I Admit Defeat; I can't deal with Overwatch anymore

[Paragon Fury]

I fully admit; I was SUPER, EXTRAORDINARILY, UNBELIEVABLY HYPED for Overwatch. It looked amazing, it was from Blizzard and it was a shooter. I thought it would be a sure-fire hit.

Was super ecstatic when I got into the beta. Played the hell out of it, made Youtube vids for the Beta stuff like that. Unfortunately wasn't able to afford the CE when it came out, but I convinced several people to drop the $60 to get the game when it came out.

First two items I ordered when Blizzcon started where my Ana and S76 shirts; was super sad when I couldn't get an Onion Plush.

But now, almost a year since the game's launch and more than a year of playing for me (since I was in Beta) I can honestly say;

Overwatch been one of the *worst* gaming experiences I've had. I thought my friends were just being stubborn or crazy when they stopped playing a couple months after the game came out; I realize now they may have just been prescient.

Especially since being made to play solo, I've seen all the problems this game has had up close and personal; and I feel like if it weren't being carried by excellent art design and Blizzard's name, you would've found Overwatch in the bargain bin less than 4 months after it's launch and it wouldn't even see it on Twitch's scroll.

Poor map design, bad character balance, exceptionally poor competitive balance (poorly telegraph attacks, attacks not matching their effects, abilities having nonsensical interactions etc.), very poor matchmaking.

The game is hard to enjoy even casually, as its so focused on it's design as a "team" game and competitive that it inhibits the things that typically make a game fun for casual.

It also combines the worst aspects of shooters *and* MOBAs - the ability to solo carry, yet somehow 1 terrible person can also cause 5 great players to lose - especially because of the focus on abilities and less on mechanical skill (ever notice how almost always the characters that can dominate through pure mechanical skill - McCree, Genji and Widow for example - get nerfed consistently but those who rely on abilities/are easy to use don't get touched or even buffed - IE: S76, Roadhog etc.?) for many characters.

I feel like a few of the Youtubers who have tried solo'ing it and made videos about it (UnitLost and Muselk come to mind) share the similar sentiment that I do;

Overwatch is a great game....*IF* you have friends on to consistently play with and distract you from all the game's issues. When forced to play it solo, or with no one distracting you from the game's issues (or if they are playing with you, noticing them too) the appeal of the game starts to quickly lose it's luster, if not outright fall apart (the same thing, I believe, that is happening to WoW incidentally, but that is another topic).

Without that, Overwatch quickly proves...less than it appears to be.

 

[Dansen]

I have a similar problem with League of Legends. I enjoy it for the most part but competitive without friends is frustrating to say the least. Playing solo can really affect your state of mind when constantly dealing with a negative community and from what I've seen Overwatch and League have a overlapping fanbase. A lot of the problems you described can apply to LOL. Add to that a team that moves at glacial speeds to address issues or correct mistakes, often times ignoring them for years. It sometimes feels like Riot is poorly mismanaged, perhaps due to all the competent ones being heavily involved in the E-Sports bubble(that shit is going to pop and it is going to be ugly when it does). It can get really annoying dealing with issues within the Dev's power to correct for months at a time so I totally see where you are coming from.

That said I can still enjoy League from time to time but I need to take month long breaks in between, I suggest you do the same and see how you feel about Overwatch afterwords.

 

[Morgoth780]

Yeah i stopped playing a while ago... Aside from everything you mentioned, a lot of mechanics are really just unfun. Roadhog's hook, Mei as a whole... Any abilities that restrict movement I just find incredibly frustrating to play against. Sure, there's counterplay, and they're balanced, but once you're physically unable to do anything to prevent your own death, that's when they get frustrating.

I was in a very similar situation to you. My friends raved about how good overwatch is, so I picked it up, and then everyone just slowly stopped playing. I've generally developed an aversion to competitive games, I quit playing rainbow six and csgo as well.

 

[CritialGaming]

I don't wanna say that I fucking called it, but....I fucking called it.

Look even a shit game is fun with friends, that doesn't make the game not shit.

And Overwatch isn't a shit game, it just isn't a very engaging one. Unlike games like DOTA or League, Overwatch doesn't have the complexity to make every match widely different. With no story, nothing to really engage the players, it really is just a string of Team Deathmatches with light objective thrown in.

The difference between Overwatch and games that thrive on multiplayer like CoD or Battlefield, is there is nothing dynamic in Overwatch. The objectives in the game completely limit possible strategies because ultimately you always know where your opponent has to be. Battlefield and CoD both utilize much larger maps, with tons of placing for your enemy to hide and use tactics against you. Add to that the different load-outs and a shit ton of personal objectives (500 headshots with a shotgun, for example) and you have a game that can hold people's interest without relying on them playing with friends.

In Overwatch you don't have variety, you don't have endless tactical options. Which means that you have a shooter that is incredibly limiting.

I said it back in my review last year. Overwatch is a fun game, but it doesn't offer a lot of lasting power. It's the kind of game you can have a lot of fun with for a few months off and on, but ultimately it is an easy game to grow tired of.

 

[meiam]

Well I think the dev even came out and said that the game was build around the idea of groups of player rather than solo player.

I play occasionally, but not so much for the game, more for the payerbase. It's my "buffer" game, when I got 20 minute to kill, not enough for a moba match or a solo game, but too long to waste online. I just know I'll be able to find a match quickly without having to wait 5+ minutes.

But yeah, I can't play it for too long because of a lot of annoying design decision that makes sense for coordinate team but are just annoying for solo player. Constantly dying in one shoot to stuff you can't do anything about gets old very quickly (heal tank as Mercy, Roadhog turn the corner and immediately hook you, literally nothing you can do, walk back from spawn point and random dragon go trough wall and kill you or try to get around the enemy team as Tracer and a bastion see you and immediately destroy you).

I liked battleborn a lot more, the time to kill was much higher and it wasn't so focus on player kill since there was a lane to push and sub objective. And while balance also had issue, there was only one character with the potential to kill you in without you being able to do anything and it required a lot more skill than roadhog hook and he was a lot less survivable, so it felt less cheap.

 

[Zhukov]

*shrug*

I've been playing almost 100% solo since early on and haven't had a problem.

Poor map design

The maps aren't bad, but they are restrictive. They kind of have to be for the sake of balance. The more complicated a map is the harder it is to balance.

bad character balance

Hahaha.

I'm not going to outright say you're wrong without hearing specifics, but people ***** about balance in every multiplayer game ever made. And they're 99% full of shit with no perspective, no data and no idea what they're talking about.

Most "balance" complaints boil down to "please buff my favourite character" and "please nerf the character that counters my favourite character" with a bit of "please nerf the character that killed me last" thrown in for good measure.

exceptionally poor competitive balance (poorly telegraph attacks, attacks not matching their effects, abilities having nonsensical interactions etc.)

Examples?

very poor matchmaking.

I can count on one hand the number of truly bad matches I've been put in. And they were all caused by one of the teams being premade with great variation in rankings.

It also combines the worst aspects of shooters *and* MOBAs - the ability to solo carry, yet somehow 1 terrible person can also cause 5 great players to lose

Well, yeah.

When you play a game with other people those other people are always going to be a source of problems.

Blizzard are good at what they do, but I don't see how they can design their way around gamers online being arseholes and idiots.

 

[Erttheking]

Gonna have to echo Zhukov and report a lack of problems. Maybe I'm biased because I'm still riding the emotional high of finally getting into gold on ranked

Poor map design

Not really. They're a bit simplistic, but they do their job just fine.

bad character balance

Again, not really. The only thing I can seriously see being a problem is the D.VA's ult is a bad case of "WTF are hitboxes?" and even then that's offset by it being the only real string to her bow compared to other tanks.

exceptionally poor competitive balance (poorly telegraph attacks, attacks not matching their effects, abilities having nonsensical interactions etc.)

I have to echo Zhukov again. Examples?

very poor matchmaking.

I cannot report any major matchmaking problems on my end, minus the two or three times I got dumped into a match that was about to end.

It also combines the worst aspects of shooters *and* MOBAs - the ability to solo carry, yet somehow 1 terrible person can also cause 5 great players to lose

That's...kind of how multiplayer works. Five great people and one bad person vs six great people...well...yeah the six great people are gonna win.

 

[Pseudonym]

It seems to me the OP has overly high expectations of the game.

But now, almost a year since the game's launch and more than a year of playing for me (since I was in Beta) I can honestly say;

Overwatch been one of the *worst* gaming experiences I've had. I thought my friends were just being stubborn or crazy when they stopped playing a couple months after the game came out; I realize now they may have just been prescient.

Isn't it also possible that you've tried to play it too much? Just because a game isn't fun forever doesn't mean its a bad game. After a huge amount of playing CoD I did eventually get tired of it. Same goes for civ 5. If you've played it for a year and feel sick of it, perhaps you shouldn't look back on it as a bad game but as a good game you just got tired of after a year.

Especially since being made to play solo, I've seen all the problems this game has had up close and personal; and I feel like if it weren't being carried by excellent art design and Blizzard's name, you would've found Overwatch in the bargain bin less than 4 months after it's launch and it wouldn't even see it on Twitch's scroll.

Then don't play solo. Find another game to play where your friends will join or play the game less. I only play certain games with friends which means I sometimes don't play for months because me and/or my friends are to busy to set up a game.

It seems to me that if you play a game for over a year and play it solo when all of it is designed around team play that you'll start seeing the problems. That doesn't make it a bad game, that means you want too much of it.

 

[Phasmal]

I dunno, dude, while I do like playing with my friends, I also solo queue a lot and I enjoy that pretty much the same.

I'm just not seeing it. Hell, sometimes I prefer to play by myself. As much as I love my boyfriend, before they changed competitive and we could still queue together he was dragging me into matches I was totally not ready for because he made top 500 in season 1, the git. I am just an average gold-level player.

I also don't think that the maps are bad and I think they're doing a good job of balancing considering how many heroes there are. I mean, it sucks they nerfed Ana's dmg just when I was getting good at her, but I'll survive (if I hide behind the tanks and cry a little).

And, if you're playing solo or playing with a group, you should still be trying to play as a team. I can't say I have time to be distracted by whatever you think the flaws are with the maps, I'm usually busy trying to heal people (or sometimes kill them).

Sucks that you're not having fun with it, though.

 

[Glongpre]

I only solo queue, and I love it. It is a fantastic game. I've been plat every season, usually playing support or tank (either Lucio, Winston, or Rein).

The maps are pretty good for the most part, I mean, the maps were made with teamwork in mind, so when you don't get that teamwork they can feel bad.

The balance has been solid for the most part. There have been a few cases of some characters getting way too buffed (ie. ana, DVA), but it hasn't been awful. Typical MOBA balancing, nothing I haven't seen in Dota or LoL.

Learn to love playing solo, and you will love the game again. It is about improving your own game, and not worrying too much about how your team is playing.

Give it another shot, but go in with a different mindset.

 

[thewatergamer]

My main problem with OverWatch is how impossible it is to really carry a team on your own, premade groups have a massive advantage more-so than they really should have imo compared to other games, its not THAT bad but once you try playing solo for more than about an hour...yeesh

The other main problem of course is the lack of depth, there is really not much there to keep you playing but its a Blizzard game and the Blizzard Fanboy nostalgia generation hasn't gotten old enough to be dead yet so I'm not surprised its still doing well

 

[Chairman Miaow]

Zhukov and Er have it right as far as I'm concerned. Balance is fucking amazing compared to other games. The only heroes who I consider outliers is Ana was very strong for a while and Winston may have been a bit on the weak side. A few of the heroes are niche but are very good at what they do.

Matchmaking is just matchmaking, and I don't mean to be rude but the people who blame matchmaking tend to be those complaining about being in Elo hell and blaming their team.

You talk about characters being buffed and then mention road-hog who's just been nerfed again.

When you talk about level design, got any examples and explanation as to why they are bad?

 

[Paragon Fury]

*shrug*

I've been playing almost 100% solo since early on and haven't had a problem.

Poor map design

The maps aren't bad, but they are restrictive. They kind of have to be for the sake of balance. The more complicated a map is the harder it is to balance.

bad character balance

Hahaha.

I'm not going to outright say you're wrong without hearing specifics, but people ***** about balance in every multiplayer game ever made. And they're 99% full of shit with no perspective, no data and no idea what they're talking about.

Most "balance" complaints boil down to "please buff my favourite character" and "please nerf the character that counters my favourite character" with a bit of "please nerf the character that killed me last" thrown in for good measure.

exceptionally poor competitive balance (poorly telegraph attacks, attacks not matching their effects, abilities having nonsensical interactions etc.)

Examples?

very poor matchmaking.

I can count on one hand the number of truly bad matches I've been put in. And they were all caused by one of the teams being premade with great variation in rankings.

It also combines the worst aspects of shooters *and* MOBAs - the ability to solo carry, yet somehow 1 terrible person can also cause 5 great players to lose

Well, yeah.

When you play a game with other people those other people are always going to be a source of problems.

Blizzard are good at what they do, but I don't see how they can design their way around gamers online being arseholes and idiots.

1: The maps really are badly designed for the most part; see Hanamura and Eichenwald for two great examples of badly done maps. Extremely choke heavy with no true flanks, only alternate routes are limited to certain characters, extremely easy to see and cover them, and Defenders have multiple advantages on every map - including height, cover and on the last point a huge respawn advantage. There are a couple decent maps - like the new one, Oasis - but most are sub-par.

2: The game has had extremely poor character balance throughout it's life; notably in that characters have basically outright deleted others from play (Ana - Every healer that wasn't Lucio until Zen's buff, still has deleted Mercy entirely), been overwhelmingly powerful with little downsides (Roadhog and Ana again) or been stupidly nerfed/buffed and basically removed from any meaningful play (McCree nerf that made him almost useless, then S76 buff that basically deleted McCree entirely or what happened to Widowmaker).

Or how, for instance, the long-awaited Sombra was found on release to be basically complete worthless and still is to this day. Mercy is a functionally incomplete character and her other abilities are weak compared to all the other Supports.

D.Va's entire, tortured, existence.

The Bastion buff which was so ridiculous they immediately had to hotfix it (despite being told how ridiculous it was in testing).

3: A lot, if not the vast majority of abilities in the game have poor tells, poor animations and poor visuals making them hard to work around and deal with as you simply cannot trust what you're seeing as accurate.

Prime examples are Reinhart's Basic Attack and Genji's Dash + Ult which have ranges that far outreach their animations. Other examples are Reinhart's and Mei's Ults, which have completely nonsensical hitboxes for their animations apparently have no rhyme or reason for how they function (Earthshatter hitting people 2 whole stories above Reinhart for instance).

Perhaps the biggest, most well-known example of this was/is Roadhog's infamous Hook, which even in Hook 2.0 is still ridiculous.

4/5: Matchmaking is really bad, and frequently just throws matches together (though it isn't as bad as Heroes, thankfully). The number of 6 randoms vs. 4+2's, 3+3's or even outright 6 stacks happens far too frequently for what is apparently such a popular game.

The thing is; most team games, outside of MOBAs, don't shackle your performance and skill to the other members of your team. In something like Rainbow Six or Halo or Battlefield or even TF2, yeah my team may be shit but I can drag them along and stuff them in my backpack and beat a win out of them.

In Overwatch if your team is shit, or hell even if one person on your team is shit there is often little point in trying unless the other team has an EQUALLY shit person on their side.

 

[WindKnight]

It can be very hit and miss, though the fact I like playing support makes things a lil easier (theoretically).
Sometimes you get good teams.
Sometimes you get horrible ones.
Sometimes your team is three picks in, and you have the red too many snipers warning.
Sometimes your team is screaming at you for not healing them, even though they dragged into the sights of a widowmaker, or did nothing about that Genji trying to introduce his sword to your kidneys.
Sometimes I want a break from playing healer, and am faced with having no healer on my team, or not getting that break I wanted.
Sometimes I'm the only tank, and the DPS who is contributing nothing is screaming that we need a healer, instead of being the healer.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

bad character balance

Hahaha.

I'm not going to outright say you're wrong without hearing specifics, but people ***** about balance in every multiplayer game ever made. And they're 99% full of shit with no perspective, no data and no idea what they're talking about.

Most "balance" complaints boil down to "please buff my favourite character" and "please nerf the character that counters my favourite character" with a bit of "please nerf the character that killed me last" thrown in for good measure.

Overwatch has ALWAYS been poorly balanced, with each problem being replaced by a different problem almost as soon as it's gone.

Some examples:

Lucio has been one of the most popular heroes since release, and Blizzard is only just now doing something about it. This was a case of his kit being too good and not having any competition; he was the only hero who did what he did. Reinhardt has the same problem, and it remains to be seen if Orisa can help to fix that.

Launch McCree. After his nerfs and Soldier 76's buffs, he practically dropped off the face of the Earth.

Launch Widowmaker. Like McCree, nerfs made her very, very difficult to play well, and she practically dropped the face of the Earth, with only the most dedicated of her mains continuing to play her.

Post-buff Zenyatta.

Ana after Zenyatta got nerfed. Despite numerous nerfs, she still sees a ridiculous amount of play.

Blizzard buffing D.Va into top-tier, only to completely destroy her shortly after.

Soldier: 76 is still the best Offensive character after his buffs.

And despite the prevalence of appealing targets, Reaper still sucks because his kit is awful and/or other tanks *COUGH*roadhog*COUGH* were just too good.

Blizzard doesn't quite understand that their "take turns!" philosophy of character balance just doesn't work. WoW suffered through the same problems, and now Overwatch is as well.

 

[Weaver]

I don't wanna say that I fucking called it, but....I fucking called it.

I honestly didn't even pick it up, it just looked really not good to me watching it played. I don't know a single person who bought it who still plays it.

This is an aside, but to me Blizz also hypes their games way too early. Every fucking youtuber and streamer in the world gets beta access like 4 months before launch and thus every gaming show or podcast I consume will talk about a game I can't even play nonstop to the point I'm so *sick* of it before the release even happens I want nothing to do with the game at all.

 

[Pyrian]

...more than a year of playing for me (since I was in Beta) I can honestly say;

Overwatch been one of the *worst* gaming experiences I've had.

Duuude. If you hate something that much... Quit sooner! If they can get you to buy the game, play it for a year, and evangelize your friends, they're going to chalk that up as a success.

 

[sneakypenguin]

I quit just because I couldn't handle solo que. Team comps that sucked I ended up as lucio or ana most of the time solo healing, or solo tanking, people going offensive bastion/widow/torb/sym and doing jack. "76/MCREE/WIDOW SHOOT THE PHARAH, SOMEONE SHOOT THE PHARAH PLEASE, WE NEED TO STOP PHARAH FREE CASTING ON US, SHOOT THE FUCKING PHARAH FLOATING OVERHEAD, someone take rein from me and give me their class."

" i'm silver damage bro i'm not switching"

Then you got a good group who called stuff out, switched specs to counter, and generally played like they actually wanted to win, and ended up steamrolling people.
Being in gold/plat was a roller coaster that just got to be too much so I went back to COD where at least I can solo carry.

 

[Benpasko]

I quit just because I couldn't handle solo que. Team comps that sucked I ended up as lucio or ana most of the time solo healing, or solo tanking, people going offensive bastion/widow/torb/sym and doing jack. "76/MCREE/WIDOW SHOOT THE PHARAH, SOMEONE SHOOT THE PHARAH PLEASE, WE NEED TO STOP PHARAH FREE CASTING ON US, SHOOT THE FUCKING PHARAH FLOATING OVERHEAD, someone take rein from me and give me their class."

" i'm silver damage bro i'm not switching"

Screw them, you can pick whatever you want. When I get a team like that, I do whatever I want, pick McCree or Symmetra or w/e. If they wanted a healer / tank, they would have picked one. Of course, this could be different in ranked. I never touch ranked play in any game, and wouldn't with a ten foot pole.

 

[Baffle]

I played a lot when it came out but just stopped suddenly - I was probably distracted by another game or a flashing light - and didn't feel the urge to go back much. I still pop on now and then for a game, but I'll generally only play one game then log off. It's not a bad game IMO, it just doesn't grab me the way it did at first.

I find the community fairly piss-poor, but I'm not one for online play as a rule; I don't think it's any worse than other online games, but that's damning with faint praise.