By Anni Simpson on November 9, 2014 at 3:28pm
As is typical of Blizzard, demo stations were available for all of the new titles announced at BlizzCon. This year, Player Theory took a look at two of the new titles: the "Hearthstone: Goblins vs. Gnomes" expansion and completely new universe "Overwatch." Let's take a look at initial thoughts about these games, keeping in mind that "Overwatch" is still in early alpha development and is likely to change drastically before release.
"Overwatch"
"Overwatch" is a completely new IP, set in a fictional universe where heroes of a supposedly defunct mercenary group called Overwatch protected society from falling apart sometime in the recent past. The heroes are made up of a diverse cast of creatures and abilities with particular functions in the group. The title is a cooperative first-person shooter with teams of five pitted against one another. The closest comparison to a game officially on the market is "Team Fortress 2."
Two teams take the battleground with one defending a base while the other attacks it. The battleground was complex, clearing the way for different tactical positions and maneuvers. Upon death, resurrection is far enough away from battle that you can reconfigure your strategy based on how well or poorly the fight is going. You can also switch out heroes mid-fight to completely change the dynamic of the fight. The game is fast-paced, complicated, and stunningly constructed.
What's Good About the Game So Far
- Heroes are diverse in creature, gender, and class construction without being cheesy. The female characters are believable rather than the highly sexualized characters we're all familiar with.
- Visually, "Overwatch" is a masterpiece. The world and ability effects are, for lack of a better word, gorgeous, without impairing gameplay.
- Heroes are not overly complicated in terms of abilities, making it possible to switch out between them as Blizzard intended.
- The map available is complicated enough to provide a challenging environment.
What's Not So Good About the Game So Far
- The storyline is not a part of the game at all, and currently, it's not intended to be. Any story will take place outside of the game itself. The actual execution of that is currently unknown.
- There's some imbalance, but for a development build, that's expected.
- The abilities, while few in number, are very difficult to learn mid-battle if you're not familiar with the hero at all. It requires a little bit of background knowledge before you jump in.
Overall Conclusion
It's hard to say this early in the game, but "Overwatch" has a lot of potential. It was incredibly overwhelming, and of course, Blizzard didn't let you play for hours given how many people wanted to try the game, but what we did see was fun and exciting, as well as the potential for the high quality of game that Blizzard games are known for.
"Hearthstone: Goblins vs. Gnomes"
The demo station allowed you to play one of two heroes: Anduin with a gnome-based deck and Jaina with a goblin-based deck. Each deck included a powerful assortment of commons, rares, epics, and the occasional legendary. Both had incredibly powerful potential against an opponent based on the luck of the draw.
What's Good About the Game So Far
- The addition of new card types completely changes the dynamic of the game, creating an entirely new experience in "Hearthstone."
There are 120 new cards to the game, meaning there will be countless new opportunities to switch up deck configurations and revisit old heroes in new ways.- The cards themselves have zany abilities that are just plain fun. They make use of deathrattles, battlecrys, and even the randomized effects from constructions you'd expect from the two factions.
What's Not So Good About the Game So Far
- The randomized functions of some of the cards make it impossible to rely entirely on skill, which is frustrating for a game that already relies on luck to some degree.
- It's hard to tell because you couldn't construct the decks on the demo machine, but the goblin deck seemed overpowered compared to its gnome counterpart. Gnome lost hard both games we played with two comparably skilled players. Given that the release is next month, that seems unreasonable.
Overall Conclusion
Goblin mechanics were a lot of fun. Gnomes had the potential to be, but I just couldn't make it work out in the short time I had played. The randomization and imbalance makes us nervous about a release date so close, but we're nervously optimistic about what the new mechanics, new cards, and new adversarial relationship between the factions can offer the game many have come to love.
