We are back at it again with another update with an Overwatch overview. First off, we have this week’s Brawl reset and it is definitely going to make players mix up and get to know all the characters of overwatch. The title is called “Mystery Heros” and the rules are two simple steps – respawn as a random hero, and no hero switching. If you are still trying to find the hero that fits your type of playstyle then this gamemode will help push you outside your normal selections. That being said if you forget how a hero plays you always have that option to pull up the Hero skills menu to learn about their controls really fast and on the fly if needed.
In other news, Eurogamer.net’s Chris Bratt had a great interview with Blizzard’s Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan earlier this week which gave us some expectations on the future of Overwatch’s gameplay. One this is for sure is that most of the players are still waiting on the competitive play mode to become active. The last time we saw it was during the closed beta tests and Kaplan stated “Competitive play is the big focus for the team right now and our hope is to release it at the end of this month”. Kaplan also stated that “We actually don’t have a specific date right now” and “It’d be very misleading if I gave you a specific date at this point, because I think it would probably shift”.
Competitive gameplay is still in our future. The older competitive mode was based on a progression-based mode which worked well but needed some tweaks to get it the way they wanted. Kaplan added that “the new system, when we unveil it, I think you’ll see that it’s much more skill-based”. This means that to get to the higher ranks you may need to find a team and use skilled communication to get those much needed wins. The old progression system allowed you to advance into higher trees without having to worry about losing your progression when you lost. This new system will not be this way, your rank will always be vulnerable based upon you and your team’s skills.
A hot topic in the Overwatch community is when the nerf bat is coming to smack some heros around to try to make more things balanced. Currently there haven’t been any updates but Kaplan did confirm that it is coming and hitting McCree first. On the upcoming changes to McCree this is what Kaplan had to say about it. “What we’re looking at right now is his fan the hammer damage. We’re going to reduce it. The goal there is to make it so that McCree can still use his combo that we love, which is the flashbang and fan the hammer on somebody like Tracer. McCree should absolutely kill that Tracer. We want McCree to be a counter to people like Tracer, Genji and Reaper. What we’re not crazy about, right now, is the way in which McCree can absolutely shred tanks”.
Another hero they are looking at altering is D. Va to make her feel like a more effective tank, but the Overwatch team is still trying to figure out what path that is and when it will take place. We will keep our eyes out and let you know when all those balances and play modes become active.