O
verwatch is a ‘dead
game’ to many but I
still play a lot. When
I’m sitting with
friends in Discord
shooting the shit, I also like to shoot
shit, and Overwatch is my preferred
place to do that. I’ve played
hundreds of hours of Blizzard’s
shooter, and for the last three or
four years my favourite hero to
main has been Widowmaker. And
it’s had a terrible knock-on effect
in other games.
Sniping as a sexy french lady is, to
me, the pièce de résistance of
gunplay. There is nothing that sets off
a small explosion of serotonin in my
brain like getting a clean headshot on
someone. The elegance. The ease of it
all. It’s the most competitive I get, to
be honest, knowing that I killed
someone even before they realised
what was going on. Pure,
shimmering, golden bliss.
I know Widowmaker’s abilities
through and through. Quick scoping
isn’t that great unless your enemy is
really low. You should instead scope,
wait for your gun to power up, and
shoot at 100% power. I know this
timing innately. It’s second nature
and frankly hard to unlearn for other
games these days.
It can feel a little mean at times.
When you’ve spent as many hours as
I have in Overwatch, you cultivate
such a good game sense that you can
predict pretty basic player
movements. I’m no god at the game,
and I haven’t even got a rank as I
never put any real effort into the
competitive mode. But I can at least
pull off deliberately falling off a ledge
for a Reaper to follow me down,
before zipping back up and
headshotting them – a bad manners
bamboozle. If it’s so wrong, then why
does it feel so bloomin’ good?SHOOT TO KILL
My theory of why I love sniping is
that it’s because I’m an archer in real
life. As a sport, archery is all about
taking one shot at a time. You train
yourself to make every arrow count.
There are entire mental exercises you
do when competing that have thesole intention of calming yourself. I
think that training seeped into the
way I treat guns in games.
The satisfaction I feel when
sniping isn’t just found in Overwatch
either, it carries through to other
titles. Every time I pick up something
new, whatever class gives me the
most power per bullet is what I’ll
gravitate towards. If you can give me
a gun and a good distance, that’s
where I’ll happily sit. Does it always
go well? No. I’m playing a lot of
Valorant at the moment and theOperator sniper rifle, though a one
shot kill, is seriously disrupted by any
player movement. So I don’t land
100% of my shots – but when I do, oh
baby, there’s nothing quite like it.SMOOTH OPERATOR
Apex Legends has guns that give me
the chills too. Even before I find a
trusty Longbow DMR or a Sentinel,
I’m picking up that light purple
ammo scattered about. Shoguns? Eh.
SMGs? Nah. Up close and personal
fights are a nightmare, but hey, I’ll
just avoid them the best I can, sit on
this tower, and wait for a butt-sliding
pedestrian. It helps that Apex Legends
gives me extra teammates, so they
can do the dirty work while I twiddle
my thumbs at the top of a building.
I’ve also dipped into the Sniper
Elite games, and frolicking about the
continent of Europe with a massive
gun on my back feels strangely like a
holiday. Picking off Nazis one by one
surrounded by fragrant lavender
fields, is a delicious treat. And
additional mechanics like bullet drop
add nuance that keeps the experience
feeling tactical even in single-player.
There are some who find sniping
as a whole, cheesy. Sometimes it can
feel oppressive and unescapable. If
you’re up against a good sniper, no
matter the game, your breath can get
sharp as you die. You start huffing
and puffing about how you didn’t get
a chance to respond as a respawn
timer slowly ticks. And that’s a
downside, because it’s often such fun
at the other end of the scope.
The point of sniping, for me, isn’t
exactly to win the game. I don’t have
an intense desire to conquer
everything I play. A match loss,
unless it’s caused by unquantifiably
stupid teammates, is fine. GGs all
round, I had a good time. Really I just
enjoy the weightless moment as
something as simple as a single pull
of muscle in a finger devastates some
pixels on my monitor. It’s pure. It’s
effortless. It’s so much fun. Sniping is
just the best.NEED TO KNOW
RELEASE
May 24, 2016
PUBLISHER
In-house
DEVELOPER
Blizzard Entertainment
LINK
playoverwatch.comSNIPING’S ELITE
The best in the bizWIDOWMAKER
Overwatch’s femme
fatale is a French
ballerina with a sad
history. After being
kidnapped by the evil
Talon and
brainwashed, she
murdered her own
husband before
returning to Talon.CHAMBER
Valorant’s sniping
specialist is also
French. There must
be something in the
wine. His ultimate
ability Tour De Force
gives him a very
expensive, high
powered sniper rifle.
Ooh la la.KARL FAIRBURNE
Karl Fairburne is an
American sniper in
the Sniper Elite
series. If you’ve ever
wondered what
James Bond might
be like as a Yank, he’s
your guy. He uses his
rifle to foil the plans
of evil Nazis.IT’S SECOND NATURE, AND
FRANKLY HARD TO UNLEARN
FOR OTHER GAMESEXTRA LIFE
NOW PLAYING I UPDATE I MOD SPOTLIGHT I HOW TO I DIARY I WHY I LOVE (^) I REINSTALL I M U S T P L A Y
LEFT: (^) It’s the eye of
the spider, it’s the
thrill of the fight.