What Overwatch fans can achieve is consistently astonishing. A small team has now created a dating sim that dives astonishingly deep into the fan culture of the shooter.
Symmetra’s Qualifying Matches is the fan project and is fully playable for free in English. As the name suggests, you play as Symmetra and engage in your placement matches for your rank in Overwatch, with the decision of how serious you want to take it being entirely yours.
A dating sim with story and consequences
What is the game about? You have just been inducted into the Overwatch organization as Symmetra and are currently finding your footing. You are to play your first ten ranked matches.
The game is structured like a visual novel, and corresponding to the number of games required, you experience ten days as Symmetra. How seriously you take your games is entirely up to you.
From the start, you have the choice of how much value you place on your ranking. You can decide whether to prepare diligently for the matches or to flirt a bit with your teammates.
Since it is a “dating sim,” you can also date various heroes like Pharah or Sombra, or let yourself be dated. Your decision on whether dates or matches are more important will ultimately determine the rank you receive.
A stand against homophobia: Symmetra’s Qualifying Matches does not take itself too seriously and is also not lore-accurate. Instead, you are allowed all sorts of freedoms, including what orientation Symmetra has.
The creators themselves have summarized the game in brief bullet points:
- Ten different days!
- This stuff is G A Y A F.
- That was a lot of work, please appreciate us.
- Have we mentioned P A N S E X U A L I T Y yet?
- Stay on the freight! Or not. We don’t care.
The project humorously plays with fantasies and sexual preferences without being derogatory. Particularly, homosexuality is viewed by the characters as quite normal.
Fanfiction is the foundation: Particularly impressive is the depth of work that lies behind the project. Although the creators did not take the official lore as a background, they have delved deeply into the realm of fanfiction.
Overwatch fans continually invent stories about the characters that they find cool, entertaining, or romantic. Different pairings arise that cannot be derived from Overwatch itself. Among the most popular pairings, known as “ships”, are:
- Soldier 76 and Reaper
- McCree and Hanzo
- Mercy and Pharah
These heroes are also couples in Symmetra’s Qualifying Matches and have even deeply developed backstories. However, you will only learn about them if you decide to follow the story and neglect the matches.
How does Symmetra’s Qualifying Matches play out? Our author Benedict briefly tested the game. His conclusion:
I don’t like visual novels, but I wouldn’t dare to write about something like this if I hadn’t seen it myself. And I really don’t regret it.
The creators have clearly put a lot of thought into it and packaged it well. Humorous comments and amusing references are often sprinkled in, lightening up the whole game considerably.
Symmetra’s Qualifying Matches admittedly has a somewhat crude sense of humor and openly addresses critical topics. However, if one is not immediately offended by such things, one can have a lot of fun.
What do you think of the idea and the game? Do you appreciate the creativity, or do you find it unnecessary? Let us know in a comment or chat in our Overwatch group. More info and news can also be found on Facebook.
Soon you will also be able to create your own stories. LEGO has introduced 5 official Overwatch sets.
