Overwatch first impressions: all the maps, all the support, & all the offense

Blizzard’s new first-person 6-on-6 team shooter Overwatch — the storied game company’s first new game franchise in more than 14 years — combines the colorful cartoon aesthetic of games like World of Warcraft with some seriously interesting massive online battle arena-style mechanics.

I played the beta test for a few hours to get the feel of some of the maps and two of the four classes of characters. Here, I’ll talk about the seven maps, the four support characters, and all five members of the offense available now in the beta. Up next, it’s defense — highly interesting group, that — and tanks.