OVERWATCH VS PALADINS – An Honest Comparison

Overwatch VS Paladins, which one is better? We all heard this question a lot. We also heard some people say that Paladins is a copy of Overwatch. I gathered all the details of both games to end this debate once and for all. 

Bear in mind that the conclusion will be based on personal opinion as well as many of the details you will find below. Learn more about upcoming gaming titles here.

overwatch vs paladins

OVERWATCH VS PALADINS, which one will win?

Gameplay Comparison 

Both games Can feel very chaotic and sometimes you get lost in action but this doesn’t mean that they are not fun to play.

Overwatch and Paladins are very balanced when it comes to characters’ abilities and the style of play changes with each new game and team which makes the game addictive. 

They are both a combination of the map design in Dota2 and the chaotic yet fun gameplay in Unreal tournament

When entering a game in Overwatch, you will see some recommendations on how you can benefit your team by choosing the right character. It will display a message on the right-hand side saying that you need more offense or defense heroes thus making the game more dynamic and complimentary. On the other hand, Paladins doesn’t have that feature and the spawning room feels kind of empty and dead compared to Overwatch. 

In Paladins, you can go back to the game faster using a horse that’s easily dismountable using LMB. This feature drastically increases the competitive aspect of the game. 

 Game modes Comparison

 Overwatch has 7 game modes: 

  • Control: In this mode, you and your team need to hold and control the objective before the enemy. The progress percentage will increase whenever your team enters the area and will decrease/pause when the enemy is inside.  
  • Hybrid: Capture and escort the payload to the next checkpoint as an attacker while the defenders will try to delay the capture by standing in the range of the payload. 
  • Assault: This is basically control but with more objectives. Anyone who scores more points wins the game. 
  • Escort: Similar to Hybrid, attackers need to escort the payload to the checkpoints. 
  • Capture the flag: The attacking team needs to capture the enemy’s flag and bring it back to the base. 
  • Deathmatch: This is a free-for-all mode found in almost every multiplayer FPS game. 
  • Elimination: This is your Search and Destroy mode where once dead, you will have to watch your teammates win/lose the round, and then you can respawn. 

Other modes are expected to be released with Overwatch 2

Paladins has game modes: 

This game has a lot of retired game modes. Maybe they weren’t that successful, especially, the battlegrounds which is another battle royale game and PVE modes. 

  • Siege: Teams must capture points and escort the Payload to the enemy territory. 
  • Onslaught – King Of The Hill: This game mode focuses mainly on getting kills and gaining tickets. 
  • Team Deathmatch: the old and known mode where the team must reach 40 kills to win. 

Paladins has some unique aspects when it comes to gameplay but in general, we can identify a lot of similarities at first glance with Overwatch. Also, Paladins did a lot of modes retirement that are in my opinion very unique, except for Payload and Battlegrounds (battle royale mode) and it’s understandable as in the last couple of years, every game studio thought about making one. 

Characters Comparison

Characters are grouped into 4 roles: Support, Damage, Frontline, and Flank. 

The characters in Overwatch are full of life and each one has his/her unique style. Paladins’ characters are just basic characters. You can notice that in cosplay conventions; You will definitely see Mei or McCree more than Ash or Tyra. 

You can swap between characters mid-game which enables you to adapt to any situation at that time. Not in Paladins, you’re stuck with the same character the whole match. 

To get all of the characters in Paladins, you need to spend $20 and it’s a “Free To Play” game. You need to pay $60 to get every character in Overwatch

Paladins’ unique card system allows players to upgrade their character’s health, decrease cooldowns, and improve skills after they open a randomly generated free chest. However, the game fails to stay true to its marketed genre “Free To Play” and falls under P2W “Pay To Win” as anyone can buy card chests that will make the game feel unbalanced and eventually unenjoyable for those who are not willing to buy the chests. On the other hand, you can buy loot boxes in Overwatch yet they don’t affect the gameplay as they are just cosmetics and their sole purpose is to make your character look cool.

A free-to-play game needs a way to make money, understandable, but when sacrificing the gaming experience is intentional, players will seek alternatives right away as we saw in other titles. 

Maps Comparison

Overwatch has 21 maps. Paladins has 10 maps. 

The number of maps doesn’t always reflect how well and better a game is, however, Overwatch map design is full of life and more colorful making the experience enjoyable and subconsciously, players will always want to go back to play the game just to see the maps and enjoy playing in them. Details like these play a huge role in determining the lifetime of a game. 

 The realism aspect in this genre is not recommended at all. Flying around with a gun while your teammate down there spawned a magical shield is nowhere near realism, but the maps in Overwatch have a semi-realistic feel which doesn’t hurt the game in any way as realism in games is always acceptable even in a fantasy world like this. Paladins, on the other hand, is very stylized in terms of maps. Bear in mind that this is a Free To Play game (kind of), so graphics are not always the main focus yet Paladins didn’t fail to deliver that cartoonish style which sometimes makes you forget that it looks like a PS3 game in terms of graphics.

The maps of Paladins are large and set in medieval times containing a lot of hideouts, tunnels, and areas that you can use as cover. Overwatch maps are set in different countries and times of day. The game focuses on details and tiny interactable items scattered around the maps.  

PALADINS VS OVERWATCH – Popularity And Support 

Both Paladins and Overwatch are popular and their fanbases are growing each day. With that out of the way, Overwatch is dominating the scene.  

In 2018, Overwatch had over 40 million monthly players worldwide. No one outside of Blizzard knows the number of players in 2020 or 2019 and this is why you are seeing a lot of “is Overwatch dying” topics out there. What pushed the game up is simply its dedicated fanbase and the studio listening to its community’s criticisms.  

Paladins is showing a slowdown in the last couple of years with around 24k players each day in 2020 on Steam. But the game is far from being dead and we have to consider that the game is also playable on the native client rather than Steam. 

Popular Free to Play games tend to have more hackers and “toxic” players and Paladins is no exception. However, encountering a hacker is rare in this game and generally if you’re under level 40. 

Both games are very active on Social media and updates are pushed regularly and consistently. They are also listening carefully to their communities. 

OVERWATCH VS PALADINS – THE WINNER

OVERWATCH

Why? 

After playing both games for several hours and even though I liked playing Paladins a lot, Overwatch had something special and unique in it that Paladins didn’t have which is being ALIVE and more COMPATETIVE. 

Both games are different and Paladins is NOT a copy of Overwatch. You may like Paladins and dislike Overwatch, that’s perfectly normal. Hi-Rez was planning to release Paladins which was based on a failed game when Overwatch was released. You can check out this video for more details.

So, what do you like playing the most? Is it Overwatch or Paladins? Tell us in the comments what you think about Overwatch VS Paladins and what can make one better than the other.

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