The team-based first person shooter video game Overwatch, developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released in May 2016, features 26 playable characters (heroes) and a number of supporting characters as part of the game's narrative, which is told through animated media and digital comics outside of the game.
The story of Overwatch takes place on Earth in the "near future" in the years after the "Omnic Crisis," a period in which robots (called "omnics") rose up in rebellion worldwide, and the United Nations formed an elite group called Overwatch to combat them. Overwatch was disbanded years later under a cloud of suspicion, but its former members have returned to the fore in light of new threats to humanity. Blizzard wanted to create a diverse set of characters to reflect a positive outlook on this near future, incorporating non-human characters and non-standard character traits. The game was launched with 21 characters, with four more added since launch.
Eight characters, Lúcio, Tracer, Zarya, Genji, D.Va, Ana, Junkrat, and Hanzo have appeared as playable heroes within Blizzard's crossover game, Heroes of the Storm.
Overwatch is primarily a team-oriented online first-person shooter, and an example of a "hero shooter" where players select from one of several pre-designed hero characters developed by Blizzard for the game. Overwatch includes both casual play modes, competitive ranked play modes, and various arcade modes where special rules apply. Most game modes bring together two teams of six players each into a match and compete in one of several objective-based game types based on the randomly selected map, including taking control points and escorting a payload.
A match starts with each player selecting from one of the available hero characters. The game's characters are divided into four character classes: offense, defense, tank, and support. Offense characters do the majority of the team's aggressive damage. Defense characters are equipped to guard the objective and halt the enemy's advance. Tank characters can absorb large amounts of damage for the team, and support characters share healing abilities and similar status effects for the team or against enemies. The game will warn teams if they have an imbalance in their general class selection, and certain game modes require players to select different heroes. Players are able to switch between heroes mid-match after they are killed or if they return to their team's base.