I really like Push mode, but the world doesn’t spin based on what I like and dislike. So, I want to hear more opinions on it.
Before we start, I want to address one complaint I don’t like. I remember someone making a youtube video saying push was mathmatically flawed, and I think this argument comes from that video:
If you win the initial team fight and get control of the bot, you’re more likely to win based on certain factors. Things like how the enemy team has to undo your progress before they can start making progress, among other things.
I think that complaint is countered simply: that’s true for literally every sport or game. Namely Football or Basketball. Now, there’s ball stealing involved in those games, and that can mitigate the issue, but people talk about Push like its the only game where you’re more likely to win based on how the game starts for you. Plus, you can kinda “steal” the bot if you force the enemy to back off of it, and stand near it. Now that bot is walking to your barricade DURING the team fight.
With that out of the way, I’ll briefly mention what I like and dislike about the mode:
Like: the maps are fun. I never feel like I’m too far from the bot due to the shortcuts in the maps. I feel like I can always walk straight and get to the robot, and since I’m the tank player, that’s huge for me.
Dislike: I think heroes with mobility has a massive advantage of the map because of the above. If I feel like I can get to the bot quickly on a tank, clearly that would mean a hero like Genji or Tracer can get to the bot almost instantly (relatively speaking).
Push is fine as a game mode. The issue is the map design of a couple of them.
Queen’s Street is way too open and gives players too many paths. Very first team fight and you have people going to bot, to statue, or fighting over the buses. Its pure chaos. It has a very busan or havana feel to the map.
Colosseum. The first first fight is epic. Everyone either goes to bot down the corridor or tries a little flanking action. Things get hectic on the first loopback. There is a natural funnel at each team’s spawn that allows very free push near the middle of each team’s side.
Esperanca I think is more balanced. Though trying to push up hill around first point is always very annoying as you are literally facing up hill against the attacking team.
I find Push maps very frustrating. So many times I’m unsure if I should run back to the fight, or just wait for my teammates to die and group up with them as they come out of spawn. It’s not like on Escort maps, where there are obvious places to group up/fall back to in order to avoid staggering.
Many of my games are very close as well. Even if you lose first fight, the defending team then has advantage of counterpicking. Its always hilarious to see games go to 10min and a lot of back and forth.
This has been my suspicion that many people really just don’t understand how to play/pace themselves on the map for team fights. The maps can be long, so the people who aren’t very good with the ebb and flow of OW end up feeding themselves to enemy team on a mistake.
I legit remember a Genji player who kept going in 1v5 with no regard to what his team was doing and dying 2-3 times in a row and calling the game mode garbage from walking too much.
Half the time I regroup with team to have enemy team walk bot directly to my team after we regroup, so I feel I rarely have to walk all that much.
The upside is that the people with the robot has a distance advantage, but the people without it has a spawn advantage. Its more fair than people would like to admit.
After all, if we can convince everyone that the mode is the problem, then its not our fault if we lose!
I don’t like that it’s a walking simulator. What I mean by this is that your average gold baddie game truly is predetermined in this mode(especially if you’re choosing RQ instead of OQ). If you have a bad tank it’s almost a guaranteed loss right out the gate. In most cases, the first fight truly determines who wins, if it can be flipped it still feels god awful. You can start out doing amazingly and then suddenly everyones monitor is turned off and they not only flip it from 0.4 meters but they fully cap it and win. That is a terrible feeling.
I like the amount of routes on Push maps. Corridor map design is so very boring to me and I always groan when Circuit Royale pops up.
I dislike the hikes back to the action, and I also wonder if it would improve the gameplay if the bot didn’t sprint as quickly when retreading ground. The two combined can make it feel really difficult to gain any momentum; a team fight is lost and by the time the team can re-assemble, Burt the Bot has legged it all the way back and any progress has gone kaput.
As the maps themselves go, I think NQS is the worst of the three. There are some really long sightlines and that middle section is awful for wall riding/climbing/etc with all the canopies sticking out, the signs, etc.
The problem with push is that is a gamemode designed for a MOBA but included in a shooter that tries to be a MOBA but ends being a shooter that plays like a very bad MOBA instead of a proper shooter that feels like a MOBA.
Tldr; Push causes snowball in a game that should not have snowball but for some reason devs think It should.
My main issue is how long the bot stops at checkpoints, coupled with map design. I think Esperanca is fine, but NQS and Colosseo giving blatant high ground to teams while the bot sits and scratches its butt at the checkpoint is not very fun.
My issue with push is that whoever wins the first fight often wins the entire game.
Overwatch is a game where you need to adapt according to the enemy team, yet push gives you no opportunity to do that. Forcing you to pick meta heroes because you have no idea what the enemy is running until the first fight starts.