Overwatch and Paladins are 2 very similar yet different games. They have the same style of game-play and have similar characters, some in terms of appearance and some in terms of backstory. Here is a summary of the two games along with similarities and differences.
Paladins vs Overwatch
Paladins
Paladins: Champions of the Realm is a free to play multiplayer first-person shooter game that has a very wide variety of characters with more being added every other month. Paladins focuses on enforcing good team composition to win games. It has fun new limited-time events added every month and has a wide variety of cosmetics for each character. It has fun gameplay but a small variety of maps which eventually leads to the games feeling repetitive and boring.
The game has a very long list of characters offering you an impressive 42 number characters to play as but regardless of numbers the gameplay for most characters starts to feel very similar after a few games. Although good in-game, the game is lacking in the story department with little to no backstory for most characters.
The game also lacks in looks, not having great visuals or textures even with the best settings. Paladins focuses on the two main groups in the realm, the paladins themselves and the magistrate who constantly fight each other. The magistrate serves the role of the main antagonist group, after the realm had achieved total peace the paladins decided to step down, Paladin Karne decided to gather any volunteering Ex-Paladins to create a new group called the Magistrate.
The magistrate made sure that there was total peace throughout the realm but eventually got greedy. Karne then found crystals which made him more powerful. Overwhelmed by this power Karne demanded even more and focused his goal on finding every such crystal in the realm. He lost sight of his true intentions and led his group towards a path of evil. The Magistrate now use their powers to get what they want and have taken away magic from the common folk. Along came a resistance which provided hope for the people but when it came to the ultimate battle, the resistance was overwhelmed by the magistrate’s power.
The remaining members fled and look to recover and fight against the Magistrate’s oppression. The Magistrate themselves will stop at nothing to find these remaining members ad make sure they have found all the remaining crystals. The game has offered the information given above so far regarding the main storyline, though interesting it is still far too short considering how long it has been since the game was released, back in September of 2016.
The game does have an active E-sports scene, although popular it is not even half as close as the height of the Overwatch league. Paladins is still a very good game considering that the only way the developers gain money is through purchases made from inside the game. The game is free to play and well worth trying if you are trying out a cheaper more veritable version of Overwatch.
Overwatch
Overwatch is a very fun and entertaining multiplayer first-person shooter game that offers 31 different characters to play as along with more being added every other month. With each character having completely different gameplay. The game even offers different settings for every character, with every character much more suited to their own separate settings.
Some are slow and some are fast, some are strong and some are stronger, not to mention the completely unique abilities each character has, these differences in gameplay make sure that you will never be bored of the game. Along with new characters, the game also releases new events and skins every few months that keep players busy for the whole month.
The game has a very famous Competitive mode famed for its bad team balancing and smurf problems. However, the game is working hard to solve these issues and released the much needed Role-Queue feature, which locks a 2 tank 2 damage and 2 healer style of play which means you have to queue as a specific role and can play only as the characters from the role you choose to play as.
Although Blizzard did receive some backlash by a small number of players who said that it took the fun out of the game and made it boring, the feature was much needed and makes fair play more common.
The game, along with great gameplay also has great visuals, every map has a unique ambiance to it along with great scenery and detail. The game also has a magnificent story with more added to it regularly. These are all reasons why the game won the game of the year award in 2016 facing such tough competition with Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Final Fantasy XV, Battlefield 1 and so on.
The game’s story focuses around Overwatch itself and an organization called Talon, who act as the main antagonist of the game. Starting with the defection of some omnics and the start of the omnic crisis, the story starts with a group called Overwatch who called upon of group of heroes to protect the planet.
After successfully dealing with the omnics Overwatch had no major function left and started to lose morale within itself. Overwatch was eventually disbanded and its employees spread out throughout the planet. Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison, the 2 main characters of the game in the eyes of most, had a fight after Overwatch was disbanded which led to catastrophe and the world thinking they had died.
The story then heads a few years ahead when Gabriel Reyes had joined Talon and was causing anarchy around the globe. Winston, the lead scientist of Overwatch had enough of this and decided it is time someone put a stop to Talon’s acts. He recalled his former allies and hopes to fight against Talon in a quest to achieve peace once again. The game itself is fun to play and very affordable. It is much more fun with friends and has multiple game modes that will never let you get bored of the game.
Similarities And Differences
Similarities
- Both the games have many characters that in one way or another, each has their own counter-part whether it is because of gameplay, appearance or backstory.
- Both games have the same style of play, having an escort or capture the objective mode.
- Both games have a similar rivalry in Soldier: 76 and Reaper, and Lex and Androxus. Both were subordinates and friends in the past but one defected which led to the heated encounters that we all love.
- Both games have a similar update pattern and add new characters to the game regularly.
- Both games rely heavily upon a well-co-ordinated team and good team selection if you want to win.
Differences
- Paladins focuses on improving the game for the players more whereas Blizzard has had much of their attention on the Esports aspect of their game.
- Paladins offers a much more affordable price tag, being completely free but Overwatch isn’t much expensive itself.
- Overwatch has a unique set of gameplay for each character whereas Paladins looks to keep the gameplay similar with abilities being the only major difference.
- Overwatch tends to focus a lot on its story whereas Paladins has not provided players with much since the release of the game.