Overwatch is a multiplayer first person shooter game made by Blizzard in May 24, 2016. It’s gone viral over the past year and has been accepted into the competitive scene.

Game Modes:

In Overwatch, there are several different game modes. There are quick play, competitive, arcade, and custom mode.

Quick Play:

Quick play games are just normal games that you gain experience from. One of each character can be played and there are six players on each team. These games don’t matter, so it doesn’t matter is the game is a loss or a win. Quick play is honestly my favorite game mode. I don’t have to worry about winning or losing, and i can just try stupid tactics.

Competitive:

Competitive is just about the same thing as quick play, but there are rankings. If you lose the game, your competitive score lowers, if you win it rises. When you win a game, you get competitive points, with these you can buy golden weapons for your heros. At the end of the season, you get more competitive points the higher your competitive score is. Most players care a lot about their competitive score, so do your best. Competitive is a moderately fun game mode, but I don’t like when I’m having a bad day and my teammates bash me for doing bad. Competitive is still one of my favorites though, It gives me points for my golden guns.

Arcade:

In the arcade mode, there are three versus three player lockout elimination and six versus six player lockout elimination. There will be other game modes, but those are mostly for events, like six versus six elimination but you can only play the new character. These lockout elimination games are best out of five wins with all the players battling out. Whatever team is standing at the end wins that round. The heros that are used by the winning team of that round can’t be used for the rest of the game, except if you are playing the new character elimination. You gain loot boxes at the end of winning three games of winning arcade games. The lockout elimination maps are: Ecopoint: Antarctica, Black Forest, Necropilis, and Castillio. You can get three loot boxes every week. At the end of each week, you can get three more loot boxes. Arcade is not too good for me. I just don’t like relying on my teammates on going a healer or tank in lockout elimination. I always have to take initiative in being the support role. I don’t like elimination style games that much with five rounds at max.

Custom games:

Custom games are games made by players that anyone can join except if it is on private mode. The maker of the game can decide the maps, game modes, heros that are playable, and how the heroes can jump, their speed, and how long their ability cooldowns are. They can’t make the game in the competitive game mode though. I love custom games with a zeal. They let me do all of my stupid tactics and I love that. I can even decide how long it takes to use Doomfist’s abilities, which can be very fun.

Escort Maps:

If you are on an escort map and are on attack, your objective is to escort the payload to various checkpoints. When you get the payload to the final objective, you win. If you are on defence on a “escort” map, your objective is to stop the attackers from escorting the payload to the final objective. The payload maps consist of: Watchpoint: Gibralter, Route 66, Dorado, and Junkertown. Escort maps are not to high on my favorite list, probably on the bottom. The other team can have a Bastion and a Reinhardt with a couple of supports and it’s game over. Unless a couple of ultimate abilities are used it it very hard to get past them.

Assault Maps:

If you are on an assault map, your objective is to stop the opposing team from defending the control point. Vise versa for defence. The point will open up after thirty seconds of the game being started. You must stay on the point for long enough without the enemy getting on the point. Once the ring around what point you are taking has gone all around the the point, you move to the next point. Once the last point has been taken by your team, you move to defence, where you have to make sure the attacking team doesn’t take the control points. The maps for this category are: Hanamura, Horizon Lunar Colony, Temple of Anubis, and Volskaya Industries. I’m not very fond of these maps either. If they have the Bastion Reinhardt strategy, It is very hard to beat. And the factor if you have an uncooperative team, it’s over.

Hybrid Maps:

Hybrid maps are quite literally, a hybrid between assault maps and escort maps. There are the defence and offense sides. If you are attacking, you have to take a control point then move a payload to several checkpoints and then the final one. After all of that,  you switch to the defence side where you have to stop the attackers from taking the control point and moving the payload to the ending checkpoint. The maps for this category are: King’s Row, Nubani, Hollywood, and Eichenwalde. Hybrid maps are a combination of my two least favorite maps, but I don’t do too bad with them. I like being of defence because I can play Lucio and be unstoppable.

Control Maps:

On control maps, your objective is to take the control point just like on assault maps, but after you do that you have to protect it until it reaches 100%. Once your point reaches 100%, you win that round. There are a max of two more rounds of this game mode. It is best two out of three so you have to win two rounds. The maps for this category are: Lijiang Tower, Nepal, Ilios, and Oasis. Control maps are where I shine. I like playing a tank hero and just controlling the point. It works better than expected.

Hero categories:

Now are heros. There are four categories of hero: offence, defence, tank, and support. Offencive characters are meant to do lots of damage and potentially wipe the floor clean. Defencive heros are meant to help defend a control point or payload from those nasty intruders. Tank heros are there to protect you. If they go down, you have to fend on your own. If you don’t protect the tank, they can’t protect you. Finally are support heros. Support heros are the heros that can heal others. If they are not protected, your team will fall quickly. My favorite hero category is support because I am who helps out the team to win. I just get tired of it after a while and have to play offence. I never settle on one category, If I switch once every 10 games, I do better with that original category.

Heroes:

In overwatch there are twenty-five heroes with another coming out near November 17th-20th. In the offence category there are: Doomfist, Genji, Mcree, Pharah, Reaper, Soldier 76, Sombra, and Tracer. In the defence category there are: Bastion, Hanzo, Junkrat, Mei, Torbjorn, and Widowmaker. In the tank category there are: D.VA, Orisa, Reinhardt, Road Hog, Winston, and Zarya. Finally are the support heros: Ana, Lucio, Mercy, Symmetra, Zenyatta, and the new hero, Moira. I like playing Lucio and Zarya. They are so different and I like that. I have mained many heroes before, but I have settled with Zarya, Lucio, and Mei. Once you settle with a hero, you need to practice them. But beware, don’t play only that one character, because if somebody else is playing that hero before you, you don’t know what to play.