See what I did there?

I was so hyped for this beta and the eventual full release, and then I died. And then I walked for a literal 25 seconds to get back into the fight. Then I died quickly again thanks to a turret killing my tank character in one second. Then I got to play Walking Simulator 2016 again and walk for 25 seconds after watching a 5 second kill replay.

A bit long winded, but seriously, the spawns are ridiculous in this game. I understand wave spawning/spawn delays, sure, but the distance of the spawn points from battle is absolutely ricockulous. Unbearable to the point that after playing for 3 hours tonight I've decided to not buy the game.

1. Even as a Battlefield lover these spawns are too far.

2. Thanks for browsing my vent session.

3. Does anyone else get frustrated with this or am I just a big jerk?

Tbh this just made me more interested. I'm tired of the abusive, claustrophobic spawn design in games like Destiny and CoD that reward sprinting and swarming mindlessly.

Also, try Symmetra?

25 seconds is too long?

It's because the last multiplayer game I played is Counter-Strike, right? Die too early in a round of Counter-Strike and you're looking at waiting two minutes to get back in. I find that a very good incentive to play well.

Quick question: How much teamwork were you putting in? I haven't really been super into news of this game but it looks like a game that really leans on teamwork - naturally, anyone can tell that this game owes Team Fortress 2 pretty much everything. If you're just playing this to run in and get some kills, Doom might be a multiplayer game more up your alley.

It's a design thing. Places high importance on sustainability and needing to having a healer on the team. Doesn't change it being annoying when you die, but I can think of no other way to make it work. Make spawns too close and defenders can maintain pressure on almost every point.

Depends on the hero you choose. If you choose someone big and tankey, or very support oriented (like Torbjorn with his sweet turret and armor packs) you shouldn't die that much because either A) you're survivable or B) you're not on the front lines so much. If you're dashing in there with a glass cannon then yeah, you're going to die a lot. I don't mind much though. Mostly because A) I don't really mind dying in games as a general rule and B) the 'long walk back' gives me time to think about what went wrong and how to improve my strategy/play better. Plus if I manage to kill an opponent I know they won't immediately respawn and kill me, so each kill feels meaningful. It leads to big swings in momentum as you wipe the other team and can set up defenses around an objective before they respawn and can come back.

I have to say that I love love love what I've played so far of this Beta. I was expecting to like it but it's even better than I expected.

A little worried about the microtransaction hooks though. Have they explained how that's going to work?

A lot of good points from y'all here. Calming me from my rage, hahaha!

The swing in momentum is definitely noticeable when your team stomps the Enemy and you're actually able to feel like you gained an advantage.

The Doom point is also a good one. Judging from the internet's reaction everyone hated the MP beta, but I loveddd it (maybe because I have no prior Doom love?)

Thanks for the thoughtful replies everyone. I rarely post on forums, but when I do I come to GiantBomb because of the kick ass community!

I sort of agree. It's more that most characters just move so damn slow and it can be frustrating to FINALLY get back to battle...and then die right away again. I wish they moved just a little bit faster.

@bigsocrates: From what they have said so far with regards to the microtransactions.
-New characters and maps are free to everyone, along with any other gameplay modifications
-Only purchasable things with real money are loot boxes. You also gain loot boxes on each level up
-Loot boxes only ever contain cosmetics. You cannot directly purchase a cosmetic with real money, it has to be through the luck of the draw by buying loot boxes
-If you do want a specific cosmetic, then you may have noticed that occasionally loot boxes drop coins, and receiving duplicate cosmetics also gives a small amount of coins. These coins can be used to directly unlock whatever cosmetic you want.
-As far as I know, there will be no way to purchase coins using real money.

@adequatelyprepared: Is there a level cap? Because I am doing some math here and there are over 20 heroes and it looks like over 50 unlocks per hero, meaning over 1000 total unlocks. You get 5 unlocks per level so if level is capped at 50 that means you'd only have about 1/4th of the items. I get that you can buy some extra with fake coins but that would be kind of annoying. I mean it's all cosmetic so I can live with it, but this game is $60 and it's not exactly LOADED with content, so that still feels frustrating to me.

I guess I just missed the days when buying a game meant you bought the game and there might be unlocks, sure, but not EVERY game was trying to reach into your pockets post launch to see if it could snatch a few more coins.

git gud

e: but anyway, sounds like it's something they can potentially tweak down the line, so it doesn't sound like a dealbreaker. i'm just jumping into the open beta so this is my first experience and i'm not too keen on all the character's movement speeds. they seemed to move plenty fast in the unfinished, though.

hoping this doesn't mean another $40 magically disappears from my wallet. :(

@bigsocrates: No people were going over level 50 in the beta. The highest I saw before I stopped playing (just going to wait for the full release) is over 90

I don't really think the problem is the walkbacks, it's that the game is way too fast for that kinda gamestyle. You end up spending a disproportionate amount of time walking compared to fighting. If you look at something like Battleborne when you get to the line of scrimmage you get to stay there and fight for a good while, but as soon as you jump into action in Overwatch it's over within seconds. It's been a while since I played TF2 but I'm pretty sure it wasn't nearly close to as fast as this either. Overwatch just feels like CoD stuffed inside a TF2 shell so far for me.

Don't die. It's not a modern typical shooter with instant respawns and just pew pew pew. Pick your hero and use your abilities wisely and be prepared to hang back a bit more than you're used to with most heroes. Can be a bit frustrated though on offense if the team doesn't really move up as one. But the game seems more attackers minded, so the walk to the objective as an attacker seems to be a lot shorter than the defenders one.

The game places a premium on staying alive to help your team, and really discourages dumb suicide plays. Either trade 2 for 1 or only extend if you think you can get the kill and survive. It's a change of pace from a lot of shooters on the market, there are plenty of twitchy, fast respawn shooty shooty bang bang games for people to play, no need for everything to be hyper mobility instant respawn deathmatch type deals.

It is a strange choice having the only method of teleportation be one specific character's ultimate. (An otherwise less favorable support character at that, if you ask me.)
Between the sometimes oddly long matchmaking queues, pre-game setup, post-game kill cams/score tallies/xp tom-foolery, and the matches sometimes only lasting a couple of minutes, it can seem as though you aren't spending a ton of time actually playing Overwatch, too.

Never felt like this was an issue and i've been playing since the early days. It rewards team play and using your abilities well. And it doesn't take THAT long at all.

No level cap, you carry on leveling at a normalised rate per level past a certain level, but uncertain what that is currently.

To be fair, it''s only $40 and only cosmetic items.

@yothatlimp: Only cosmetic items, yes, which is why I'm still buying the game. But it's $60 on console and while they said it was $40 on PC Amazon has it for $60 for PC and even Battle.net lists it at $60 so I am not sure that $40 price still holds.

I know they are different games, but compare Overwatch to something like Dota 2. You have a respawn countdown that can quickly get up to 60+ seconds, and then you have to walk to where the action is.

In a game like this the deaths need to matter and we're only talking 5-10 seconds where you are not doing anything. <shrugs> I get what you mean, but I think the alternatives would be worse and are more of an issue depending on the map and game mode. Like if you're defending Hanamura, you are out of commission for 10-15 seconds, while the attackers are out for 30-45 seconds.

Hm, I know Battlenet has tiers, there is a $40, a $60 and a $80 tier with the difference in tiers digital add ons and skins. . Sucks that the consoles don't get that though!

I think the design is fine. The game isn't about rushing in and swarming. It's about tactics, and if you don't use them, then you end up walking back to objective points a lot.

As for the loot box thing, it's my understanding that the brawl match each week will unlock a loot box, much like the way you get a classic pack from Tavern Brawl each week in Hearthstone. Any dupes you get will turn into an in-game currency that will allow you to buy things that you specifically want. I'm going to be playing the shit out of Overwatch anyways, so it's perfectly alright with me.

To be fair, though, I got my Origins Edition for $10...sooooooooo my opinion might be sullied by that fact.

@bigsocrates: Which version are you looking at? The Origins edition is 60 but there is a base version that's still 40. Battlenet Link

Blizzard seem to be hiding it a bit because I had to click on 3 different links to get to it and buying it took 4 times saying I didn't want the Origins edition.

Yeah, it's certainly the biggest issue I have with it, based on the little I've played thus far. Not that I was probably going to buy the game anyway (at least not at launch, or for $60), but it's almost deal breaking for me.

I'm glad i'm not the only one lol, but this game just feels way to slow to me. The long respawns coupled with the slow default run/walk for most characters and the quick deaths make the game kind of a chore for me. Maybe if the maps were a bit smaller or the respawn points put you closer to the action? I don't know, something just doesn't feel good about it to me.

This is one of several reasons why I play Soldier: 76 almost exclusively. Sprint is just too valuable, especially for running back after dying

Long respawn times? Erm it's like 5 seconds isn't it?

Long time to get back into fights in Overwatch? I have not found this an issue at all. I hope they change nothing, I don't need more ADHD Call of Duty in my life!

It's about 8 sec's on ps4

This is a valid criticism given the TTK, if TTK was longer it wouldn't really matter (so it doesn't matter if you're playing Reinhardt essentially); just having spawns that shift based on the objective is fine and ~5 seconds to get back into the fight is fine.

In most situations it takes about twice as long to get back into the fight as TF2 for reference.

Dont die. Get that one character to put a teleporter down too.

Just played a few hours and I never replicated what OP was talking about.

EXCEPT, with Reinhardt. That's one slow dude.

Just with regards to game speed, there's only one thing that still really bugs me.
The 'choose your hero' part does not need to be 40 seconds long. Make it 20 or even 15.

I've felt that drag a few times playing defense, but I guess it's just a part of the balancing. Also,

There is a reason Symmetra had the best win ratio during the closed beta. Lúcio's speed boost can also help a lot but that obviously only helps if you spawn with Lúcio.

The walk is long for balance reasons. A failed attack or a failed aggressive defense is a risk/reward situation. If you push too far up and wipe, the enemy team gets time to regroup and set up a new plan. It's also incentive to use Mercy/Symmetra to more or less nullify the time loss with well placed ults.

I usually don't mind the walk up, since I tend to be in focused state of NEEDING to get back into it quicker instead of just wanting to. It's a tension thing more or less. While in Battlefield, which I only ever played casually to just shoot things. The walk was wristslittingly dull since there were no stakes in getting back into it other than my boredom.

Yeah, this issue has become a deal breaker for me... I've enjoyed my time with the beta but have already found myself drifting back to Rocket League. :-/

Oh well, maybe LawBreakers will be more up my alley.

I really like the fact that when I kill someone he/she isn't back fighting me in 5 seconds. It's not for everyone.

Yeah, if I had to voice my thoughts on this, that would be it. Most heroes can easily be taken down with a couple of hits once they get to the meat of the fight. This is something that just has to come with experience (and getting gud) I think, but I wouldn't mind the characters being a bit more survivable.

@ep_driver: With all due respect I don't think you right at all

Haven't found issue with the spawn points,

One of the best FPS multiplayer in years IMO

Yah it is rough when you do a pretty lengthy walkback to the battle only to get instantly sniper by Widowmaker or the bow guy in one shot.

It's frustrating for about 5 seconds when it happens, then I'm back in the fight. I find that if I'm dying as soon as I show my face, I'm doing something very wrong and try to fix it. The more I walk the worse I'm doing.

If people would stop running out and dying, they wouldn't have an issue with respawns or move speed. This isn't CoD, you have to work with your team and stick together. I have no issue whatsoever with it.

Its not quite as bad after you learn some characters, but when first starting out its almost a deal breaker. 8 second countdown and about 10 or more second run with regular speed, if you go down a lot the game quickly becomes frustrating. Bad decision for a new game that is soley dependent on player count. Its also probably why people end up picking certain characters who are faster or easier to learn so teams end up being super unbalanced.

I don't mind walking at all, but walking in this game is too damn slow. I'd rather walk bigger distance with fast and fluid movement, than short track with some slow tank.

With regards this, I realised what an important strategy was. As you move out of spawn, hit tab, and have a quick look at the respawn timers on your team. If there's some people about to come up and you can afford to wait 2-3 seconds, then wait. At least that way you can all enter the battle together (this is of course a moot point if you're playing with friends on constant voice chat and tell each other to hold back). Super useful if you're Lucio as well, as instead of just speed-boosting yourself, you might speed boost 1 or 2 other teammates.

You might also have to review the maps. When checkpoints are reached, many maps have some new pathways that are enabled which allow for fast access to the final zones. Once you use them, you could move from spawn point to the last checkpoint in less than 10 seconds...

If the travel time bugs you, I recommend you play Lucio at the start and switch to speed and hit his jam to amp it up. I actually tend to do this at the start of a match to get my team to the point first and faster, then swap out to another hero later.

But honestly, no I'm fine with the spawns as is. As others have mentioned, it's a nice change of pace from randomly spawning in front of the whole enemy team in the middle of a crossfire and being DOA.

Agreed, I think the respawns in overwatch are good at not making the game about just firing grenades into a choke point. They seems to balance the game when playing payload, as the winning team has longer spawns.

Play Lucio and help the whole team get back into the thick of it STAT. I personally don't mind the down time, gives me a moment to strategize on the way over!

I don't have a huge issue with the spawn points, but if your going to have a 10-20 second walk back into the action, then don't have a 8 second respawn. I played the beta a good deal and never really learned a lot of the characters after a while because dying with them got to frustrating before i could learn them, it was kinda excruciating at times. I had about 5 or so i was decent with, at least one from each group.