I played a lot of Overwatch 1. Many many hours over three accounts and when you look at my most recent account the majority of the time I've played M is in Arcade mode. And as much as I'd like to say to you that I spent time playing everything from Total Mayhem to 1v1s, in actuality, I spent almost all my time in Overwatch playing Quick Play Classic.
If you're like me and have played Overwatch since its original launch in 2016, then you'll remember the various stages the game underwent before it became the 5v5 multiplayer it is today. At first Quick Play allowed you to play anyone, anyone at all, including duplicates. It was chaos, so then it became limited to one of each hero. This frustrated some players still as you could get a group of six DPS mains without anyone willing to change to a healer position. So more chaos ensued.
Eventually Blizzard put its foot down and decided on a final variation. All damage dealers are now the same class, rather than attack and defence and each team must have two supports, two tanks, and two DPS. This became Overwatch's final format and the format for Competitive. This was the real way to play. But I, as a chaos lover, preferred the Quick Play that let anyone pick whatever hero they wanted (without duplicates). This became known as Quick Play Classic and it's what I spent all my time in for the next few years of Overwatch.
I had no interest in winning, I just wanted my time with the game to be fun. I wanted to fly through the sky, free as a bird as Widowmaker and click heads. And because it was Arcade, no one cared. No one really minded if we won or lost. Actually I can recall some players being told to stop being so sweaty when they took to chat to complain about their team comp or players. If you wanted to play real Overwatch, QPC was absolutely not the place to do it. So existed this little bubble of Overwatch where everyone was pretty chill about whatever happened.
Fast forward a few years and here we have Overwatch 2. Quick Play Classic is retained but renamed and moved. Its continued popularity as an Arcade mode meant that it became a Competitive mode in itself and now it's called Open Queue. It's no longer Arcade but a main event once again.
The big gameplay change of Overwatch 2 was reducing the number of tanks you could have on a team from two to one. This change also buffed tanks hugely, taking them from what was practically bigger DPS with a little less damage, to goliaths. Being one on one with a tank in Overwatch 2 is a far more intimidating prospect than it ever was in Overwatch 1, and that was sort of the point. If ever you come to face a tank one on one as a DPS, of the same skill level, you're in big trouble. This change, although sensible for 'real' Overwatch, sort of destroyed some of the fun version of Overwatch for me.
The purpose behind changing from two tanks to one was to make players operate better as a team. To give them one ultra powerful tank to rally around and for that tank to lead the change into battle supported by their squishier friends. But in QPC or Open Queue, where there were no rules, there's no reason to only play just one tank, it's mayhem in a different way. Two, even three tanks on a team is possible. And that means people are now playing to win.
It's probably a great time for many tank players who just want to mess around and step on people, but the buff to the class has changed the dynamic greatly. Where Quick Play Classic was hidden away like a little gem for those that knew it was there, because it wasn't a main version of the game, Open Queue is more serious. All I wanted to do was click heads you know? It's not that deep. Just take a breath and have fun getting to know the heroes you want to play!
I've stopped playing Open Queue. In Overwatch 1 I never played role queue and yet in Overwatch 2, it's all I can play. One tank is enough for any team, even if the whole thing is a little more rigid and brittle. I'll just miss the way Quick Play Classic once was: rest in peace.
Described as a "hero shooter", Overwatch assigned players into two teams of six, with each player selecting from a large roster of characters, known as "heroes", with unique abilities. Teams worked to complete map-specific objectives within a limited period of time. Blizzard added new characters, maps, and game modes post-release, all free of charge, with the only additional cost to players being optional loot boxes to purchase cosmetic items.
Overwatch is Blizzard's fourth major franchise and came about following the 2014 cancellation of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Titan. A portion of the Titan team were inspired by the success of team-based first-person shooters like Team Fortress 2 and the popularity of multiplayer online battle arena games, creating a hero-based shooter which emphasized teamwork. Some elements of Overwatch borrow concepts from the canceled Titan project.
Overwatch was unveiled at the 2014 BlizzCon event and was in a closed beta from late 2015 through early 2016. An open beta before release drew in nearly 10 million players. Overwatch received universal acclaim from critics, who praised the game for its accessibility, the diverse appeal of its hero characters, its cartoonish art style, and enjoyable gameplay. Blizzard reported over US$1 billion in revenue during the first year of its release and had more than 50 million players after three years. Overwatch is considered to be among the greatest video games ever made, receiving numerous game of the year awards and other accolades. The game was a popular esport, with Blizzard funding and producing the global Overwatch League.
Overwatch was an online team-based game generally played as a first-person shooter. The game featured several different game modes, principally designed around squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each. Players selected one of over two dozen pre-made hero characters from one of three class types: Damage heroes that deal most of the damage to attack or defend control points, Tank heroes that can absorb a large amount of damage, and Support heroes that provide healing or other buffs for their teammates.[c] Each hero had a unique skill kit, defining their intrinsic attributes like health points and running speed, their primary attacks, several active and passive skills, and an ultimate ability that can only be used after it has been charged through dealing damage to enemies and healing allies. Players could change their hero during the course of a match, as a goal of Overwatch's design was to encourage dynamic team compositions that adapt to the situation. The game's genre has been described by some journalists as a "hero shooter", due to its design around specific heroes and classes.[5][6]
The game featured game modes for casual play, competitive ranked play, and for supporting esports competitions including Blizzard's Overwatch League. These modes were generally centered around sequentially securing control of points on the map, or escorting a payload between points on the map, with one team attacking while the other defends. Other modes set aside for casual matches include solo and team deathmatch, capture-the-flag, and unique modes run during various seasonal events. More recent updates had enabled users to craft their own game modes with a limited set of scripting tools. Regardless of winning or losing a match, players gained experience towards a player level, and on gaining a new level, received loot boxes that contain cosmetic items that they can use to customize the appearance of the hero characters but otherwise does not affect gameplay. Loot boxes could also be purchased through microtransactions.[7]
Overwatch is set sixty years into the future of a fictionalized Earth, thirty years after the resolution of what is known as the "Omnic Crisis."[11] Before the Omnic Crisis, humanity had been in a golden age of prosperity and technology development. Humans developed robots with artificial intelligence called "Omnics", which were put to use to achieve economic equality, and began to be treated as people in their own right. The Omnic Crisis began when the worldwide automated "omnium" facilities that produced them started producing a series of lethal, hostile robots that attacked humankind. After individual nations' efforts failed to ward off the Omnics, the United Nations quickly formed Overwatch, an international task force designed to combat this threat and restore order.[12]
Two veteran soldiers from the Soldier Enhancement Program were put in charge of Overwatch: Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison. Though Overwatch successfully quelled the robotic uprising and brought many talented individuals to the forefront, a rift developed between Reyes and Morrison due to Reyes being the official leader of the group despite everyone viewing the more popular Morrison as their true leader. Eventually, Morrison was made the leader of Overwatch while Reyes was given charge of Blackwatch, Overwatch's covert operations division, fighting terrorist organizations like Talon, a group that appears to be trying to start a second Omnic Crisis, and Null Sector, a group of Omnics that revolted against the society that persecuted Omnics following the first Crisis.[12] Overwatch continued to maintain peace across the world for several decades in what came to be called the "Overwatch Generation" as the team gained more members, but the rift between Morrison and Reyes intensified. One night, Blackwatch was dispatched to arrest a notorious mobster with ties to Talon. After infiltrating the compound, Reyes chose to execute the mobster rather than let him buy his way out of prison. This action caused Blackwatch and their less heroic actions to be exposed to the public. Several allegations of wrongdoing and failures were leveled at Overwatch, leading to a public outcry against the organization and in-fighting between its members, prompting the UN to investigate the situation. During this, an explosion destroyed Overwatch's headquarters in Switzerland, purportedly killing Morrison and Reyes among others. The UN passed the Petras Act, which dismantled Overwatch and forbade any Overwatch-type activity.[12]
d3342ee215