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A hero shooter is a sub-genre of shooter games which emphasize "hero" characters that have distinctive abilities and/or weapons that are specific to them. A hero shooter can be a first-person shooter or a third-person shooter.
Hero shooters are a variation of multiplayer first- or third-person shooters, where players form into two or more teams and select from pre-designed "hero" characters that each possess distinctive attributes, skills, weapons, and other passive and active abilities. Hero shooters strongly encourage teamwork between players on a team, guiding players to select effective combinations of hero characters and coordinate the use of hero abilities during a match. [1]
Hero shooters take many of their design elements from older class-based shooter, multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) and fighting games. Some incorporate the role-playing elements from MOBAs, where as a match progresses, the player can opt to buy or improve predefined skills for their selected hero, adapting these to the dynamics of the match. In other hero shooters, players have freedom to change to a new hero at respawn points as to alter team composition to better challenge their opponents. [1]
Because of the focus on heroes as distinctive characters, hero shooters will often feature more narrative elements than traditional team-based shooters, providing backstories for each character and an emphasis on the story and world in which the games are set. [1] [2]
The origins of hero shooters can be traced back to early tactical shooters that featured class-based playable characters in multiplayer modes. Games like Battlefield 1942 and Team Fortress Classic featured specific roles that a player could select that would come with their own unique abilities and sometimes specific weapons that were not available to the other classes. While the majority of tactical shooters were the main games that featured some form of class based mechanics, other shooters also featured the same gameplay style and had their own take on the system such as Star Wars: Battlefront [3] and Conker: Live & Reloaded . [4]
Valve's Team Fortress 2 in 2007 created the main framework and inspiration for the subgenre. While Team Fortress 2 featured the same class-based system as its predecessor, each specific class was now its own unique "character," which came with a specific personality and appearance. This made the roles more fleshed out and feel more like real people rather than just nameless playable characters. [5] As Valve continued to expand the game, the company released additional media, including a line of "Meet the Team" videos that helped to build out each character class and their backstory. [6] These "Meet the Team" videos established the use of cinematic narrative videos used in future hero shooters to introduce new hero characters. [7]
The subgenre had a substantial rise in popularity with the announcement of Battleborn and Overwatch in 2014, with both games later releasing nearly at the same time in 2016. [5] Battleborn, by Gearbox Software, was the first game to use "hero shooter" in their press material in September 2014. [8] Gearbox made the comparison of Battleborn as a hero shooter to how their Borderlands games were "shooter-looters". Gearbox considered a hero shooter, distinct from MOBAs as it was a first-person shooter first and foremost, but similar to "character-centric games [and] fighting games, hence the ‘hero’ in hero-shooter". [9] Overwatch, announced by Blizzard Entertainment a few months after Battleborn's announcement, was heavily inspired by Team Fortress 2 and MOBAs. [5] Overwatch had evolved out from Blizzard's cancelled Titan , a class-based team shooter which the team had devised a large number of classes, which had caused scope creep and led Blizzard to cancel the project and cut the team. To save what they could, the remaining developers revised the classes into individual heroes with detailed backstories and personalities to make a team-focused hero shooter. [1] Overwatch proved more popular of the two games, and by January 2021, Gearbox opted to shutter Battleborn's servers. [10] The rise in popularity of Overwatch was followed by a flood of similar games like LawBreakers (2017) and Gigantic (2017). [11] [12] The popularity of hero shooters also caused existing games that had used roles but without specific characterization, such as Call of Duty and Battlefield , to incorporate designed characters and narratives into their games. [13]
Modern popular hero shooters include Apex Legends (2019), Valorant (2020), Overwatch 2 (2023), and Marvel Rivals (2024).
A player character is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not controlled by a player are called non-player characters (NPCs). The actions of non-player characters are typically handled by the game itself in video games, or according to rules followed by a gamemaster refereeing tabletop role-playing games. The player character functions as a fictional, alternate body for the player controlling the character.
In tabletop games and video games, a character class is an occupation, profession, or role assigned to a game character to highlight and differentiate their capabilities and specializations.
An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and span many genres, including first-person shooters, strategy games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). In 2019, revenue in the online games segment reached $16.9 billion, with $4.2 billion generated by China and $3.5 billion in the United States. Since the 2010s, a common trend among online games has been to operate them as games as a service, using monetization schemes such as loot boxes and battle passes as purchasable items atop freely-offered games. Unlike purchased retail games, online games have the problem of not being permanently playable, as they require special servers in order to function.
Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) mod for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) and its expansion, The Frozen Throne (2003). The objective of the game is for each team to destroy their opponents' Ancient, a heavily guarded structure at the opposing corner of the map. Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied teammates and AI-controlled fighters. As in role-playing games, players level up their heroes and use gold to buy equipment during the game.
A healer is a type of character class in video gaming. When a game includes a health game mechanic and multiple classes, often one of the classes will be designed around the restoration of allies' health, known as healing, in order to delay or prevent their defeat. Such a class can be referred to as a healer. In addition to healing, healer classes are sometimes associated with buffs to assist allies in other ways, and nukes to contribute to the offense when healing is unnecessary.
Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games where two teams of players compete on a predefined battlefield, each controlling a single character with distinctive abilities. These abilities become more powerful as the match progresses, allowing characters to contribute more effectively to the team's overall strategy. The typical objective is for each team to destroy the opponents' main structure, located at the opposite corner of the battlefield, while protecting their own. In some MOBA games, the objective can be defeating every player on the enemy team. Players are assisted by computer-controlled units that periodically spawn in groups and march forward along set paths toward their enemy's base, which is heavily guarded by defensive structures. This type of multiplayer online video games originated as a subgenre of real-time strategy, though MOBA players usually do not construct buildings or units. The genre is seen as a fusion of real-time strategy, role-playing and action games.
Titan was the project name for a cancelled Blizzard Entertainment massively multiplayer online game. With speculation regarding the game beginning in 2007, Blizzard revealed little information besides that it would be completely new and not be based on the company's then-current three main franchises.
Heroes of the Storm is a crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Announced at BlizzCon 2010, it was released on June 2, 2015 for macOS and Windows. The game features various characters from Blizzard's franchises as playable heroes, as well as different battlegrounds based on Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch universes.
Battleborn was a free-to-play first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. The game was released worldwide on May 3, 2016.
Overwatch was a 2016 team-based online multiplayer first-person shooter video game by Blizzard Entertainment. The game was first released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in May 2016 and Nintendo Switch in October 2019, with cross-platform play supported across all platforms. Described as a "hero shooter", Overwatch assigned players into two teams of six, with each player selecting from a large roster of characters, known as "heroes", with unique abilities. Teams worked to complete map-specific objectives within a limited period of time. Blizzard added new characters, maps, and game modes post-release, all free of charge, with the only additional cost to players being optional loot boxes to purchase cosmetic items.
Tracer is a character who appears in Overwatch, a franchise centered around first-person hero shooter video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. Tracer was first seen in the 2014 Overwatch Cinematic Trailer short. She was introduced as a playable character in an April 2016 update for the crossover multiplayer online battle arena game Heroes of the Storm, nearly a month prior to the release of the first Overwatch game. She appeared again in Overwatch 2, a 2022 sequel to the original game.
Blizzard Entertainment's 2016 video game Overwatch inspired a notable amount of fan-made pornography. The game's distinct and colorful character designs drew the attention of many online content creators, resulting in sexually explicit fanart. Character models were ripped from the beta versions of the game and subsequently spread, edited, and animated on the Internet.
Paladins: Champions of the Realm is a 2018 free-to-play online hero shooter video game by Hi-Rez. The game was developed by Evil Mojo, an internal studio of Hi-Rez and was released on May 8, 2018, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, followed by a Nintendo Switch version released on June 12, 2018.
Overwatch and Overwatch 2 are online team-based first-person shooters developed by Blizzard Entertainment, and released worldwide in May 2016 and October 2022, respectively. Players select from one of over 30 heroes, broadly classified into the three roles of Tank, Damage, and Support, and work with their team to attack or defend map objectives. Each hero has a unique set of weapons, abilities, and skills, which players use to coordinate with their team to overpower the other. Overwatch supports both casual and ranked matchmaking, as well as a rotating set of arcade modes, and the game has since become a popular esport, featuring the Overwatch League that started in 2018. The game has been both a critical and financial success for Blizzard, exceeding over 30 million players and obtaining over US$1 billion in revenue within its first year.
Doomfist, full name Akande Ogundimu, is a character who first appears in the 2016 video game Overwatch, a Blizzard Entertainment–developed first-person shooter. His design is based on a powerful, cybernetic gauntlet. As an offensive, brawler-style character, he uses close-range attacks: a charged punch and slam. Doomfist was released in late July 2017 as the title's 25th hero of the franchise, and the fourth introduced after the game's launch.
Overwatch is a team-based first-person shooter developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in May 2016. The game, while having several different play modes, generally features two teams of six players each, selecting pre-made heroes from the game's roster, to either attack or defend various objective points on the game's maps. The game supports casual game modes as well as ranked competitive play. Since release, Overwatch has been both critically and financially successful, with a player base of 35 million players as of October 2017.
Overwatch and Overwatch 2 are team-based first-person shooter games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. Overwatch was released in May 2016 for several platforms. The game features a number of gameplay modes that support casual play, ranked play, and competitive modes used for professional esports events, such as the Overwatch League. Overwatch 2 was released in October 2022 with the same player versus player (PvP) modes, and will later include new player versus environment (PvE) co-operative multiplayer modes.
Dota is a series of strategy video games. The series began in 2003 with the release of Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a fan-developed multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) custom map for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, The Frozen Throne. The original map features gameplay centered around two teams of up to five players who assume control of individual characters called "heroes", which must coordinate to destroy the enemy's central base structure called an "Ancient", to win the game. Ownership and development of DotA were passed on multiple times since its initial release until Valve hired the map's lead designer IceFrog and after a legal dispute with Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of Warcraft III, brokered a deal that allowed Valve to inherit the trademark to the Dota name.
Overwatch 2 is a 2023 first-person shooter video game produced by Blizzard Entertainment. As a sequel and replacement to the 2016 hero shooter Overwatch, the game included new gamemodes and a reduction in team size from six to five. The game is free-to-play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S and features full cross-platform play. Overwatch 2 was announced in 2019 and was playable in early access from October 2022 until officially releasing in August 2023. The game was planned to feature more story-based cooperative modes, which were scrapped in 2023 to focus on its player-versus-player (PvP) elements.
Overwatch is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. Overwatch was released in 2016 with a successor, Overwatch 2, released in 2022. Both games feature hero-based combat between two teams of players vying over various objectives, along with other traditional gameplay modes.
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