Characters mechanics and teaming

Overwatch works by having characters are uniquely integrated to work with each other no matter who that character is. Certain characters can counter another character, but you also need a healer to supply healing or damage buffs during a fight which would give you a larger chance of surviving. Then to this composition you’d want to add a tank to give have a shield to protect you from enemy attacks, and maybe another secondary damage dealing teammate to support on kills and provide distraction to keep attention away from you. This creates a collaborative game style where teammates are very important and all fill unique independent roles.

It is true that some players can enjoy a more solo playstyle that can benefit them depending on experience. But the way that Overwatch is built from the ground up is with each game you play having the main goal of completing the objective with its characters and playstyles that forcibly entice players to depend on other players to achieve their goals. Objectives give players reason to join together by rewarding teamwork with more effective combat.

Team Fortress works by tailoring each of its characters to be walking one-man armies that can decimate 30 players without even dying once. And how valve designed these characters was by creating each character to be their own solo protagonist that would survive in their own game setting meaning that each character has no core benefits from teaming next to other players without being fundamentally weaker this means your playstyle and effectiveness dictates on your skill and how much you are willing to improve.

Overwatch makes the whole goal of each game to complete the objective while Team Fortress 2 invokes the opposite by giving players more reasons to roam around the maps solo racking kills and making the core game mechanics keeping players away from each other such as Scouts increased speed to leave behind slower classes, Spy ability to shapeshift to trick players into disbelieving their teammates, Pyro and Demomans splash damage attacks keep players avoiding large clusters of each other and keeping everyone separated.

Playstyles and combat varieties

Overwatch combat relies solely on the character, with each character accompanying their own certain weapon and movement mechanics that requires the player to change character for every playstyle. And with +30 characters to choose from the player has more than enough variety to change to other characters to constantly give them a way to play their own way.

Team Fortress 2 works by having a much shorter range of characters that the player can play for variety but makes up for this by having different guns and weapons that completely change the way a player can play them. The character Demo-man uses a grenade launcher as his main weapon that can be used for a tactical advantage for defence and area denial but if you swap his main weapon for a sword he now plays as an offensive class completely changing his playstyle. Each weapon for each character comes with unique perks and cons that require the player to think on their toes for a specific environment depending on the game they play from defending or attacking.

Customization

Overwatch has started diverging its options when it comes to customisation like introducing the mythic shop and having gold styles to add onto previously owned skins as well as their battle-pass system and now loot boxes returning but for players to play around with their characters that they can form a bond with overwatch lets you customise a players: skin, Player Card, title, gun skin and emotes earned through playing through the battle-pass or buying them through the store. Skins are a one-time apply that range from common, rare, epic, legendary and mythic with each skin progressing in more detail as it varies with Mythics being the most customizable with pre-selected options for the skin.

Team Fortress 2 follows an opposite path where all cosmetics are interchangeable with each other meaning if you want to wear a bearskin hat with no pants on that's a completely valid option for a player to have.

Conclusion
Overall despite being often compared there’s enough differences between Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch to make them feel like separate experiences. While both are large roster team shooters, the individual differences make each game unique.

Overwatch versus Team Fortress 2