It’s Wednesday again, and of course, everything today has to revolve around a topic related to the past BlizzCon. While Blizzard’s in-house fair generally excited me, there was a clear criticism that I could raise about the new shooter “Overwatch“.
They have decided to outsource the story and only tell it outside of the actual game – for example, in the form of forum posts and short films.
Overwatch – Lots of Fun, Little Story?
The team shooter already looks outstanding, and there is no doubt in my mind that this game will likely be my time sink in 2016 – especially if I manage to recruit five more people from my friend circle.
The only real downer came from the statement that the background story is practically nonexistent in the game and is only told through the locations and small dialogue snippets. Surely, it is difficult to incorporate story into a pure team shooter – but to virtually banish it entirely, that simply can’t be the right approach.
Back to the Past
If Blizzard has always been able to do one thing well, it’s telling stories within their game worlds. You don’t have to look long for examples, whether it’s the campaigns of the Warcraft and Starcraft games or the more complex quest lines in WoW, Blizzard has always staged epic stories incredibly well within their game worlds. I can already hear the objections like: “But Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm don’t have a great story!” While that is superficially true, it is fundamentally incorrect. It is true that these games do not have a great individual story, but they are based on the incredibly rich backgrounds of long-established worlds.
“Overwatch,” on the other hand, is completely new and loses a lot of its appeal for me with the statement that the story is only available externally. While I look forward to devouring the (surely forthcoming) books and immersing myself into the world, I would have liked to learn something in the game itself – a game without a story simply isn’t complete. The story is the absolute heart of what excites me and makes me develop a passion for a game world. Above all, it is incredibly important in discussions with friends when I want to get them hooked.
If I can only respond to a “What’s it about?” with “Oh, it’s a shooter in the future… the rest can be read on the website,” then the likelihood of getting my environment to also dive into the addiction drastically decreases. The times are gone when I played games solely based on their mechanics – the background story has simply become an obligatory aspect for me, especially when set in fantasy universes.
So, dear Mr. Blizzard, please at least incorporate the background story of the characters into the game – it greatly disrupts the immersion when I first have to go to a website for that. And while you’re at it, please invite me to the “Family & Friends Alpha”… I’ve heard rumors.
The cinematic trailer had already made me eager for more…
