Why Overwatch is the Greatest Team Multiplayer Game Since Team Fortress 1
Lots of comparisons have been made between Overwatch and Team Fortress 2. Some have gone so far to say Overwatch is the true successor to TF2 despite being from a different developer.
I will go back further, and compare Overwatch to Team Fortress 1.
The Gameplay
The gameplay in Overwatch is more traditional team objectives and combat without many of the add ons given to multiplayer games these days.
Team Fortress 2 has these add ons too. Not new weapons or power ups, but the different awards and added “objectives.” One example is Domination, which in TF2 means another player has begun dominating you in combat and now is marked for you to chase down (or vice versa). This can take away from the main team objective, throwing the game out the window in some cases. I’ve played many games in TF2 where the opposing team quit before the actual game ended, and I blame a lack of focus on the main team objective.
Overwatch keeps you focused on the one goal. A great characteristic of Team Fortress 1 is its minimal additions. It’s just a team multiplayer game where pits two teams against each other with an objective, no special things for each individual to get distracted by. Different games like Call of Duty do this better anyway, where the combat is focused on the individual’s performance.
Class System
The class system is basic but expansive.
In Overwatch you play as heroes with great abilities, But when you get down to it, they still represent a basic 3 classes that were present in Team Fortress 1: offense, defense, and medic/support.
Sniper, medic, heavy gunner, basic soldier--these were all classes started in Team Fortress 1 all those years ago. TF2 added Pyro and Spy as new classes (which are very fun to play and creative choices), but the traditional classes don’t expand from where they started.
TF2 didn’t expand much on the classes. Still great fun, but not a leap into the next level of team-based multiplayer.
The greatness of TF1 was its simplicity. Overwatch keeps things simple and in a way basic, but expands on these traditional classes like support and the sniper class in way that doesn’t leave it a TF2 clone and surpasses it too.
Each character in Overwatch has an unchangeable, select set of weapons and abilities. But the special abilites given to each class is what changes combat up the most.
I mean, you can fly around. How cool is that no matter what way you look at it?
