I Finally Started Playing Overwatch! SEND HELP.

I blame all the cosplay, really.

This past year almost every time I didn't recognize an amazing costume, it was from this game "Overwatch." I was intrigued, but once I heard you had to play online - you know, with real live human strangers, I was like, NOPE.

Then some of my friends started playing, and I kept reading more and more about it online, and my favorite artists were posting gorgeous fan art, and THEN I heard about a 2-week free trial on Xbox Live... and the time had come.

 (You can also play on PS4 and PC, if you don't have an Xbox One. You need an internet connection for all of them, though.)

So John and I rented Overwatch from Redbox (Fun Fact: you can rent games from Redbox!) and fired 'er up several weekends back.

About a month later, and I'm helplessly hooked. (HEYO ROADHOG PUN!) It was a bumpy ride at first, though; after the first few days I told John I didn't want to play again EVER, and it took some adjustments before I could really start to have fun with it. So I thought I might throw this review out there, in case any of you are thinking about taking the plunge.

The first thing you should know about Overwatch is it's hella confusing at first. There's a laughably simple "tutorial," then you're on your own in a maze of character and play options. Like most games nowadays, you just have to muddle through and learn as you go. Fortunately it doesn't take long to get up to speed, though.

In a nutshell, Overwatch is a tournament fighting game. You're placed on one of two teams, then instructed to either attack or defend an objective during a timed match. There's no story to follow, no mystery to unravel; you just fight. Obviously this requires FPS (first person shooter) skills, but if you're not great, there are ways to practice outside of the "real" games. More on that in a sec.

The second thing you should know about Overwatch is that you die. A lot. Sometimes over and over and over, in fact. That's not just my lousy hand-eye-coordination talking; everyone dies a lot. It's part of the game. You immediately respawn, though, so dying just means the inconvenience of running all the way back to the fight. Well, that and the frustration of being soundly trounced for the eighth time in a row. :D

Which brings me to the third thing you should know: if you can get past the frustration and rage-quitting stage, Overwatch is insanely fun - and even more addictive.

 

The secret is in the enormous cast of characters, or Heroes, you can play. You can fight with everything from a bow and arrow to ray guns. You can fly, leap tall buildings, turn invisible, turn back time, or clomp around in an enormous robot mecha. The variety feels endless, and every character has unique abilities to discover, which adds to the fun.

Most players settle on a few favorites and stick with them, but since I'm new I've been switching up my character a lot, just to try them all out. I've been surprised how often I end up really loving a character I wouldn't have picked otherwise, and hating others that are really popular.

The game locations have a lot of variety, too; you could be in a space-age industrial factory, a quaint Mexican plaza, or pretty stone ruins in a German forest. It's all beautiful to look at and incredibly detailed:

As a reward for the battles you gain medals and experience points, plus "Loot Boxes" filled with customizations for the characters. Each character has maybe 20 different "skins," along with different things they can say or do, so collecting all the goodies is a real incentive.

  

In fact, here's the Bastion skin John's saving up for:

 SO DREAMY. 

(Meanwhile, I want the Road Hog Christmas outfit. :D)

The most challenging part of Overwatch is that its built around teamwork, and unless you have 5 friends online playing with you, it's going to be a mixed bag of who ends up on your team (and who you're playing against!) That keeps it interesting and unpredictable, though, and if you're the outgoing type you can even plug in a microphone and chat. (I don't, but it was fun listening in a few times.)

On a more personal level, the hardest thing about Overwatch is that you have to, in the words of the Dread Pirate Roberts, "Get used to disappointment." It can take a few minutes to get plaaced in a game, and you can be suddenly yanked out at any time if other players leave before its over. You're then placed in a "skirmish" to wait for a new match, but as soon as THAT gets interesting, you're yanked out again. Then there's the fact that - at least at first - everyone plays better than you. Heh.

So the first few days playing Overwatch I found myself more angry than happy, not so much from the waiting, but because I hate to lose - and when you get blown up by "SpankyFace0139" for the fifth time in a row, it can get suuuper frustrating. (That's around the time I told John to take the game back to Redbox.)

Then I discovered you can play against the AI with your team, instead of against other people. I play on Medium, which is challenging but MUCH easier, and I never have to worry about SpankyFace hunting me down every time I respawn, since the AI doesn't hold a grudge. :D This way I can play without all the frustration, and practice new characters without getting exploded every few seconds. (I still die, of course, but it doesn't feel as personal, you know?)

I also play "real" games against other people if I'm up for the challenge and OK with getting trounced, but for pure confidence-building happy fun times, I stick with the AI. Most times I do a combination of the two, depending on how I'm feeling. Now that it's been a few weeks I can actually hold my own in the real games sometimes, so eventually I may spend more/most of my time there.

John, on the other hand, will only play against real people, and I can tell you from the anguished shouts coming through the door it is NOT good for his blood pressure. ("Nooooo!")

Oh! Which reminds me: there's no 2 player option, so John and I can't play together. Booo. We do have separate profiles, though (HuffleHug and Lil Stay Puft - guess who's who), so we just take turns playing and yelling at the screen. "On your left! Shoot her! SHOOT HERRRR!"

Now let's get to the most important part: our favorite characters!

John is pretty settled on Soldier 76, or sometimes Bastion:

Because he's boring. 

(Although Bastion is actually pretty awesome.)

Like I said, I'm still skipping around, but at the moment I'm really liking Sombra:

Or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, I have a soft spot for Road Hog:

He cracks me up, and it's just so satisfying hooking people and shooting them in the face. 

Er, within the confines of the game, of course. 

Besides, seeing a Road Hog named "Lil Stay Puft" running around the screen is ridiculous in all the best ways.

That and Reaper:  "DEATH WALKS AMONG YOU... AND HIS NAME... IS 'LIL STAY PUFT.'" Bahaha! It's the little things.

Ok, players, chime in: who do you play? Any tips for newbs? And just for my own peace of mind: how often do YOU die in each match?