Halo 5 might have been the talk of the town last Tuesday, but it wasn't the only major game to be released. Last October 27 also marked the opening of Overwatch's closed beta test.
The game, which is developer Blizzard's first original IP in almost 20 years, is a class-based competitive FPS arena shooter in the vein of Team Fortress. The studio is the creator of the bestselling Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo franchises, some of the biggest games in their respective genres.
The company doesn't have much of a reputation for shooters however. They last dabbled in the genre back in the early 2000's with Starcraft: Ghost, a third-person stealth action game that has never made it to release.
This makes Overwatch, in many ways, uncharted territory for Blizzard.
The game pits two teams of six players against each other in an online battleground. Similar to a MOBA, Both sides choose from a pool of 'heroes' each with their own unique set of weapons and abilities. From there, the two opposing forces duke it out over objectives strewn throughout the map.
A select few were lucky enough to get invites to the beta, and have begun posting their impressions online. Here's some of the early feedback.
Lazygamer's CongoKyle says it 'could possibly be the best game I've ever played.'
'It's almost as if Unreal Tournament 2003 bumped into Quake and Team Fortress 2, during their young and wild college years, and together a beautiful game baby was made.' He writes.
Forbes Magazine's Paul Tassi also had praise for the title, hailing its unique and original character designs.
'These are quite simply some of the best designed MOBA/arena-type champions I've ever gotten my hands on.'
Being a work-in-progress, the game isn't without its faults however. Tassi says the game's lack of any meaningful unlock or progression system makes its replayability pretty slim.
He also found the pace of some matches to be slow due to the distant spawn points and lack of dependable mobility skills for all characters.
The game is of course, still a long way from release, so these things can be ironed out as more feedback rolls in.
