Disclaimer: Review done for the current version as of writing (0.8.3.6)
TL;DR right at the front: The game in its current form just feels overly ambitious for what it currently entails alltogether and thus gives a much stronger feeling of losing focus in favour of mass appeal. While there isn't anything inherently wrong with the choices made, the current systems in place don't work in tandem and instead string the player along a linear grindfest that utterly marred down the experience as you'll be staring at blank, yet quite nicely drawn spaces most of the time.
So, a game featuring the Overwatch setting while throwing in the player character to enjoy some of the available hotties, pretty unique, if only for the setting. But how does it all hold up?
Time to point out all the good things first and foremost:
To cover the scenes, as that's probably why you are also here: There's as of right now some variety in characters and scenes with some great artstyle to go with it. However, if you don't enjoy the artstyle, you most likely won't enjoy whats for show here, so you'll have to take it or leave it. The reason it's in neither the good nor bad category is simply that while I personally enjoy the artstyle, the scenes are however quite sparce in animation and overall amount I reckon. Quality in art takes time, and that shows here quite well.
But sadly this is where I have to stop giving praise and have to point out the bad stuff the game (as of time of writing) has to deal with and it will most likely coincide with what prior reviewers stated. I'll give out explainations from my perspective as to why it doesn't work the way it currently is laid out as well - which is why these points look so long - so here we go:
So, to conclude: All we can do really is sit down and wait for the development to continue. What exists is great but it just leaves you wanting more, as there's barely anything to explore in the first place, meaning you have a mediocre experience, impaired by a whole lot of unnecessary grind that is carried by some (in my opinion) stellar artwork.
TL;DR right at the front: The game in its current form just feels overly ambitious for what it currently entails alltogether and thus gives a much stronger feeling of losing focus in favour of mass appeal. While there isn't anything inherently wrong with the choices made, the current systems in place don't work in tandem and instead string the player along a linear grindfest that utterly marred down the experience as you'll be staring at blank, yet quite nicely drawn spaces most of the time.
So, a game featuring the Overwatch setting while throwing in the player character to enjoy some of the available hotties, pretty unique, if only for the setting. But how does it all hold up?
Time to point out all the good things first and foremost:
- The Artstyle is probably the most striking feature. Handdrawn 2D art that actually deserves such a title in the first place. The characters' look is for the most part really damn good and only rarely I ever felt like something looked a bit off at first glance, so it holds up exceptionally well and in my opinion carries the entirety of the game.
- The characters, while having pre-existing materials to draw inspirations from, do feel quite nicely rounded regardless. Another great point this game has for itself...
- ...Combined with the sometimes quite funny, sometimes witty and sometimes outright bizarre dialogue it got a chuckle out of me more than once.
To cover the scenes, as that's probably why you are also here: There's as of right now some variety in characters and scenes with some great artstyle to go with it. However, if you don't enjoy the artstyle, you most likely won't enjoy whats for show here, so you'll have to take it or leave it. The reason it's in neither the good nor bad category is simply that while I personally enjoy the artstyle, the scenes are however quite sparce in animation and overall amount I reckon. Quality in art takes time, and that shows here quite well.
But sadly this is where I have to stop giving praise and have to point out the bad stuff the game (as of time of writing) has to deal with and it will most likely coincide with what prior reviewers stated. I'll give out explainations from my perspective as to why it doesn't work the way it currently is laid out as well - which is why these points look so long - so here we go:
- The sandbox aspects the game has as of right now are entirely unnecessary. Meaning a big map to navigate around, technically all the time in the world and gradual exploration - this might be fixed in later versions, but as it stands, many things in place feel like unnecessary filler. You have (as of right now) very few actual characters to interact with and thus half the map has no use whatsoever, except to open up a location for a specific character. This means you'll be strung along a linear path with barely any room for exploration, as there is nothing existing to explore yet. While it is nice that certain characters are specific to a location for sake of memorizing and familiarizing them, it means that a lot of the transitioning screens (to this date) offer no value whatsoever, no exploration and barely any interaction, except a nice background to look at. This is intertwined with the next point...
- ...in that the grind is abhorrently bad. Not only is the potential weekly monetary payout you can reach limited (for what little use money has as of right now with there being overpriced shop items), but certain character progression events are tied to specific dates of the week and even then they span multiple weeks worth of progress. In itself not a problem, but with how little there is to do for some characters, you'll quickly find yourself skipping through the irrelevant weekly fluff just to progress a tad for a specific character. In short, there's nothing worth doing in this and what you have to actually do either needs to be cut down by at least half, or other things need to be expanded by an equivalent amount to make it worth your time in the first place.
- It can basically be summed up by something like this: The progression and design is all over the place. While this has been adressed by the dev's in that the characters felt too quick to get to and with Tracer more or less throwing herself at you it now showcases a strange incongruity in designs, especially for other concepts entirely: You have something resembling a sandbox with barely any sand in it. You have a rigid schedule, but are supposed to explore character arcs. You have barely any characters, but are supposed to spend multiple weeks to finish their respective routes with nothing in between to break up monotony. Some characters feel rushed and short, some feel drawn out to breaking point.
So, to conclude: All we can do really is sit down and wait for the development to continue. What exists is great but it just leaves you wanting more, as there's barely anything to explore in the first place, meaning you have a mediocre experience, impaired by a whole lot of unnecessary grind that is carried by some (in my opinion) stellar artwork.
