit it, he turns red and does 400% damage for the rest of the match.
TANK ROLES: -Tanks are kind of like the Heavy, and
Zarya embodies this by being the strong Russian lugging a giant gun. She uses projected shields on herself and allies to minimize incoming damage and power up her particle cannon, which either fires short-range beams or explosive charges. To facilitate this latter function, her ultimate is a gravity bomb that damages enemies and clumps them together.
-
Winston is an alternate interpretation of that concept. As the gorilla scientist, he mixes high technology with brute strength: his Tesla Cannon is a short-range electrical weapon that barely needs to be aimed. His jump pack provides the ability to get into and out of fights quickly, and the landing damage contributes to that. He can drop a barrier similar to the shields introduced in Halo 3, although allies inside the bubble can fire out with impunity. His ultimate powers him up and gives massive health, but he can only melee and jump attack.
-
Reinhardt carries a gigantic hammer and an even bigger energy shield. Every ten seconds he can do a charge attack that can ram enemies into walls for big damage, and if foes are keeping their distance, he can use his hammer to sling flaming projectiles. His ultimate is a powerful knockdown for enemies in front of him. I ran into a bug during the stress test that made his interface and abilities invisible, so he's the one hero I never tried myself, but I'm looking forward to changing that.
-In the spirit of WoW's abominations,
Roadhog is a big gross butcher with a big hook, which he can use to grab distant enemies and pull them into melee range. (No single ability was the direct cause of my death as much as this one was during the stress test.) His scrap gun is effective at short or medium range; his ultimate cranks this up to provide continuous damage and knockback. He can take a puff of what I assume is nitrous oxide for healing.
-The last tank,
D.Va, is a Korean eSports idol with a pink mech. Her primary fire fusion cannons are a nightmare in short range; she closes gaps rapidly and barrels through enemies with her boosters, which also permit a little bit of flight. Her large size attracts a lot of damage, and her weak point is pointed right at enemies she's facing, so she'll need to make the most of her defense matrix ability which turns off her weapons but lets the mech automatically shoot down incoming projectiles. If her mech DOES take critical damage, she ejects automatically, although her ultimate overcharges the mech reactor and turns it into a big explosion. She's real fragile on foot, but she can call down a replacement mech pretty quickly.
SUPPORT ROLES: -
Symmetra is classified as a support, but this is almost entirely due to her ultimate, which creates a teleporter exit. (The entrance is located in the spawn point; no idea how this interacts with multiple Symmetras on one team.) She can also give each of her allies a regenerating shield and place mini-turrets on surfaces (up to a total of six). Her primary weapon is a short-range homing beam that does increasing damage the longer it's connected. It also has an alt fire that launches a charged orb for high damage, which is best applied to enemies slowed by her turrets or other battlefield effects.
-More traditionally,
Mercy is analogous to the Medic, since she has a healing beam that locks onto an ally as long as they stay in range and world geometry doesn't break line-of-sight. There's no overheal, but if your target is maxed, you can change the beam from healing to damage amplification. (Also like the Medic, she has a pistol for engagements when allies are not present, but this really isn't the situation you selected Mercy for.) Since getting to wounded allies is so critical, Mercy's special ability lets her swoop toward a targeted ally, and holding the jump button whenever she's airborne provides a slow glide to the earth. Rather than providing the invulnerability of an Ubercharge, Mercy's ultimate straight up resurrects dead allies in her vicinity, restoring them to full health.
-The robot—excuse me,
omnic monk
Zenyatta has the unfortunate distinction of being the first Overwatch hero to be nerfed
into the ground, because his abilities were far too powerful: he could pick one friend and one foe to receive orbs; the ally would receive continuous healing, while the enemy would take additional damage from attacks. Together with the significant damage of his chargeable primary fire orbs, Blizzard added a requirement for indirect line of sight for both abilities, meaning that, with Zenyatta's unexceptional movement and low health, he couldn't provide much benefit without getting constantly destroyed himself. They recently upped his regen rate to compensate, but he still seems like he's going to be the hero with the steepest learning curve available.
-So instead, let's end with
Lúcio, who is perhaps the most potent single hero currently available: he provides a continuous aura of either health regeneration or speed amplification to all allies in his immediate vicinity; his Amp It Up ability boosts either aura's output significantly. His weapon can launch either damaging projectiles or a short-range knockback, and his ultimate shields himself and all nearby allies from incoming damage. Finally, in order to keep up with charging Reinhardts and blinking Tracers, Lúcio moves pretty quickly on his 'blades, and he can wallride right over gaps like the Prince of Persia. He's great for getting to the point first, he keeps everybody healthy while hiding behind the tank, and he is always Target # 1 on the opposing team.
ANYWAY: It's a lot of fun, and I hope to play a fair bit tomorrow, but now I have to go to bed or my C-PAP machine will tell my insurance provider not to cover my expenses. ~LATER~!