Blizzard may not have had a new IP in more than a decade, but that is all set to change with Overwatch; the developer’s first team based first person shooter. There are shades of Team Fortress 2 in the game, but this appears to be a unique enough approach to the genre that nobody is going to draw too many comparisons.
The game is set in the far future where a group of special forces called Overwatch banded together to bring peace to the world. During peace time, the influence of the group has waned and most have turned to mercenary work instead. Visuals are bright and colourful, with Blizzard saying that the prime motivation is accessibility and fun. This was underscored with the almost Pixar-like cinematic trailer that would make League of Legends take a good long look at itself.
Players will select from a pool of heroes, each sporting their own special abilities; Tracer is able to teleport, Reinhardt has a quake hammer of some sort, and Bastion transforms in a turret with a force-field. The variety of powers makes this look like a MOBA played from the first person perspective. As for the most obvious Team Fortress Aspect of the game: Torbjörn deploys turrets in a manner similar to the Engineer. Although he does has a cool mechanical claw for an arm.
Beta signups for Overwatch are already open for registration. There is no word on the monetisation model for the game, and there is no indication that it would be a free to play title.
[Source: Blizzard]
