Thoughts on Overwatch and what it means for MOBAs

I'm sure the title has you confused - Overwatch, while certainly taking some MOBA aspects, is still very much a first person shooter.  Or is it?  Up until recently, I had spared little thought for Blizzard's upcoming shooter, having been obsessively following the development of their other project, Heroes of the Storm.  Thanks to a Founders' Pack, I'm now in the Heroes beta, and the tunnel vision seems to have cleared somewhat.  So when Blizzard announced this past weekend at PAX East that the Overwatch beta was slated for Fall 2015, it seemed like a good time to take a look at their first new franchise in 17 years.

Calling Overwatch a shooter is like referring to a velociraptor as a large chicken with an attitude problem.  It may have a common ancestor and the same basic skeleton, but that's where the similarities end.  In fact, the biggest similarity to a first person shooter is the fact that it is, for the most part, in first person.

It could be considered a spiritual successor to Valve's Team Fortress 2, though Overwatch expands on the older game's principles in almost every way.  TF2 first explored the concept of moving away from weapons to characters as the primary gameplay choice, with each character having their own traits and abilities to facilitate a unique playstyle and role, such as the Heavy for damage, the Medic for healing, Engineer for area control, etc.

Overwatch took this idea and ran with it.  There are currently 14 distinct characters and they all do far more than shoot (some forego firearms altogether), with each having three primary abilities and one ultimate ability.  An individual hero's abilities are tailored to fit a specific role within the team's composition.  Both teams will fight to complete a certain objective that goes beyond simply "kill the other guys."  Sound familiar?  Blizzard's first shooter could actually be called its new MOBA.

Yes, I believe Overwatch isn't so much taking MOBA traits as it is the beginning of the genre's next phase.  The term is an acronym for Multi-Player Online Battle Arena.  All of that applies to Overwatch perfectly.  It's true it doesn't have the traits that are part of the expanded definition, such as lanes, minions and leveling but the core concept, the essence of the gameplay, is the same.

Hanzo (left), Pharah (right) and Mercy.

Supposedly established conventions have already been chipped away by other games - League of Legends got rid of denying minions, Smite took the third person instead of the overhead view, Heroes discarded items and implemented team leveling.  If these aren't central to the definition of the genre, then minions and lanes certainly can't be any more essential.  When a phenomenon like MOBAs grows so rapidly, it reaches a point where it has to either evolve or fall by the wayside.  I believe Overwatch is a clear sign of the former, and I can't wait to see what follows.