Of course, Overwatch took a lot from Team Fortress 2, but it set the mold for a new generation of heroic shooters, inspiring everything from Paladins to Concord and, of course, the even more flashy Marvel Rivals.
One element that solidified the genre was team play, with ultimate synergy and interactions between abilities facilitating a stronger focus on hero composition – we're all stuck with lone wolves who refuse to trade even when they've let the team down (looking at you, Vdow), and it's often a big part of why payloads get stuck or you keep losing objectives. Collaboration is essential.
While this may be a key part of the gameplay loop, former Overwatch boss Jeff Kaplan warned other aspiring studios making their own heroic shooters (a big gamble in 2026) not to fall into the same trap, suggesting they focus on customizing the experience. on those lone wolves instead.
“One of my hindsight regrets about Overwatch, and I think we did the right thing at this point, I wouldn't go back and do it again, but if I were making a heroic shooter from scratch today, I would make it less team-focused,” Kaplan said in an interview with Lex Fridman (via PC Gamer ). “If I were to redo it today or for some budding hero shooters, I'd actually downplay the team factor and try to focus more on the individual contribution. Because that's how people play, they're selfish. And I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just human nature that they can't help themselves.”
Play “Reducing Your Individual Contribution” and focus on team play
It's understandable given how frustrating it is when you're paired with a tank that has no idea what it's doing, leaving your entire team defenseless and the frontline becoming a meat grinder. Or the times you get stuck with a healer who would quite obviously prefer to play DPS; no wonder everyone is dying.
The problem with Overwatch is that games are decided by the worst player, not the best, and this undoubtedly makes Kaplan sad – the game even tried to mask this problem with a medal system, focusing on overall team play rather than your achievements in each match. When you pop up, it's a little deflating not to have it celebrated.
“We put all our eggs into you to notice whether the team won or lost, and downplayed individual contributions as much as possible,” Kaplan continued. “There was no scoreboard, there was a medal system – but the medal system was not good in my opinion because the losing team got medals and the winning team got medals and the losing team would use it against their teammates.”
Still, as Kaplan said, it's what made Overwatch what it is today, and it's hard to imagine what the game would look like if it didn't emphasize team play, although the move to 5v5 probably helped alleviate those issues. But for those dipping their toes into the genre after all these years, it's a pitfall that can easily be avoided by taking the leap with the benefit of hindsight.
- Released
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May 24, 2016
- ESRB
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T for Teens: Blood, Tobacco Use, Violence (online interactions not rated)
- Engine
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Proprietary
- Multiplayer
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Online multiplayer
- Cross-platform play
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ps5, xbox, pc
- Cross Save
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Yes
