Overwatch’s deep roster of characters offers players a variety of ways to play, making it one of the more accessible entries in the first-person shooter genre. But it still requires some mix of speed and skill if you want to achieve excellence. But what would Overwatch look like if it didn’t make those demands of its fans? Think about it for a second: its colorful cast of characters roughly breaks down into offensive, defensive, tank, and support classes. And the unique abilities range from buffs to screen-clearing attacks. At its core, Overwatch has lots in common with a traditional role-playing game.
An Overwatch RPG is precisely what this new video from The Salt Factory YouTube channel imagines, using some creative video editing to plop Overwatch’s characters into turn-based combat. A team of McCree, Reinhardt, Mercy, and Bastion become a questing party of four, battling a typical random encounter against a wild Roadhog. Overwatch moves are converted into attacks costing ability points, and ultimate abilities charge for several turns before being used.
Sure, it’s a long shot, but maybe Blizzard will one day decide to branch out the Overwatch franchise further into a turn-based RPG. Stranger things have certainly happened in the game industry.