A lot of you might not think too much about it but Overwatch still remains one of the hardest games on the market to date.
I have a friend who LOVES a good Fps. He played Counter Strike, All the Black ops games, ect. He is a huge Console junkie.
However, I had him try Overwatch out. He has been playing Overwatch for over 2 weeks and still plays like a bronze despite numerous coaching from a veteran player.
He is low bronze, yet a Master player in Black Ops.
Overwatch has numerous systems built into the game that a player needs to master in order to get better at the game. If a person cannot understand these systems, they will never improve, only their mechanical skills might.
Lets not forget how difficult this game actually is overall, especially when other Fps games do not depend on teamwork.
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OW’s difficulty mostly comes in the form of having only six teammates. As well as the need to work with them.
In other games you can have up to 12 players on a single team. So if half of them die, it is no lose. Plus you only need a few of them to be good.
However if one of your teammates die in OW, it can be very punishing. So there is less room for error. Having one good player on your team is not enough since they cannot take on the entire enemy team.
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1 player in cod for example didnt have to account for abilities as much, and could just focus on mostly raw aim. its like when a good tank duo gives you all this space for dps to pop off in.
also ow gamemodes are more punishing, in terms of time and the degree of how forgiving the death system is.
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Dude, I’m still trying to figure out how I can land shots in Halo and CoD no problem, but I pick up McCree and suddenly I can’t hit a dang thing 
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Heh, Shroud had trouble getting to Diamond
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You have to take in consideration that Overwatch is not a a typical FPS game. Not only that, but in games like COD , Counter Strike etc. where all you have to primarily focus on is aiming.
Yes game sense and awareness , position, cool-down management all that is important in any giving FPS games, but in a game like Overwatch- to me it is the most important.
Not to mention that other FPS games you typical do not have a pocket healer, or a typical tank that… let alone the time to kill in Overwatch is much slower in games like COD.
Also you have to realize as well that Overwatch where you have a talking monkey and rolling ball hamster with grapple etc. all have unique abilities, passives, ultimate, weapons and even hitbox.
So it make senses, but with time he will surly learn.
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I can make the opposite case for myself. Overwatch is basically the only game where I can compete with above average players (i.e. plat). Any other game that I tried remotely competitively, I’m basically at the bottom of the barrel, whether it’s more typical FPS, Mobas or RTS… especially RTS (there I even get destroyed by easy or medium bots depending on the game…). I’m still getting destroyed way more easily in TF2 than in Overwatch and I’ve been playing that game for twice as long.
Once you start knowing what all heroes can do and the layout of the maps, Overwatch is not a difficult game, not by a long shot. Yeah, maybe if you get in the top few % of the playerbase, but for the majority it really isn’t.
Btw I actually think that I can expain your friend’s case as well. Because this game is not that difficult, yet already 4 years old (and thus no longer has a steady stream of new players), it no longer has really bad players anymore (relatively speaking). This makes the barrier for entry really high for people who never touched the game before. While other games have a population of players that are still really bad at it, which allows new players to ease in, Overwatch just doesn’t have this.
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It’s not about the game being difficult comparing to other shooters, it s more about the cluster fest in the game with all the visual and particles effects that would blind any unitiative
Half of the game was decided by ult combos or the tanks pressing Q anyway. None of the hitscan heroes carries any game changing ults, so of course it s difficult if you are still not used to the game yet.
Any new players would need time to get used to the game and the win conditions. You cant just plug a random player, master or not, from another FPS, throw them into the game and expecting them to stop a nano blade by themselves.
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Yeah, this is pretty much it, most of the time the truly new player will be matched against smurfs, alts, ect
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This is the Main reason above all else. So many matches are based on team synergy. It’s a no-brainer why heroes who can function independently are top tier.
I am not a pro player but back in CoD: Modern Warefare saga I could carry a team. It wasn’t always a win but the match wasn’t always one sided like in OW.
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Don’t forget Q2win aspects
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I can’t really agree with.
In Overwatch I am around 3.9k and in Sige, CS:GO etc. I am the lowest rank.
Even my DPS is Masters - somehow (only adding for some people who go after my alt Accs Mercy hours…)
Like moving the payload. It’s this SS-rank strat that people still struggle to understand.
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Well, to me OWs difficulty is a bit more subtle than many other FPS. Understanding the game situation and what your team and the other team’s status is is very important. There’s a lot of people these days who can aim now, but there’s not as many who can identify WHOM they should be aiming at.
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This sounds like more due to ow being very reliant on team and ow having one of the lowest ttk for a fps. Solo carry in fps basically is raw aim and sheer reaction outdoing the enemy and getting 3-4 kills in a matter of secs. Unless u press a q and enemy coorporates, it won’t happen in OW.
In most other FPS games, positioning and aim are pretty much the only skills you need to improve on in order to climb to (or near to) the top. You can definitely argue that these skills are harder in other games, but abilities and ultimates and how these interact with other will make this game very unfriendly to those unwilling to learn.
Pro players and coaches in OW have it much harder than other games with the way content in this game works. Most games won’t have to worry about having new characters, new maps and balance changes all happening together, I can imagine OW2’s release will be a very chaotic time for coaches.
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OW doesn’t get enough credit for the things in it that are hard. I have had someone one here tell me it doesn’t touch the current CS:GO for game-sense and positioning… but I don’t know. The other games are more aim focused no question with modern hitboxes, while OW uses the older, larger hitboxes which is why a lot of people poke at it, combined with the relatively large projectile hitboxes. This ignores all the other things like tricky animations (think JR’s back and forth motion), varying speeds, verticality (many games have NO vertical to them), and the fact you have team comps that are often unexpected or lack synergy combined with ult tracking, game knowledge (there is a lot of details about OW to keep in your head - how many people know just how long a Zarya bubble actually is, or the damage of Reinhardt swing)?
I and I am sure other players make a point to spend oh, about 5-6 hours on every character just to learn their timings for instance, and general style of play. I recall Moira who I hated at first to play against (she is the epitome of cheese still), but found her much more manageable after I started playing her some. 32 characters details are a lot to remember and tracking a random collection of 6+5 in your head (you should have some awareness of when and what your teammates can do) is a lot to manage. But its all non-mechanical skills… which is why OW gets bashed mainly.
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Honestly in low ranks teamwork really is irrelevant. With good gamesense you can just go around killing most of the other team. Having good mechanics makes it even easier. All you need is your team to exist. Gamesense is the most important thing in low ranks though since you can easily exploit the complete lack of it in the opposing team.
Your friends gamesense must be awful if he’s stuck in bronze while having good mechanics. Get him on a carry hero such as mccree, zarya, hog, etc. Try coaching him while he’s in game. Tell him when to push, when to flank and when to ult. Once he has these basics down he should quickly climb.
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I also started playing Overwatch a couple weeks back. Heres what I went through
What I found difficult
- The concept of character counters + You have to know every characters abilities
- how busy the fight can get. Especially if you’re a aim based dps AND have a small screen…things can get quite noisy.
- map knowledge. this goes for any game. Unless your friend dedicates time to learning the maps, they’re gonna take a while to move efficiently
- Knowing how to position yourself to get healed (this ties in with point #1)
I used to play competitive Halo and a lot of my skills are transferable. Aim, teamwork, ult-tracking (you have to time power ups/weapons), positioning, map knowledge, movement mechanics, LoS, strafing, comms, playing your life, not being irrelevant etc
The only unique challenges that OW presents is its rock-paper-scissor team comp meta, inherent abilities and ult mgmt. Otherwise all other aspects, are in varying degrees, present in other competitive FPS (at least in Halo it does). Whereas gunskill (depending on the hero) is largely absent in OW.
So yes OW is HEAVILY based on teamwork. both for individual performance and for match victory. Same applies to Halo, but the potential to individually perform better is higher in Halo than OW.
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So basically, he went from an entirely different sub genre of shooter, and is struggling to climb.
Yea no crap, people who played Counter Strike said TF2 felt faster to them back in the day, so it’s not a surprise.
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