When comparing Overwatch vs Paladins, the Slant community recommends Overwatch for most people. In the question“What are the best online multiplayer games on PC?” Overwatch is ranked 12th while Paladins is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose Overwatch is:
Every gameplay mechanic is well though out and predictable making it great for competitive play. The game also features a competitive game mode that works great.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Competitive game
Every gameplay mechanic is well though out and predictable making it great for competitive play. The game also features a competitive game mode that works great.
Pro Unique FPS gameplay
Overwatch combines traditional team-based FPS elements and MOBA-esqe characters with unique abilities and weapons. You'll still be shooting and bashing your way to victory, but instead of picking different weapons, you'll be often switching between one of the many characters. Each character has its own strengths, weaknesses, and unique playstyle.
For example, there's Tracer that dual wields handguns, is pretty quick on her feet, and can rewind time when in a tough spot, which makes her well suited to hit-and-run tactics. However, she has poor aim and low health, so you have to be a lot more careful when playing as her.
Another example would be the very durable Reinhardt who has high health and armor. He's able to protect his allies and himself with a projected energy shield while moving at a slower rate. Unfortunately, his only real means of attacking is a giant hammer, so fast characters or characters with a long range can easily outmaneuver him.
As a result, Overwatch not only rewards accurate shooting, but also quick decision making and clever use of your abilities, creating gameplay that feels different from most competitive FPS games.
Pro Tons of unlockables to keep you playing
Each playable character in the game can have more than 90 different unlocks such character skins, color schemes, emotes, and victory poses. While these don't affect gameplay, they allow you to create a personalized character you can feel more attached to. This gives additional goals for both regular players and completionists, keeping the game interesting for a long time.
Pro Simple to learn and play
While Overwatch has MOBA elements, it's very simple at its core, you just shoot the enemy and take objectives. It may take a couple matches to get the basic down, but from then on it's gonna be a blast. This makes it a lot more accessible than most MOBA-esque titles that take a really long time to learn and master.
Pro Variety of maps to keep gameplay interesting
Overwatch currently has 16 maps, which includes a Moon colony, an encampment in Antarctica, and various futuristic cityscapes. The distinct themes, color palettes, and layouts make each of the maps feel and play differently, keeping the gameplay fresh for a long time.
Pro Beautiful graphics
Highly detailed character models, weapons, and environments, smooth animations, distinct particle effects, a vivid color palette, great lighting, and intricate shadow mapping make Overwatch a joy to experience.
Pro An expansive roster of characters
Paladins currently has 22 characters available to play, and those span 4 different roles. It should also be noted that brand new players will start off with 7 characters and need to play to acquire gold in order to unlock new ones.
Pro Free to play
Everything that affects gameplay in Paladins can be unlocked simply by playing.However, there are cosmetic items available for purchase if you'd like to support the developers.
Pro Runs well on nearly any system
Paladins isn't a very resource-heavy game, which means it can be enjoyed by pretty much everyone.
Pro Great community
Every online game has some amount of toxicity, but Paladins has a relatively supportive community of players.
Pro Fast-paced and full of action
Paladins is a fast-paced first person shooter. Games are over pretty quickly, and queue times are short, so you can make the most out of your play time.
Pro Well balanced strength of characters
All champions in paladins are powerful and well balanced up to a point. Each character has their role in the games, and therefore, relies on tactics and champion picks in the game to win. If a champion, however, feels quite overpowered or weak, new patches will adjust him/her to a better choice for players.
Pro You can customize characters to fit your particular play style
Paladins has a system in place called "Card Mastery." Essentially, a player can spend their gold (or gems, if you choose to put money into it) on cards which will buff your character in specific ways in-game. These cards can radically change how characters are played, even allowing them to fit other roles in some situations.
There are also "Burn Cards," which allow the player to make themselves stronger or even counteract opponents' strategies. These are limited in used, but very powerful.
Pro Team based gameplay
Cons
Con Not for solo players
Overwatch is all about team compositions, cooperation, and communication. If you prefer a more solo-oriented playstyle, this game might not be as fun for you since it's very hard to win a match with your abilities alone.
Con No content creation tools
You can't create custom maps or game modes, which considerably limits how much the community can contribute for keeping the game fresh and exciting. This is a step back when you look at the Warcraft 3 map editor, which helped the game stay popular a decade after its release even without regular updates from Blizzard.
Con Lacking in story
Even though Overwatch has a very detailed world and distinct characters, it doesn't ever delve into the history of the world or overarching story of each character. All you ever get are vague hints in voiceover lines and writings found in the environment.
Con The most recent patch makes it feel a little bit pay-to-win
With the recent patch, gold prices shot up on characters and cards, but the rewards you get for playing did not. Because of that, the gems you can buy with real money are simply the easiest option, even for people with a lot of play time.
Con Characters are not well balanced
Characters range from being highly underpowered to wildly overpowered.
Con Overwatch clone
Basically a free-to-play, less skillful Overwatch clone.
Con Still in Beta
Paladins is not a perfect game due to its constant lags and bugs and has to heavily rely on new patches to fix them.
Con In-game cards nullify characters
Cards like Cauterize and Wrecker completely nullify all tanks and healers halfway through the game, and it consistutes a battle of who gets the max first.