TL;DR: Any recommendations for a game like Overwatch that actually functions? XDefiant was promising, but it doesn’t have “roles” that don’t require shooting, so my friend got frustrated.
As it turns out, it is actually possible to make friends as an adult. Who knew?
She likes MOBAs and such, and I mostly go for shooters so Overwatch was an obvious choice.
The gameplay is fun, and it gives us both something we enjoy, but there are some glaring issues that are best described by just describing my own experience in the game.
First off, the game requires you to win 50 matches in quick play before you’re allowed in ranked. With both of us working full-time, having spouses and whatnot, and dealing with 3 random teammates, that took forever.
I finally got to ranked, she already had a rank. The game “predicted” my rank to be basically the same as hers. Even so, all that’s available are “wide matches”. Average wait time is between 20-30 minutes.
So we started a co-op campaign in Baldur’s Gate 3.
We still would like to find a competitive game to play together, so basically a functional Overwatch.
And that brings us here. Any ideas?
I kind of quit Overwatch after they sucked the soul out of it and called it a sequel. It’s not entirely a replacement, but as a fun shooter to play with friends/ family, I’ve mostly moved to playing Deep Rock Galactic. In some ways it scratches the itch: various classes/ roles, weapons, abilities, cooperation and teamwork to accomplish objectives, clicking heads and making things die, and purely cosmetic skins. It doesn’t quite have the satisfaction of a good back and forth grudge match (on account of being a PvE game), but the community is super chill, the game design about as far from predatory as you can get (while there are a handful of exclusive fomo items, it’s mostly just annual anniversary hats, or gifts to commemorate steam award nominations and such, there’s no collection interface to mock you or rub it in for not having them), and the devs are just all around great. Bonus points for being able to spin up or join missions pretty much whenever.
It doesn’t quite have the satisfaction of a good back and forth grudge match (on account of being a PvE game),
Heh… It’s not designed for it, but I’ve had some pretty grudge-like experiences joining public games, as some teammates turned out to be hostile.
To be clear, I don’t recommend that experience. It’s not fun to be antagonized with deliberate friendly fire throughout a mission, bullied by a group when you eventually shoot back, and left for dead when the ship leaves. (It’s easily avoidable by playing with friends, of course.)
Team Fortress 2? That was the game Overwatch was kinda imitating, so might be worth trying it out if you haven’t. Just keep in mind that you might have to avoid matchmaking and manually browse for servers. TF2 was having a bot problem, I dunno if valve ever fixed it.
This. It’s old now, but the medic class doesn’t require shooting. The spy doesn’t either, usually. But the medic is a great way to pay a support role. It used to be one of my favorite things for chill gaming.
Wait for Deadlock to come out or find someone in the beta who can get you into it.
I second this, I got into the beta on Friday and have been having a blast. It’s remarkably polished for a beta and everyone who gets in can invite as many people as they want and those people can also invite as many people as they want and so on and so on. So it’s spreading like wild fire, should be pretty easy to get into.
Maybe Deadlock?
Yeah, it does look promising but knowing Valve time it’ll release sometime in the 2030s.
!deadlock@sopuli.xyz has a thread for inviting and getting invited in case the guy who already commented doesn’t get you in.
Paladins?
