So Blizzcon is fully underway, and the company have finally unveiled their new IP Overwatch, which has been under tight wraps since the name was registered last March. So what genre will this new IP be? Departing from Blizzard’s speciality for strategy and RPG genre games, Overwatch will be a team based FPS with cartoonish visuals and larger than life characters, much like popular free to play titles like Team Fortress 2 and Loadout. Check it out in the trailer below:
Looking pretty fine, no? Not to dwell too much on the more obvious thing shown, the more eagle eyed viewers out there will spot that the game has more than a few nods to Vavle’s rival shooter. You’ve got your engineers with upgradable sentries (or offensive mini-sentries), different snipers using a mix of rifles and bows, and invisible assassins that will sneak up and dispatch foes that stand too long in the same place. Though instead of classes, Blizzard have made it clear that they’ll be concetrating on characters, adding in more as the game ages like League of Legends, instead of more weapons to equip to classes. There are currently 12 characters, and Blizzard says there will be more when the game releases. The maps shown look gorgeous in their bright cartoonishness, with tons of details (check out those Boris buses and shop fronts!) and varied locations which harken back to the days of Unreal Tournament’s lava filled factories, Egyptian tombs, abandoned streets, and castles. It certainly makes for a nice change from the usual gravel pits and featureless wastelands of it’s rivals.
Though nothing has been said yet about how the game will be monetised, it’s more than likely the game will be free to play with premium cosmetic items, keeping competitive with Team Fortress and Loadout, while following the trend of other recent Blizzard games like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. No word yet either on the game’s release date, though we do know there will be a beta of sorts starting in early 2015.