Why Anyone Would Jump Over Time Pieces is Beyond Me

So. Overwatch comes out soon.

I was given the very fortunate opportunity to play about...

*checks watch*

3 hours of the beta with my sister, who, by the way, was a huge fan of Team Fortress 2.

Our initial reactions have been one of immense excitement.

First off I would like to point out that I was completely sucked into it's intrigue upon watching it's first cinematic trailer. Also, let's be honest. It was actually more or less a short film. Now that's fun. As a filmmaker and critic of both the filmic and gaming spectrum I was hooked. The film wasn't quite Pixar, I knew this in my mind, but it damn sure did a great job of making it feel like Pixar.

The marketing campaign up to this point has followed suit. 2 short films have been released up to the point of this blog post: Recall and Alive. Both are great. Both are immersing me.

And that's the appeal that's really getting me excited not just to play the game of Overwatch, but also what Overwatch is as an entity. It's a game like this has no business having a true immersive universe. A game of this genre calls for good, clean fun with good replayability and updates here and there to keep the game fresh. Where the hell did this sense of story come from?

So I can see some people saying this isn't new... like... at all. It has the gameplay of Team Fortress and the short films are kind of like the ones that Valve also did.

I get that, I really do, but the fact is that plenty of people have done plenty of the same things and what ends up standing out among the sea of clones is execution.

I've felt genuine emotion as I watch Widowmaker jump off the building and aim for her mark in the short film. I shouted an oh no! as my Roadhog was gunned down during an assault mission and leapt for joy as I heard my sister's character: Mercy yell "HEROES NEVER DIE!" It was true. As soon as I heard those words my Roadhog got back up, guns ablaze.

An emotional response like that doesn't just come from intriging world building and being just a fun game. No, I'm giddy just thinking about team comps and strategies. I suppose the feeling I can compare it to was when I signed up to play League of Legends during it's year of inception. I had played games like it before (DotA) but I hadn't played an iteration like this. And I was hooked from that point on.

But this still also feels different.

Blizzard has that kind of attention to detail that makes me feel like there's so much more. I can't wait to see more short films and I can't wait for the open beta. If Blizzard keeps this up, this will truly be a hero that never dies.