Published on November 7th, 2014 | by Dan

Blizzard Announces Overwatch – A Team Based FPS

I don’t know that anyone saw this coming. After canceling Project Titan 7 years into development, the chances of us seeing a new franchise from Blizzard were little to none, but here we are.

Blizzard has announced their first entry into the FPS genre and first new franchise in almost two decades with Overwatch, basically Blizzard’s version of Team Fortress 2. This is 6v6 class based, objective combat and looks to be played at an incredibly high pace. Four characters (classes) have been revealed so far with some descriptions here from Blizzard:

Tracer, a former British test pilot who shrugs at danger, can execute impossible acrobatic assaults thanks to her ability to teleport, drop energy bombs, and even reverse time.
Reinhardt, a hulking German soldier in battle armor, can charge great distances and pin his enemies to a wall or slam the ground with his rocket hammer to knock them off their feet.
Hanzo, a bow-wielding Japanese mercenary, has the ability to scale walls with his bare hands, fire off a tracking device that illuminates nearby enemies for his team, and unleash a huge spirit dragon that does grievous damage to all enemies in its path.
Symmetra, an Indian architech, manipulates light and energy to shield her allies and damage her enemies-and she can turn the tide of any battle by building a device that instantly transports her teammates to the front lines.

I would think more classes will be revealed as these don’t fulfill all the archetypes that are usually in games like Team Fortress 2. Several others are in fact detailed in the trailer above, including the Reaper which appears to be the equivalent of the TF2 Spy. Overall I am pretty damn hype after watching the game play above and the beautiful-as-usual Blizzard cinematic trailer below. On a side note, this story trailer indicates to me some of this lore was pulled from the future universe in Project Titan and transplanted to Overwatch. Regardless, the game looks very promising!

The beta for the game will launch in 2015. What do you think of Overwatch and Blizzard entering into the FPS genre? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!

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Tags: Blizzard, Overwatch