Originally published on Trevor Trove on June 21, 2016
Now that I’m settled back in at home following Let’s Play Live, I decided to sit down with a couple of games that I, for some reason or other, decided to purchase Thursday night before I left: Overwatch and Doom.
Why Did I Buy?
Overwatch: After watching my friends play the game multiple times and writing upon my preliminary impressions of the game as a spectator, I figured I might as well try picking up the game so I can actually play with friends when they invite me to their party chats. But I swear to god, if they all fall off now that I have it, I’m gonna be a tad bit miffed.
Doom: Back when I first considered if I was interested in getting Doom, I mostly wrote it off. There was an interest to see how it would hold up critically, but I was concerned about the over-the-top gore and brutality with today’s graphics. But it wound up reviewing so well that I thought I should give it a try for nostalgia’s sake.
First Impressions?
Overwatch: So far I haven’t delved into any PvP matches yet. None of my friends seemed to be playing when I got home from work so I went ahead and played through the tutorials and practice matches against AI for an hour or so. Haven’t tested out every character yet but all of the stuff I’ve seen about Bastion and Torbjörn being laughably overpowered seems dead on. Both matches I played as Bastion and one of my Torbjörn matches led to the Play of the Game spotlight moments. Beyond that though, I enjoyed stepping into the support role as Mercy, too, taking pleasure in the mix of healing my team, but also shooting some AI bots to death when my team was plenty healthy. We’ll see how I start measuring up when I begin playing with my friends against actual other people.
Doom: After a bit of Overwatch, I threw on some Doom and played through the first couple of levels. Sure enough, it is violent and brutal pretty much from the jump. But it’s actually so over-the-top that none of it is really bothering me. Maybe I’m more de-sensitized to this stuff then I thought. Both of these games (as this article’s title would suggest) are filled to the brim with style. Overwatch leaned into the light-hearted, cartoon-y style, while Doom absolutely feels like it is channeling all of the attitude of the 90s-era that fostered the original game. This game feels like the Attitude-era of the WWF, compared to Call of Duty or Battlefield as the modern-day WWE counterparts.
What’s Next?
Overwatch: Finding time to sit down and play with my friends online. Which is honestly a thing I never thought I would see myself write.
Doom: Keep chugging away at the campaign. The story isn’t grabbing me (though I’m also not reading all of the supplemental codex entries the game provides) but the gameplay is a ton of fun so far.
Hit me up at tstarkey0810 on PSN if you want to play some Overwatch. I’m pretty much relegated to nights and weekends with my 9-5 job (Arizona time) but I might join if I can.