This Is the Moment

This Is the Moment

Tháng 5 năm 2016, Blizzard Entertainment, studio nổi tiếng, đã ra mắt tựa game bắn súng góc nhìn thứ nhất Overwatch. Một tháng sau, chế độ thi đấu được thêm vào, và trò chơi gần như giữ nguyên vẹn cho đến Overwatch 2, phần tiếp theo ra mắt năm 2022. Thứ Ba tuần này, Overwatch 2 sẽ chính thức trình làng chế độ Stadium mới, có thể coi là thay đổi lớn nhất của trò chơi trong gần chín năm qua. Mặc dù định dạng thi đấu vẫn giữ nguyên phần lớn, rất nhiều điều đã diễn ra kể từ thời điểm ra mắt Overwatch ban đầu.

Sự thay đổi không chỉ dừng lại ở việc bổ sung một chế độ chơi mới. Stadium mang đến một trải nghiệm hoàn toàn khác biệt so với các bản đồ và chế độ chơi trước đây. Nó hứa hẹn sẽ mang đến những trận đấu kịch tính và hấp dẫn hơn, đòi hỏi từ người chơi sự phối hợp chiến thuật cao độ và sự hiểu biết sâu sắc về các anh hùng. Việc thiết kế bản đồ mới, cùng với cơ chế chơi mới, chắc chắn sẽ tạo ra một làn sóng mới mẻ, thúc đẩy sự phát triển và đa dạng hóa lối chơi trong cộng đồng Overwatch.

Sự kiện ra mắt chế độ Stadium đánh dấu một bước ngoặt quan trọng trong lịch sử Overwatch. Nó không chỉ đơn thuần là một bản cập nhật nhỏ, mà là một sự thay đổi mang tính cách mạng, khẳng định nỗ lực không ngừng của Blizzard trong việc duy trì và phát triển trò chơi sau nhiều năm. Điều này cho thấy cam kết dài hạn của Blizzard đối với cộng đồng Overwatch, hướng đến việc tạo ra một trải nghiệm chơi game phong phú và bền vững hơn. Sự thành công của chế độ Stadium sẽ góp phần quan trọng vào việc hồi sinh và củng cố vị thế của Overwatch 2 trên thị trường game cạnh tranh khốc liệt hiện nay. Liệu chế độ này có đủ sức để thu hút lại những người chơi cũ và thu hút thêm nhiều game thủ mới? Thời gian sẽ trả lời.

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In May of 2016, celebrated studio Blizzard launched its hero shooter Overwatch. A month later, the game added a competitive mode, and the game stayed relatively the same through Overwatch 2, its 2022 sequel. On Tuesday, Overwatch 2 will launch its new Stadium mode, which might be the biggest change to the game in almost nine years. 

Despite the competitive format staying more or less the same, a lot has happened between Overwatch’s earliest days and the start of Stadium — dozens of metas, the great content drought, the shift to 5v5 with the launch of Overwatch 2, the addition of perks, plenty of novelty modes like mystery heroes and the lengthy list of player-made custom games. But for all those changes and options, Stadium is the thing that Overwatch devs expect will change people’s play the most.

In group media interviews online, Game Director Aaron Keller said that if anyone has been waiting to try Overwatch or to come back to the game, Stadium is the time. 

It’s an important test for the long-term outlook of Overwatch, coming four months after the launch of competing hero shooter Marvel Rivals — a game that recently passed 40 million players. Overwatch and its free-to-play evolution Overwatch 2 were the de facto hero shooters for most of the past decade, with the biggest competition coming from other shooters like Apex Legends and Valorant, which focused more on different shooter subgenres (battle royales and tactical shooters). But when Rivals launched with frenzied gameplay reminiscent of the gleefully frenetic days of early Overwatch along with a surprisingly hefty roster of Marvel favorites, it gave players something newer and shinier to play. 

The question was: How would Overwatch respond? 

Stadium, which Keller noted has been in the works since before the launch of Overwatch 2, seems to be the answer. It takes the familiar Overwatch formula — two teams of players split across three different roles, playing heroes with unique abilities on objective-based maps — shakes it all up and pumps it full of adrenaline. 

Suddenly, Reinhardt isn’t just power-steering around a corner, he’s flying through the air. Ana is nano-boosting her entire team. And Mei transformed into a giant snowball rolling toward you. 

At the same time, your team might have a Zarya launching herself when she bubbles your Ashe who’s launching a mini-B.O.B. twice as often while Kiriko gets invulnerability in her ultimate. 

Stadium is all about cranking up everyone’s core abilities for new functionality and dramatically expanded customizability. It’s a game mode I expect will appeal to two types of players in particular: First, it’ll be a hit with people who really love particular heroes and want to be able to play them in every situation, choosing talents and items that allow them to adapt to their opponents. But second, it might also gain traction with people who like to think and tinker — people who want to theorycraft different builds for heroes and test them out against the competition. Overwatch’s core game modes can be challenging for those types of players due to the prevalence of counterswapping and the general lack of breaks in a match; Stadium offers some interesting alternatives.

Alongside quick play and competitive modes, Stadium was designed to be the third main pillar of gameplay — Keller said there’s a separate team of people and “a lot of resources” dedicated to Stadium mode. 

I asked whether Stadium was designed to respond to a shift in player needs for Overwatch. Keller pointed to three player-specific desires the new mode wanted to address: more downtime, more strategy and a bigger emphasis on power fantasy. Stadium is a best-of-seven game mode where each round is an abbreviated version of other game modes like control or push — basically, a short-and-sweet burst of concentrated action that still abides by familiar rulesets. Between those rounds, players will get some breathing room to think about the enemy team’s composition and how to strategically build against it by acquiring new powers and “items” that enhance heroes’ abilities.

Stadium ditches hero swapping, instead encouraging players to build around their challenges. For example, heroes like Genji and D.Va can buy abilities that mitigate beam damage, something they traditionally struggle against. Similarly, flying heroes have traditionally countered Reinhardt, but Pharah and Echo players will have to be a little more careful knowing that a Reinhardt might just yeet himself in their direction, threatening to pin them against a wall — maybe with bonus explosive damage!

These mechanics mark Stadium as the latest and largest piece of evidence that Overwatch devs are moving away from the game’s focus on a carefully-balanced experience and instead allowing players to more fully embrace the power fantasy of its heroes. Keller said the devs had pushed Stadium a lot further than other game modes, meaning the team took even more liberties when it came to cooking up new powers and upgrades for its roster of playable characters. 

I’ll be trying out Stadium this week ahead of the season 16 launch next week. After covering Overwatch 2 since the beta in 2022, I’ve seen the game take steady but slow strides in healthy directions — though ones that fans may have slowly stopped following as the years have worn on. Stadium is poised to be a veritable leap, and I’m excited to see if it can live up to the hype it wants to inspire in current, returning and new players. 

Stadium will launch in season 16 starting April 22. The new mode will feature 17 heroes and nine maps, though devs said it will be constantly evolving, with new heroes being added frequently. 

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