So I think that one of the overlooked things that Overwatch can learn from Marvel Rivals and Deadlock is about the tutorial. Most of us here are experienced gamers who have played Overwatch for years. So why am I talking about the tutorial? It’s because of new players who come into your games and don’t seem to understand how to play a hero or even what the objective is.
Everyone knows that Overwatch’s tutorial isn’t great. But honestly that’s true of a lot of games. And Rivals tutorial is far from perfect but it’s miles better. Here’s what they do right.
Basic Tutorial
MR has a basic tutorial like Overwatch. Here’s how to move. Shoot the head. Ping things. Here’s a destructible environment. It’s basic and you play as their Soldier 76 (the Punisher). But they don’t stop there!
Game Mode Tutorials
There’s also a tutorial for 2 of their game modes. I assume they will eventually add the others. It tells you how to play the mode. Capture this point. Here’s how you keep capture progress. This is the goal to win. Now for us, we know all this. But what if you have never played a hero shooter before? Would you know to push the cart? Would you know more people on cart makes it go faster? Would you know to look at the progress bar intuitively? This is great. But they don’t stop there.
Hero Tutorials
They also have individual hero tutorials. Now not all are available, I’m assuming this is also a work in progress. But, it exists. And granted it’s not much more than a guided tour of a heroes abilities. Yeah you can figure this out yourself. It’s nice to be told what everything does and then force you to use those abilities. Supports even have healing challenges where they have to keep some bots alive against enemy bots for a set time. It’s not hard. It’s not meant to be. But if you were brand new, it’s useful.
Final Thoughts
One of my biggest hopes is that Marvel Rivals will help Overwatch be better through competition. I hope that the overwatch team is paying attention to things like this because it’s actually important for new player adoption and keeping the game we love around for another 8 years.
Also they can complete their battle pass after the season ends. Blizz please!