arts // no. 8

 

Blizzard's new heroes

> ‘Overwatch’ game review

Mike LeMieux
Contributor

 

OOOOS

rom the creators of World of

Warcraft and Hearthstone,
Overwatch exploded onto the
crowded first-person shooter
scene late last month. Culled
from the DNA of Valve’s Team
Fortress 2 with a pinch of League
of Legends, the game features
over 20 unique characters with
their own gameplay styles and
powers. You have standard FPS-
man Soldier 76, time-bending
Tracer, far-east robot mystic

Zenyatta, and’ even a big, talking,
laser-toting gorilla named
Winston. I could go on about how
wildly different the characters
look and play; developer
Blizzard Entertainment has
done a wonderful job including
something for everyone, so
youre sure to find at least one
character that fits you like a glove.
What sets Overwatch apart
from other similar shooters is its
approachability and positivity.
Overwatch goes out of its way to
only ever praise the player. From
the end of match “Play of the
Game,” which highlights a specific
player’s skills, to the post-match
voting, when players on either

team can give kudos to each
other. You have to dig pretty far
into the’ menus to find how many
times you died or lost, making
it much kinder for new players
to get into. Even the bright,
bloodless graphics of the game
are appealing, opting for a slick
cartoony style over gritty realism.
Overwatch is not without its
shortcomings. For the price—s$4o
on PC and $60 on Xbox One and
Playstation 4—it’s pretty light on
content. The package consists
of a few variations of online
multiplayer, a tutorial and... that’s
it. There isn’t any single player
content outside of a shooting
gallery. While there are many

hundreds of goodies to unlock as
you play—sprays, new voice lines,
and additional costumes for the
characters to name a few—they
are doled out randomly as you
level up, which can be frustrating.
Blizzard is more than happy
to sell you more chances to get
what you want for cash-money,
but even this is left completely
to random chance. Eventually
you can grind out enough in-
game currency, but it’s a long
slog. Competitors to Overwatch
such as Call of Duty offer more
immediate, substantial carrots-
on-a-stick to keep you playing.
However, the content
problems may be temporary.

Chairman of the Board: Kids’ stuff

> ‘Quarkle’ board game review

Ed Appleby
Illustrator

 

hate Scrabble.

Spelling and word
recollection are some of my
greatest weaknesses; just ask
my editor. I just wish there
was a way to play it without a
dictionary and a convoluted

word scoring system. And words.

Quarkle is a tile placement
game for 2-4 players designed
by Susan McKinley Ross
and published by Mindware
Games in 2006. The game
plays similarly to Scrabble, but
instead of letters, your tiles

include one of six different
shapes in six different colours.
The goal is to score points
by arranging the tiles in vertical
and horizontal lines of either
symbols or colours, scoring
one point for each tile and
an additional six points for
completing a set. Other sets
can be built upon, and points
are scored for each set added to.
The game ends once all the tiles
have been drawn and one player
uses their last tile, which scores
them an additional six points.
The simplicity of the game
is deceptive, as is the case with
many Mensa Select games. The
simple rules allow players of an

extremely young age to play, and
the well-balanced and versatile
gameplay can be entertaining
for all ages. Only hardcore
gaming aficionados who look
for more complexity and theme
in their games might be turned
off by the simplicity, but that

is no fault of the game. There
are dice and travel versions

of the game which I found to
be of equally high quality.

I would recommend the
game to anyone, especially
families with young children.

It is a game that ages
well and deserves a place
alongside classics such as
Chess and Checkers.

 

 

theotherpress.ca

=

Image via PC Gamer

Bra

Much like last year’s Splatoon,
Blizzard has promised that all
updates in the future will be
free forever. It would be harder
to recommend a game based
on theoretical future content
if the base game of Overwatch
wasn't so much fun. The moment
to moment gameplay more
than makes up for the lack of
maps or unlocks. Each round
will play differently, and the
wild swings from losing to
winning are a thrill. Overwatch
is overwhelmingly entertaining
and worth the price if you've
got some friends to play it
with. So grab your gun and
remember: heroes never die.

Illustration by Ed Appleby