Overwatch: A Beginner's Guide

Whether you are new to FPS games or not, Overwatch can be a bit overwhelming to someone new to the game. It's a chaotic class-based FPS like we've never seen before. So if you'd like to soak up all the damage like Reinhardt, deal it out like McCree, or keep your team from dying like Mercy; there is a hero for you. First though, you must learn the basics of the game.

Currently there are 21 heroes in Overwatch, and each hero is very different. These heroes fall into 4 categories: Offense, Defense, Tank, and Support.

Offense (Genji, McCree, Pharah, Reaper, Solider: 76, and Tracer): Heroes that have great mobility while dealing damage.

Defense (Bastion, Hanzo, Junkrat, Mei, Torbjorn, and Widowmaker): Heroes that give better control over a match while dealing damage. By control, I mean they have abilities in which they can see the other team, trap them, create choke points, or are good at protecting choke points.

Tank (D.Va, Reinhardt, Roadhog, Winston, and Zarya): Heroes that are good at taking damage and have the most hit points.

Support (Lucio, Mercy, Symmetra, and Zenyatta): Heroes that heal and/or provide utility by shielding their team and/or by bringing them back to the fight more quickly.

Each team can have more than one of the same hero at any time and you are allowed to switch mid-match. What exctly does this mean? It means it is possible to have 12 Tracers running around at any time and each of those Tracers can change to a different hero whenever they need to. It definitely sounds chaotic, and it can be, but you'll find out it is usually better to have a mix of different heroes from each category.

There are 12 different maps currently in Overwatch, not including the practice range, that fall into 4 different categories. These categories are: Assault, Control, Escort, and Hybrid.

Assault: The attacking team must capture two points before time runs out and the defending team must stop them. These maps include: Temple of Anubis, Hanamura, and Volskaya Industries.

Control: Each team tries to capture and control a point until their capture percentage is 100%. It's played out in a best of three series where the team that wins two, win the map. These maps include: Illios, Lijang Tower, and Nepal.

Escort: The attacking team escorts a payload from Point A to Point B before the time runs out. All the while the defending team is trying to stop them. To get this payload to move, you simply need someone on the attacking team near it. If both teams are near, it then it will not move. The defending team can also push it back by being near it. These maps include: Dorado, Route 66, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

Hybrid: Hybrid maps are a combination of Assault and Escort. The attacking team must capture a point, much like the Assault maps, then escort a payload from point A to point B before the time runs out, much like Escort maps. The defending team must stop them. These maps include: Hollywood, King's Row, and Numbani.

Now that you've learned a little bit about the heroes and the maps, it's time for the leveling and the reward system. You gain experience by completing matches in Ranked, Quick Match, VS A.I., and Weekly Brawl. The amount of experience gained depends on: the mode, winning, medals won, and the list goes on and on. This experience is account wide which means you are free to play what you like to level up your account. Currently there is no level cap and for each level you get a loot box. These loot boxes can include hundreds of different rewards which fall into 8 categories: skins, sprays, voice lines, victory poses, player icons, emotes, highlight intros, and credits.

Skins: Change the look of your hero so that you can feel unique as a player. Tied to one character.

Sprays: Paints a small icon. Some are tied to one character while others are account-wide.

Voice lines: Gives you something fun to say. Tied to one character.

Victory Poses: Change the way your character is standing after that VICTORY screen comes up. Tied to one character.

Player Icons: This allows you to change your profile picture in game. These are account wide.

Emotes: Fun way to show off your character. This will pan out and you are able to see what your character does in game. Tied to one character.

Highlight Intros: This will show when you get play of the game. Tied to one character.

Credits: In game currency. Whenever you get a duplicate of any reward it gets converted to this or you can get a mound of credits. You can use this to buy rewards you cannot wait to unlock. This is account wide.

All of this, minus player icons, can be accessed through the Hero Gallery in the main menu. To get to the player icon, simply click your current icon.

Overwatch may seem hectic to start, but it's easy to get a hang of and once you start you won't want to stop! Keep an eye out for future articles to explain these heroes and maps in more detail. Overwatch will be available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4 on May 24th. I already have mine on pre-order and if this has helped you decide you want to too, head on over to the Blizzard store or your local retailer and pre-order for yourself! If you have any questions or feel this helped you please leave a comment!

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