Overwatch’s Arcade mode features many chaotic game modes: from Total Mayhem, which reduces all character cooldowns by half, to Summer Games’ Lucioball, which features fans’ favorite froggy hero in a game of wall-riding soccer. Perhaps, Overwatch’s most hectic game mode, however, is Mystery Heroes, which sees players swap between random characters every time they die.
Overwatch is focused on powerful ultimate abilities, whose charge is reset every time players die in Mystery Heroes. As such, the game mode relies on a lot of luck, proficiency in a wide range of heroes, and the ability to stay alive for as long as possible. When players aren’t keenly aware of each hero’s playstyle, they doom their team to failure.
User JusticeLock on the r/Overwatch subreddit shows a clip of an unlucky Hanzo who repeatedly gets picked off by the enemy team. With a randomized composition on Eichenwalde, defending the first chokepoint can be tricky without a powerful shield tank like Orisa, as this poor player finds out. Struck by an enemy Hanzo, he is resurrected by Mercy, and instead of following her to cover behind the Roadhog, he peddles backward, almost in a straight line, until he gets taken out by the opposing Hanzo once again.
Luckily for him, Mystery Heroes has a propensity to assign multiple players the same hero, so another Mercy comes along for a risky res. After pulling it off, she backs up around the corner, and Hanzo makes the wise decision to follow her. Unfortunately, by this point, the enemy Hanzo has taken the high ground just above the chokepoint, and he quickly picks him off again, leaving the Mercy, who just resurrected him, absolutely dumbfounded.
This clip shows just how fast a game of Overwatch can turn. As a high damage hero, like Widowmaker, Hanzo plays best in the hands of players with sharp aim and an understanding of elevated positioning. With only 200 HP, another Hanzo’s arrows can wipe out his health with one fully charged headshot. Moreover, with no shields on the defending team and seemingly only a Roadhog to soak up the enemy fire, players standing out in the open are highly susceptible to damage. Without taking the high ground and making the most of Overwatch's maps to push the enemy team back, Hanzo is quickly defeated.
The replies to the clip are filled with players sympathizing with the exhausted Mercy and the stress of playing Mystery Heroes with a character they aren’t familiar with. User PocketSable commiserates with the Hanzo, writing, “I can hear the person on the other side being like ‘JUST LET ME DIE SO I CAN GET A HERO I CAN PLAY’.” While Mercy players typically flock to teammates with their resurrect, this clip emphasizes the benefits of the maxim “live and let die.”
Overwatch is currently available for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
