Blizzard announces team-based shooter Overwatch

Blizzard announced Overwatch, its first new franchise in 17 years, during its BlizzCon opening ceremony this afternoon.

The game, directed by Jeff Kaplan, is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter featuring a cast of ‘soldiers, scientists, adventurers, oddities, and guardians’ that once secured peace for a generation under the international task force “Overwatch,” which has since disbanded. But the world still needs heroes.

Overwatch promises to bring Blizzard’s signature “easy-to-learn, hard-to-master”-style gameplay to the first-person shooter genre. Players will choose a hero, join forces in teams of six, and battle against each other across a range of futuristic locations across the world, from the hologram-lit streets of Lond to a bazaar in the shadows of a high-tech Egyptian pyramid. Every stage is built to highlight each characters’ unique abilities, and fights can shift from the streets to rooftops to the open skies “within the span of a breath.”

“Overwatch is our take on a vibrant, near-future universe with amped-up characters and action-packed team-based gameplay,” said Blizzard CEO and co-foudner Mike Morhaime said in a press release. “With every new Blizzard game, we look at our favorite aspects of a genre and put our own spin on things. Our goal with Overwatch is to create an awesome FPS experience that’s more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love.”

Here’s a full run down of the shooter, via its official website:

Fight for the Future

Overwatch is a team-based shooter where heroes do battle in a world of conflict.

Welcome to Overwatch

Soldiers. Scientists. Adventurers. Oddities.

In a time of global crisis, an international task force of heroes banded together to restore peace to a war-torn world:

OVERWATCH.

It ended the crisis and helped to maintain peace in the decades that followed, inspiring an era of exploration, innovation, and discovery. But after many years, Overwatch’s influence waned, and it was eventually disbanded.

Overwatch is gone… but the world still needs heroes.

Choose a Hero

Offense. Defense. Tank. Support.

Overwatch features a wide array of unique heroes, ranging from a time-jumping adventurer, to an armored, rocket-hammer-wielding warrior, to a transcendent robot monk. Every hero plays differently, and mastering their abilities is the key to unlocking their potential. No two heroes are the same.

Play Your Role

Whether you’re engaging in combat on the front line, providing defensive cover with your energy shield, or supporting your allies by amplifying their damage, every hero’s abilities are designed to be effective as part of a team. Learning to utilize your abilities in concert with your teammates’ is the key to victory.

Team-Based Objectives

Teams of heroes do battle across the planet. From protecting the secrets of the mysterious Temple of Anubis, to safely escorting an EMP device through King’s Row, the world is your battlefield.

• Payload – The attacking team’s objective is to move the payload to a delivery point, while the defenders must halt the attackers’ progress until time runs out.
• Point Capture – Two teams battle over control of the map, one team on offense, the other on defense. The attackers’ goal is to capture critical objectives, while the defenders must maintain control over them until time runs out.

Twelve different characters are playable, including the teleporting Tracer shown in the screenshot above. For full descriptions and ability showcases of all the game’s characters, visit its official website.

The website also hosts a gallery of screenshots and gameplay videos.

A beta is scheduled for 2015, which you can opt-in for Battle.net. If you’re at BlizzCon, the game is playable to attendees.

Watch the debut trailers below.

Cinematic Trailer

Gameplay Trailer