Thoughts about Overwatch Archive Events

Overwatch is a game that has a special place in my heart. It's not the best game I ever played, but there's much more than gameplay that makes me love it so much.

It's no secret that I'm into the first-person shooter game because of its lore and characters. My fascination for the heroes, their stories and personalities, and ultimately what happens after the recall are the main reasons why I wanted to get the game so badly.

When I just got the game, I was so happy until I didn't even felt mad at other players constantly killing me. I'm not a very good player anyway.

The Archive Events

I thought I would write about the recent Archive since I'm still trying to keep up with posting something at least once a month thing. I'll try to refrain myself from posting about the anniversary in May.

When Archive was released for the first time, I thought it was an excellent way to deliver lore in a PvE mode. Players could learn more about Overwatch's past in a more relaxed manner, but depending on the difficulty, it can also be a gameplay challenge.

It easily became my most favourite event of them all, and it was something that I started to look forward every year.

Uprising

For the first Archive event, we got to see Kings Row in a different light. They introduced new and old enemies, and the community had to think about strategies to defeat them. Most importantly, we get to see unique interactions between characters. It was also the first time we got to hear Reaper's real voice.

They also released a comic along with the event. The comic showed how the team was sent to London, how the dynamics in Overwatch was like, and of course, the origin of the Reaper shrug meme.

Despite my crappy computer back then and the fact my friends and I couldn't clear legendary mode, it was an event I enjoyed a lot because it was all I ever wanted in Overwatch.

Retribution

After the success of Uprising, many people had high expectations for the second Archive event. A Blackwatch or Talon mission was popular speculations among the players, and honestly, they're not too far off.

With Retribution, Overwatch released a new comic and a new map, Rialto. It was like they gave me two birthday presents, and it wasn't even my birthday. I was excited to try the new mode that I purposely woke up 3AM after letting my game patch.

Surprisingly, my first run on Retribution actually felt underwhelming. I guess it was because it felt too easy? But I learned to love the game after I chose a harder difficulty. It reminded me of L4D (which is one of the developers' inspirations), another game I love.

Me and my friends had a blast with Retribution. We tried harder to clear legendary and we successfully did it. It's still one of my proudest gaming achievements.

Storm Rising

At this point in time, Overwatch suffered a lot in different ways. The player base has decreased, the toxicity in the game was still bad, not much new content was added to the game.

For lore lovers like me, it was like an endless wait for something that we're not even sure existed. The last comic was a year ago, and the lore still had not progressed at all after Winston's decision to recall. Archive is great, but all it shows are past events.

The Archive event became more important to me than ever because it was the only time of the year that it's a guarantee to get lore updates. It felt like we could finally get some story progress and hopefully answer the questions that has been bugging us for so long.

I was really hyped after seeing the trailer. Despite people's complaint with how plain it looked, or how three of the four characters are already used in past events, or how they didn't like Tracer as the leader, I thought it was good for me. I was just itching to play the game.

My friends and I couldn't play the game immediately after it went live due to busy schedules and time zone differences, so we had to wait about 21 hours before we could gather and play together. For the whole 21 hours, we were being patient and avoided as many spoilers as we could. I bolted out of my office when my work hours ended because my mind was filled with Storm Rising and I couldn't focus on work anymore.

When the time came when we could play, my whole body and soul was burning with excitement. I waited a whole year for this!

I'm impressed with the cinematics and thought it was an improvement from last year. Mercy and Doomfist finally appeared in a 3D cinematic and Genji's fight scene totally stole the show. I just thought it was a mistake to show Tracer on a bike, as it wasn't an important detail or a feature in the game.

Similar to Retribution, my reaction to the gameplay was underwhelming on my first run. Compared to Rialto, the Havana map wasn't aesthetically pleasing, but it does feel large. The payload is slow and they used the same enemies from the previous event.

What I'm most disappointed about Storm Rising is that it provided us with no answers, but added more questions. We are not certain if Maximilien really introduced Doomfist to the team and the new appearance of a possibly Talon omnic villain just adds confusion to the mystery. In the end, the lore still hasn't progressed after all these years.

While I'm happy with the character interactions (especially the flirting between Genji and Mercy), I can understand if other players are extremely frustrated with the state of the lore progress. The community was doubting the writers so much that they think all they do is travel around the world and post pictures of ramen. I don't believe they are doing absolutely nothing, but it sure looks like that way.

How I feel about Overwatch now

I love Overwatch and the world the developers created, but the pace they're introducing lore is slow. If we're only going to get major lore updates with a single event for an entire year, it's no surprise that a lot of people will lose interest.

A lot of people seem to agree that Blizzard is putting more effort in the Overwatch League than the game itself. In any case, development for Overwatch is extremely slow and none of the changes in the game seems to work in making the game feel enjoyable again.

Overwatch dropping their game price was also another bad sign for the state of the game.

Due to the small player base in SEA, my friends and I often bump into the same highly skilled players. We find the games to be very unbalanced, and we rarely have a good time playing the game now. We agreed to take a break from it and focus on other games.

Update from future Joon

On the 26th of April, me and my friends beat Storm Rising (both story and all heroes) on legendary. We took quite a lot of tries, but we did it on our second day of attempting the challenge.

 
Compared to past events, Storm Rising on legendary isn't as difficult. There's a lot of space to maneuver around and the enemies aren't as tough. There's no time limit like Uprising so if you have the patience, eventually you will beat the game.

After we beat legendary, Overwatch released another Storm Rising teaser. In the teaser, Maximilien did snitch on his boss and told the Overwatch strike team that Doomfist will be at Singapore in three weeks. However, there was nothing about the omnic leader.

The teaser reveal was like a gift for us clearing legendary, and I don't know what the development team is planning by revealing it this late. Some say the anniversary event will in three weeks, which isn't totally impossible.

I'm thankful for this event and Overwatch in general despite its flaws and decrease in popularity. It's one of the games that I spend so much time on, and I'm looking forward to see how the lore develops, even if it's moving in a snail pace.

I hope we get more updates on the story in 2019, and I will, once again, patiently wait for next year's Archive Event.