Overwatch Is Finally (Kinda) Coming To Mobile, And It's Pretty Fun So Far

When Overwatch was first pitched more than a decade ago, a number of Blizzard employees told me, it was not pitched solely as a team-based hero shooter–it was pitched as a universe. Over the years, Blizzard has exemplified this idea by expanding the game’s story through comics, animated shorts, and more, ultimately creating the vibrant, superhero-inspired world we know it to be today. Now, a decade after the game’s initial release, we’re finally seeing that universe expand in an even larger way with something the team has been chasing after for some time: Overwatch’s first spin-off game.

Overwatch Rush is Blizzard’s new top-down, mobile hero shooter set in the Overwatch universe, and while it’s still fairly early in development, the hour-and-a-half I spent with the game was a lot of fun. According to the studio, Rush aims to finally broaden Overwatch’s reach to finally include mobile players, though it should be noted that it is not a port or extension of the core Overwatch experience and will have no interaction with the core game. That said, Rush’s roster–which includes Mercy, Tracer, Reaper, Soldier 76, Kiriko, Lucio, Reinhardt, and Pharah, to start–is pulled entirely from the main game and doesn’t necessarily reimagine them, making the experience feel fairly familiar. And despite Overwatch’s core team, Team 4, not working on the upcoming game, it retains a sense of familiarity in other ways too, with notably similar UI, the same in-game announcer, and the inclusion of Control-Point mode.

During my hands-on preview with Overwatch Rush, I had the opportunity to test out these eight heroes, the mobile reimagining of Control-Point mode, and the game’s two additional modes as well: Nano Grab and Free-For-All. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as they were designed specifically for Rush, Nano Grab and Free-For-All are the modes that I found most exciting. In Nano Grab, you and three other teammates are tasked with picking up small glowing objects called Nanos, then depositing them into a bank that changes its location periodically. The first team to bank 100 Nanos wins, though it should be noted that you can’t successfully bank Nanos if anyone from the other team is on the bank. This makes for a fast-paced, strategic mode, in which you must decide how to divvy up your team of four to be the most effective; do you band together, forming an unstoppable force but severely limiting your Nano-seeking capabilities, or send a few highly-mobile scouts out (like Lucio and Tracer) to grab Nanos while your beefier party members ensure the banking area stays clear?

Free-For-All, on the other hand, is focused less on strategy and more on lethality. In Free-For-All, you must face off against three other players and be the first to reach five kills. The experience is easy to learn and quick to play, but certainly not breezy, as there is constant tension between you and the other players. More so than other modes, Free-For-All made me both aware and appreciative, of how the maps are scaled in Overwatch Rush. While they are all inspired by preexisting Overwatch locations (Busan, Gibraltar, and Anubis, to name a few of the ones I played), they are scaled down to force interaction, accommodate smaller team sizes, and create fast-paced matches. Considering Overwatch Rush is a mobile game, that last point is extremely important; I’m generally not one to play mobile games if I am not on the go, and the last thing I want is to be trapped in a five or 10 minute ordeal when I need to set my phone down and get on to my next task. The team behind Rush said its goal is to keep matches to about three minutes, and that seemed to be the case with each game I played.

Rush’s final mode, Control-Point, is by far the most familiar for Overwatch players and is just a condensed version of the original game’s. More so than the other modes, Control-Point requires you and your team to factor in composition and work together, as all the action is condensed to a single point on the map, but there are no role restrictions enforced in any mode. I noted that these games still last long enough to really give you that sense of push and pull that makes this mode so compelling in Overwatch–but there is certainly the capacity for the match to be a very quick (and humiliating) blow out as well.

Now, let’s talk characters. As I mentioned earlier, Overwatch Rush currently features a roster of eight familiar faces, though the team told me that, ideally, all of the original game’s roster will eventually be included. Of the original eight heroes, most of them control extremely similarly to the original game. For example, Reaper’s Hellfire Shotgun is still his primary fire, he can still activate Wraith Form, and Death Blossom is still his ultimate ability; this is the case for most of the heroes, though I will note that some, like Pharah, just feel a bit different due to the game’s top-down perspective. The biggest difference is Mercy, who has been retooled to make her more independent and function better in a mobile setting. Whereas Caduceus Staff is her primary fire in Overwatch, Rush sees her swap it out for her blaster, ultimately pushing her into her “Battle Mercy” persona. Her Guardian Angel ability also has a new twist, as rather than allowing her to fly to a pre-selected target, she can now use it to quickly fly in a single direction.

Like Overwatch’s perk system, Overwatch Rush also includes a way to slightly tailor your characters with Mods and Talents. Mods are essentially stat boosts and are the same for every character, either boosting your attack, speed, defense, or what have you. Talents, on the other hand, vary from character to character and amplify a certain playstyle. For example, Tracer has a talent that sees her fast-paced teleportation move, Blink, restore a substantial amount of health, giving the healer more independence and self-sustainability. As you play a character, you’ll increase your Mastery in them, ultimately unlocking even more of these Mods and Talents.

Naturally all of these heroes have skins specific to Overwatch Rush, with some being redesigns of beloved Overwatch skins while others are all original. A few, such as Pharah’s Inarius skin, represent fun crossovers with another Blizzard franchise, Diablo. Among my favorites were Tracer’s Anarchy skin, Mercy’s Ballerina skin, and Reaper’s Nocturne skin, all of which are impressively designed. Though they will certainly cost money, Blizzard has not yet announced their cost. It’s also worth noting that, like most mobile and live-service games, you can unlock daily login bonuses and earn in-game rewards through playing Overwatch Rush, though I’m not sure what the exact value of these will be.

This brings me to an aspect I was particularly curious about, considering the nature of mobile games as well as the missteps Overwatch made when it took the plunge to free-to-play, which is how Overwatch Rush would be monetized. According to the team, the game will be entirely free-to-play with optional in-app purchases that will not impact the in-game experience, such as cosmetics. Blizzard expanded on this in the game’s press release, writing, “Our vision is for player skill to be the deciding factor in matches. We’ll be listening to player feedback on this topic, and monetization elements may be adjusted during testing phases.”

A lengthy test period seems to be what’s next for Overwatch Rush, as Blizzard told me it envisions a 2027 release date for the game and we shouldn’t expect a full, 1.0 version anytime soon. As such, it’s a bit hard to give a final assessment of my time spent with the game; some aspects felt early in development, and there’s no telling what will change as time goes on. There are a few things–like the lack of interaction between Rush and Overwatch in terms of earning coins or bonuses, or even new characters that truly expand the world–that felt like disappointing oversights. I also think that, by virtue of it being a mobile game, there are certainly people who will prefer to stick to the core Overwatch experience and might opt out of a mobile version. At the same time, I really enjoyed the moment-to-moment gameplay of it and foresee myself as someone who would login daily to collect my bonuses and get in a quick match (or five).

I also appreciate how tailored to mobile the experience feels–as much as I’d love to have another avenue to play Overwatch, I can’t foresee the complex and lightning-quick game feeling approachable on mobile. Rush remedies that, and places approachability and accessibility first and foremost, with great design and a lot of options to help those who might otherwise struggle with playing the original game. And yes, it’s easy for folks to be cynical towards mobile games, but I feel Rush is an accomplished title that makes the most of its platform. Will it replace Overwatch for me? Of course not, but that also doesn’t seem to be the goal or point. Overwatch Rush is a game I’d recommend folks give a try, particularly if they already love Overwatch. It’s familiar, compulsory, and delights in many of the same ways its original does, even in a bite-sized form.

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