Incredible team play, fast-paced action and well-designed characters have both fans and game developers raving over Blizzard Entertainment’s newest animated first-person shooter game, Overwatch.

Overwatch, an online multiplayer game, has a large and steadily growing collection of lore, offering an experience comparable to reading a good book. The game takes place in the distant future. Players can pick from the game’s expanding collection of 22 heroes, each with their own unique abilities. Overwatch plays like an enlarged game of rock-paper-scissors, with almost every character having one to two hard counters, leading to dynamic and constantly-changing combat.

Players have three modes of play: quick play, competitive and the brawl feature. The brawl feature changes every month, gaining a new theme or special rules which differ from the standard rules in both quick play and competitive modes.

The one complaint I have about Overwatch is the matchmaking system it uses for its quick play mode. A matchmaking system is meant to pair players with other players their level in hopes of making a balanced team; however, in quick play, the system is either missing or not functioning correctly, leading to one team having a distinct skill advantage over the other.

The game received a Halloween-themed update Oct. 11, adding themed in-game items for its cast of characters. The update also added to the brawl mode, giving the game its first co-op player vs. environment experience.

The Origins edition includes in-game character skins as well as other extras for Blizzard’s games outside of Overwatch, and rings up at $59.99, while the standard edition costs $39.99. All in all, the game is well worth the cost. Overwatch is a brilliant game with a bright future.