‘Overwatch’ is an exciting team shooter from the makers of World of Warcraft

At just about every important gaming convention, major announcements are expected. The annual BlizzCon is no different. BlizzCon is organized by Blizzard Entertainment to celebrate their powerhouse brands like "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "Starcraft" with their massive fan base. This year's BlizzCon marked the announcement of not just a new game, but a new IP: "Overwatch".

Game director Jeff Kaplan says "Overwatch" is an action-packed team-based multiplayer shooter. Featuring a playful cartoon style comparable to Pixar animations and intense competitive PvP action, 'Overwatch' focuses on a near-future setting where mercenaries, scientists and adventurers do battle in the streets.

Chris Metzen, senior vice president at Blizzard for franchise and story development, described the world as being "all about heroes."

"We wanted to build a future worth fighting for," said Metzen. "A world of color and sound and light. A place you want to keep coming back to and ultimately you want to protect. That also goes for the characters."

A cyborg gorilla named Winston and a space-time zapping adventurer named Tracer are just two of the highly-stylized playable characters featured in "Overwatch".

"Overwatch" is a pleasant surprise, as little was expected of the major announcements. For years, Blizzard has concentrated its focus on continuing to develop the brands it already has in the form of new expansions to "World of Warcraft", and spin-off media for properties like "Diablo" and "Starcraft". "Overwatch" marks the first new property for Blizzard in 17 years.



"Overwatch" will feature team-based PvP action comparable to "Team Fortress 2", the long-running and widely popular shooter owned, produced and supported by Valve Software.

Metzen candidly revealed that "Overwatch" is a reworking of ideas and elements developed for "Project Titan", the long in development sci-fi MMO that was cancelled earlier this year.

"We [Blizzard] decided internally to go another way," Metzen later told IGN some hours after the
reveal.

"What really happened was we decided to go this way. 'Overwatch' is a very different game than what we were planning to build."

What really brought the reveal over the top was the unveiling of not just one cinematic trailer, but extensive gameplay footage.

The game is currently playable at BlizzCon and the company is already taking signups for beta.

And in lieu of including tutorial segments, video tutorials are supplied with the playable demos to help attendees learn how to play quickly.

Granted, Blizzard is known for taking its time with its properties, so a big reveal means we can expect the company to go big with "Overwatch" or go home.

Other playable characters include: Bastion, a gentle nature-loving robot who can transform into a cannon; Reaper, a teleporting terrorist who wields two hellfire shotguns; Widowmaker, a cold-blooded sniper assassin; Zenyatta, an enlightened robot monk with telekinetic powers; and Reinhardt, a zealous champion with a big-ass hammer.

Each character's unique abilities emphasize clearly defined roles tailored to different skill sets. Kaplan said that the team made sure that even those with less refined twitch skills and reflexes could contribute meaningfully.

Metzen said that accessibility will be key to the success of "Overwatch" and help maintain Blizzard's tradition at forging quality PvP experiences through the assistance of their community.

"We try to make our games very inviting and accessible for a broad gamut of players: your hardcore, your casual," Metzen said at a Q&A session for the game.

"We like building our product for everybody and at all levels of play so approachability is very important to us."

A team-based shooter might not be what was expected from Blizzard, but Kaplan stressed that the company has a history of breaking new ground for itself: he recalled how an MMO like "World of Warcraft" was new territory for a  company best known for real-time strategy games.

"What we like to do is look at genres that we love and sort of revere and think about all the ways that we can bring out the best element of those genres." — JDS, GMA News