So you know what I realized? Overwatch
is the first game I’ve ever bought for the PC.
No, really.
No, really.
No, really.
Like I’ve said before, I don’t really play any PC
games. It’s not that I’ve never done it,
but despite the options available, I’ve completely slid away from the
platform. Like, the last time I played a
PC game was giving Hearthstone a try
on my brother’s computer, and I’m pretty sure I only did that to beat some AI
opponents to unlock stuff for him.
(Mission complete, thanks to the basic Paladin deck.) I also played Team Fortress 2 a couple of times while he played on one of the
consoles -- and back when we used to share a PC, I played World of Warcraft for a few weeks during one summer.
And that’s pretty much it. My expertise with PC games is lower than the
number of hairs on Mr. Clean’s head. I
know there are a ton of classics that have wormed their way into the hearts of
gamers, but those were before my time (both in terms of age and when I actually
had a computer). If and when I got games, most of them were on
consoles, with only a rare bone tossed toward the PC vis a vis gifts from my
parents. The biggest payoff, if one
could call it that, was when I got a six-pack of Sim-based games. Their
quality was…debatable, basically. It
didn’t help that the first computer we used for games was basically outdated in
a couple of years, so the newest titles made that machine chug.
I don’t hate PC gaming, since if not for that I
would’ve never played Final Fantasy 7 or
8 (and a couple of
suboptimal-performing Lego games). But I
hope you’ll forgive me for not being too keen on the platform. I never had the foundation, and I doubt I
ever will. Sorry, Will Wright.
That’d probably explain why I suck at Overwatch -- which I basically expected
going in.
Whereas my brother, a number of his friends, and
presumably most people on the planet moved on to become more well-versed in PC
gaming (with a multitude of shooters, Counter-Strike
well among them), I’ve been sticking with a pad for millennia. I don’t have the muscle memory needed to act
with pinpoint precision or lightspeed reaction time; sure, I know how to use WASD controls and a mouse, but I
can’t say I use them well.
Now, if PC gaming was strictly limited to typing
out stuff on the keyboard -- a la The
Typing of the Dead -- then I’d be basically unstoppable. But that’s not the case, so I’m a liability
to myself and others. That’s kind of a
problem when you’re supposed to work with a team; even though nobody’s said it
outright (yet), I’m always worried that people on my team think I’m the reason
why we lost. On the other hand, I’d
wager that Overwatch is constructed in
such a way that, even if you are terrible
at shooters, you can still contribute something worthwhile. That’d probably explain why I’m fond of a
Support character like Lucio. Though in
his case, I can think of a few other reasons.
But I digress.
The important thing is that Overwatch
is basically my very first real PC game -- and that begs the question of
“why now”. Why buy in? Why this
game, instead of droves of others?
That’s especially true, considering that there’s a console version
available. Well, the PC version is $20
cheaper, so there’s that bonus right off the bat. I’m wary of PC gaming because it increases
the risk of me goofing off instead of doing stuff for Cross-Up and other
projects, but on the other hand? It means
I’d be able to play online with my brother, as we did in the beta. So that’s another plus.
Really, though, I couldn’t help but be attracted
to the game. In a lot of ways, it’s exactly what I always wanted; it’s a symbol of the gaming
industry’s step away from an age of grit, grime, and po-faced seriousness. I want to enjoy that shift as it
happens. And it probably will happen, since
the game’s a wild success…though that probably means we’ll be getting a
bunch of clones that miss the point, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to
it.
There’s a part of me that wonders if the game’s
triumph -- financially, critically, or emotionally -- is thanks to the same old
marketing and hype-mongering tricks that’ve become standard operating procedure
in the big-budget space. Look at what
the animated trailers were promising: heroes coming together in a brave new
world to preserve the peace and push toward a better, more hopeful tomorrow. Then you get to the actual game, and
apparently, “peacekeeping” = matches of King of the Hill and playing babysitter
to a big dumb payload. It’s troubling,
because there IS lore to the game, and there IS stuff
worth looking at extensively.
Blizzard and crew need to give the game the story mode/campaign it deserves;
I kind of wonder how that’d work, but given their resources, it’s not like it’s
impossible.
But Overwatch
is basically on the same axis as Splatoon. The latter is also about its incredible
multiplayer and gameplay (albeit
with a deeper theme and metacontext than most would expect), so saying “Overwatch fails because it has no story”
would be a massive disservice. I tried
the beta back when Call of Duty: Black
Ops III came out, and pretty much stayed glued to the chair for about four
hours. I played the public beta for a
couple of days, and grew enamored with it despite
my lack of skills. Now the full
game’s out and I’m having a hard time thinking of a shooter I’ve enjoyed
more. (Besides Splatoon). Soooooooo…why do
we even need CoD or Battlefield now that we have a respite,
a lord and savior descended to deliver us from brownness?
It should go without saying, but this won’t be the
last time I talk about Overwatch here
on this blog. It’ll be a bit before you
see anything from me, most likely, since I have to approach it in a manner as
native to me as the surface of Phobos.
But until then? I have to compare
it, however slightly -- and unfairly -- to Battleborn. I also played the beta for that, and it
was…fine. All right. Not really my thing, but I understand the
appeal. I feel as if marrying shooter
mechanics and MOBA mechanics isn’t a bad idea, but it adds a level of
complexity that I can’t really get behind.
Still, the reason why I wasn’t sold had more to do with the characters
-- and the aesthetics, and the animations, and everything in between.
I’m not saying Battleborn
is bad -- and I feel bad for it because it release in the same general time
frame as Overwatch, which
couldn’t have been a good idea.
Still, my real complaint is that the aesthetic was all over the place;
there was no consistency between the characters, uniting them under a single
stylistic vision. They were disparate
entities that might as well have been pulled from different games and crammed
into one; maybe that was the point, but there wasn’t really anyone I resonated
with. It didn’t help that the characters
felt like they were missing something, the humor wasn’t particularly good, and
I never got the sense that I was playing as a different hero each time. Even if they have wildly different skill
sets, it felt more like I was playing as those
skill sets instead of someone I’d pledge my life to. Or my loyalty, more importantly.
That’s not the case with Overwatch. It should go
without saying that it’s a good-looking game in terms of fidelity and
aesthetics, thanks to the almighty dollar.
But it’s just a better-looking and better-feeling game. I believe that the same space can be occupied
by a scientist gorilla and Robo-Dhalsim sooner than I believe an armored space
marine and an elfin archer can occupy the same planet. In the absence of a dedicated story mode (for
now), all you need to do to understand the characters is watch a compilation of their
highlight intros. They move, they
speak, they act, they live, and more; some serious work has gone into making
the heroes a reality, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed or unappreciated.
It’s like…you know how people turn their noses up
at animation because it automatically means “lower quality” or “it’s for kids”,
even when the reverse has been proven true time and time again by Pixar
alone? I’ve always lamented that not
enough people are willing to use animation because of the stigma -- as if
they’re afraid of being stylish. Or
ignored, or scoffed at, or whatever. Now
here comes Overwatch, which not only
gives me exactly what I wanted, but also fills a niche that’s largely gone
unfilled.
As in, Zootopia
may be a
movie with some heady themes and complexity, but it had to masquerade as a
cheery, kid-friendly comedy along the way.
Can you imagine what it would be like if the limiters were off and
people were free to create whatever they wanted, however they wanted, and they
were guaranteed to have at least a couple of curious onlookers instead of
snooty naysayers? We don’t have to
imagine anymore, because WE OVERWATCH NOW, BAYBEE.
And that’s about all I’ve got for now. Be sure to keep checking in for more on Overwatch from me, as well as whatever
else shows up in the interim. What’ll it
be? Who knows? Maybe it’ll be the new Ratchet and Clank. Maybe
it’ll be JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Maybe it’ll be something else completely
random.
Or maybe it’ll have something to do with E3. Let’s see who embarrasses
themselves this year.
OH WAIT, NO.
There’s something of IMMENSE
importance I have to mention:
Mercy is my Overwatch
waifu. Why? Because she’s literally the best. LITERALLY.
LITERALLY. THE. BEST.
In my
humble opinion, of course. <3 font="">
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