Gameplay of Overwatch

"Overwatch" is a team-based first-person shooter game developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released in May 2016 for several platforms. The game features a number of gameplay modes that support casual play, ranked play, and competitive modes used for professional esports events, such as the Overwatch League. A sequel, "Overwatch 2", was announced in 2019 and will include new player versus environment (PvE) co-operative multiplayer modes, in addition to player versus player (PvP) modes available from the original game.
Fundamentals.
"Overwatch" features squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each. Players choose one of thirty-two hero characters, each with their own unique abilities and role classes. The three character roles include: damage characters that have powerful attacks to lead attacks or defend control points and choke points, support characters that provide buffs and debuffs for their allies and enemies respectively (such as healing or speed alterations), and tank characters that have a large amount of armor and hit points to withstand enemy attacks and draw fire away from teammates. During the pre-match setup, players on a team will be given advice from the game if their team is unbalanced, such as if they are lacking defensive heroes, encouraging players to switch to other heroes pre-match and balance the starting team. Within a match, players can switch between characters in-game following deaths or by returning to their home base. The game is designed to encourage players to adapt to the opposing team during a match by switching to characters that better "counter" their abilities. As part of a major update across both regular players of "Overwatch" and "Overwatch" esports leagues to launch in September 2019, Blizzard introduced a "Role Queue" for quick play and competitive modes, requiring the player to select one of damage, support, or tank roles for the duration of a game, though freely able to switch between heroes in that role, so that in matchmaking, teams will be made up of two of each roles. From February through June 2020, Blizzard ran its competitive seasons using a "hero pool" mechanic, where only a selection of heroes will be available to play each week similar to "League of Legends", to evaluate using it in the long term. However, after this point, Blizzard found that the hero pool approach was not necessary to maintain balance for characters, instead being able to use other modes, such as an experimental card mode, to test balance adjustments that were later brought to the main game, and dropped the hero pool approach save for the Overwatch League.
Each hero has a primary ability and at least two additional abilities that can be invoked at any time, some requiring a brief cooldown period before they can be used again. Furthermore, each player slowly builds up a meter towards their character's "ultimate" ability; this meter builds up over time but can build up faster for defeating opponents or performing other beneficial tasks for their team such as healing other team members. Once ready, the player can use this ability at any time which may last for a few seconds (such as increased attack strength or immunity to attacks) or be a single powerful action (such as throwing a small explosive), after which they then must wait for the meter to fill up again. Opposing players will be alerted to the use of this ultimate ability by an exclamation from the character, often in the character's native language; for example, when using his "Deadeye" ability gunslinger McCree will call out "It's high noon" as the player engages the ultimate ability to target multiple visible enemies and deal lethal damage to those still in sight. This gives opposing players a brief moment to try to take cover or respond appropriately.
A second meter tracks how many in-round points a player has scored over time, which are rewarded for killing or assisting in killing, providing team defense or healing, and scoring objective points. When a certain threshold is reached, the player character's icon will be "on fire," representing that that character is a threat, but otherwise does not directly affect gameplay. This meter will slowly drop if the player does not continue to score points.
Overwatch employs an automated instant replay system, designed to highlight important moments of the game. After the game's end, the server selects a fragment of the match which had a large impact on the game's progression, such as a rapid succession of kills or an effective use of team healing, and then broadcasts it to all players from the point of view of the player responsible for it. This is called a "Play of the Game" (often abbreviated to "PotG"), or "Play of the Match" ("PotM") in competitive games that have longer matches. Afterwards, a result screen is shown, highlighting up to four individual players from both teams for their achievements during the match (such as damage dealt, healed or blocked, or time spent on the objective), and all players are given the option to commend one of them. Following a June 2018 patch, players can also give out up to three endorsements to any other player in the match based on leadership, teamwork, or sportsmanship. Such endorsements boost experience gained by the receiving players, and factors into matchmaking, favoring players that continue to get endorsements. A custom replay system, automatically storing a player's last ten games in each game mode and with numerous camera and positioning features, was introduced into the "Public Test Region" (PTR), a special set of servers where upcoming patches can be tested by any player, in May 2019, and released for all servers in June 2019.
Players gain experience points following a match towards a metagame level based on several factors such as whether they won or lost, how effectively they used their character's powers, being awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals for their team across six categories such as most time spent on the objectives; and beating past personal records in these categories. Initially, experience was only awarded when playing the game's matchmaking modes and not custom games, but the custom server browser update, released in February 2017, enabled experience gains for custom games. Each experience level earns a player a loot box, which contain four random cosmetic items for individual heroes, including victory poses, paint sprays, alternate skins (costumes), emotes and voice lines. Items are given out based on their rarity level, with "Common", "Epic", and "Legendary" tiers. Loot boxes may contain in-game currency called "credits", which can be used to purchase specific cosmetic items directly, with their cost based on the item's rarity. Duplicate items are rewarded with in-game currency. Other items can only be acquired by completing in-game achievements. Players have the option to buy loot boxes with real-world money through microtransactions.
Character roles.
Characters in "Overwatch" come in three varieties: Damage, Tank, and Support. These roles serve to categorize the heroes by similar characteristics that can be used to describe them and their play style. If playing in an “open-queue” game-mode, the game shows tips to the players depending on which heroes have been selected; e.g., the team will recommend that a player selects a Support hero if there are none on the team.
Player-versus-Player map types.
In standard and competitive play, and in some of the special Arcade modes, maps are randomly selected for the match. Each "Overwatch" map has a specific game mode that it supports, which include:
Each mode includes an "overtime" period that gives the attacking team additional time to complete an objective once normal time expires, as long as at least one member of the attacking team is actively on or near the objective throughout the overtime period. The attacking team has a brief period of time to return to the objective if they leave or are knocked away from it, with that grace time diminishing as overtime proceeds.
Other game maps exist in the game's Arcade modes or can be created through custom games. These include:
The custom server options enable players to create additional game modes not readily classified under the existing modes; for example, players can create 6 versus 1 settings, where one team must try to defeat a single player who is significantly overpowered compared to standard characters.
Player-versus-Environment map types.
"Overwatch 2" will introduce cooperative player-versus-environmental missions where four players work against computer-controlled opponents. There are two main types of these missions:
Maps.
"Overwatch" was released with 12 maps, but new maps have been added over time. Like new heroes, these maps are usually introduced first within the Public Test Region (PTR), allowing players to opt-in to help test and provide feedback on the maps. Once Blizzard feels the map is ready, it is then added to all gameplay regions, entering into normal casual map rotation and often featured in a special Arcade mode for a week or so. New maps are not introduced immediately into competitive mode; though Blizzard had previously waited until the completion of a competitive mode season to introduce a map, as of May 2018 they now plan to add new maps into the competitive mode rotation two weeks following their global introduction into casual play.
The maps are typically designed to support portions of the "Overwatch" narrative, which follows from thirty years after a robotic uprising, the Omnic Crisis, occurred in Earth's near future. The crisis was resolved by the Overwatch agency, which afterward was disbanded. In the game's present, with a threat of another Omnic Crisis and appearance of several shadowy groups, the members of Overwatch have rejoined forces. Most of the game's maps are inspired by real-world locations. The first four maps, "King's Row", "Hanamura", "Temple of Anubis", and "Ilios" are inspired by London, Japan, the ruins of Ancient Egypt, and Greece respectively. During seasonal events, certain maps may be redecorated for the event's theme, but otherwise retain the fundamental layouts, such as Halloween updates for the Hollywood and Eichenwald maps during the "Halloween Terror" events.
Starting in November 2019, Blizzard implemented a map pool that limits the number of available maps in each mode for competitive play (and which also applied to the professional competitions like Overwatch League). This allows Blizzard to curate maps that are not presently in the pool based on player feedback and other observations without disrupting the competitive seasons. These maps otherwise remain available for the various Quickplay and Arcade options.
Assault maps.
"Overwatch" shipped with three Assault maps, with two additional Assault map added since release.
Escort maps.
"Overwatch" shipped with three Escort maps and since added three additional ones.
Hybrid maps.
"Overwatch" shipped with three Hybrid maps and has added two since.
Control maps.
Three control maps were shipped with "Overwatch" and two have been added since.
Arena maps.
Arena maps were added to "Overwatch" to support various causal game modes, in particular matches featuring three-versus-three players but can be re-purposed for other modes. These maps are much smaller in effective area than other gameplay modes.
Other maps.
These are maps that have been added to support specific gameplay modes not otherwise identified above.
Game modes.
"Overwatch" features several means of gameplay, including tutorials and practice modes against computer-controlled opponents, casual matchmaking, weekly brawls, custom games, and competitive play. "Overwatch" allows players to group up prior to starting most of the team modes with friends, or can join a group after finishing a match. With a June 2018 patch, "Overwatch" also allows players create open groups based on certain requirements, such as fixed character roles or desired gameplay type, with other players able to find such groups via the same criteria.
Casual modes.
Casual matchmaking allows players, alone, or in a party with invited friends, to be randomly matched against others in Quickplay mode. The game servers will attempt to match the gathered players in party via a dynamic queue with others based on general skill level, only broadening outside this search range if it takes a long time to find matching players. With the "Role Queue" update in September 2019, players will need to queue up in one of the three roles or form groups that do not exceed these roles before starting a match, while a new "Quickplay Classic" Arcade mode will be added without the role locking requirements. Blizzard works to adjust this matchmaking approach to making sure players will find matches of people with roughly equivalent skill level. For example, in June 2016, Blizzard removed the option for players to avoid specific opponents; the option was meant for players to be able ignore trolls, but instead found that highly skilled players were being put on these avoidance lists and were having difficulty finding games or would be matched with new and less-skilled players.
"Overwatch" was launched with a rotating Weekly Brawl mode, inspired by "Hearthstone"s Tavern Brawls. These matches featured unique rules, such as players forced to play a specific hero or a specific class of hero, or may force a random hero on the player each time they respawn; as the mode's name suggests, these Brawls would change weekly. The Weekly Brawl was merged into an Arcade mode on November 15, 2016. Arcade mode features a rotating variety of games based on all game modes, and from which players can earn unique in-game items or loot boxes. During seasonal events, these Arcade modes may feature unique game modes for that event, such as a three-on-three soccer-type game during the 2016 Summer Olympics, a co-operative player-versus-environment defense mode during the game's first Halloween event, and a Capture the Flag mode as part of the 2017 Chinese New Year event.
Custom games enable players to have open or private games with several possible options that can be adjusted, such as match length, which maps to play, limitations on character selection, and similar options that are used to create the Weekly Brawl or Arcade matches. An update first released in April 2019 introduced the Workshop, a means to use similar scripting tools that Blizzard has available to further customize game options or modify how heroes work in custom games. When initially released, custom games did not allow players to gain experience points. Blizzard has since allowed experience to be earned in custom games with safeguards to prevent players idling for experience points.
Competitive mode.
Competitive mode allows players segregated by both region and platform to play in ranked matches to try to advance in their skill ranking (SR) as high as possible during 2-to-3 month long competitive seasons. Competitive matches uses the same rules as the professional Overwatch League. Prior to the September 2019 "Role Queue" update, players must play 10 matches at the start of a new season to determine their skill ranking, a combination of their win/loss/draw record, their previous season's performance, and their own performance with the various heroes over the 10 matches. Following the "Role Queue" update, players get three separate skill ranking for each of the three roles, and only require 5 games in that role at the start of the season to quantify the skill rating for that role.
Once a player has a skill ranking, all competitive matches are played using matchmaking with players near similar skill levels, and one's skill ranking will rise or fall upon winning or losing a match, respectively; draws do not affect the skill ranking. One's skill ranking determines which of six tiers they are in, with end-of-season rewards given out based on the highest tier that one achieved that season. Those in the highest tiers, Master and Grandmaster, must continue to play matches to maintain their position within those tiers or will have their skill rank drop if they are inactive. Winning or drawing a match earns players "competitive points", a separate form of in-game currency that can be used to buy "golden weapons" for a selected hero. Blizzard continues to monitor how competitive play works out and has tweaked various aspects of the system throughout seasons in response to player feedback.
"Overwatch"s normal competitive mode is limited to the map types of Control, Assault, Escort, and Hybrid. Control maps are played in a best-of-three matchup, with teams vying to take a central control point. Once a team takes control of a point, by clearing all opponents from the point for a short period of time, they must defend the point as their percentage of control of the point slowly increases towards 100%. If the opposing team can clear the defenders and keep the point clear, they then take control, though the original team retains its percentage of control it had. Once a team reaches 99% of the control needed, they must clear the opposing team from the point to complete 100% capture and take the round.
The other three map types, Assault, Escort, and Hybrid, are based on one team attacking to take control points and/or move a payload through checkpoints within a limited amount of time, while the other team defends against these. Games on these maps are played in at least two rounds, with teams switching roles between the attacking and defending teams between these rounds. One team is randomly selected to start as the attacking team, and is scored based on how many checkpoints they have captured/passed and if they cannot completely capture the next checkpoint or escort the payload, how close they were to their next objective. This latter is based on the maximum percentage of control they had of the control point or the farthest the payload was moved; however, teams must take at least one-third of a control point to get credit for that, otherwise their score is treated as if they had not taken any of it. If the team successfully completes all objectives, then the time remaining (the "time bank") is recorded.
In the second round, the attacking and defending teams' roles are switched. If the first attacking team completed all objectives, the second team must do so as well to at least tie up the match. Otherwise, the new attacking team is shown the score they must beat via the game's interface and on the map. If they succeed, they win the match, and failure to at least match that score is a loss. If both teams end up with the same score but with no time remaining in their time banks, the match is considered a draw. Otherwise, additional sudden death matches are played to try to break the tie. The tiebreaker rules depend on the map type, but generally, these have each team have an opportunity to play as the attacking team, starting with what time remains in their time bank, to attempt to get the best score possible; in these sudden death rounds, no time bonus is granted when reaching any checkpoint. Multiple series of sudden death rounds may be needed if both teams succeed in completing all objectives while still having time remaining.
"Overwatch" has run short-term competitive seasons for other game modes typically as part of the seasonal events. This has included Lucioball, Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Elimination. The approach to these are similar as with normal competitive modes, requiring players to complete ten matches to gain a ranking, which is then used for future matchmaking and can be increased or decreased based on the outcome of a match.