An Actual Review of Overwatch & Paladins 

EDIT: I don't usually like to explain the jokes in my videos, but the "they're better at clicking on the bad men" is not a serious comment. I wrote it as a joke but in retrospect it doesn't really read as one, if I wanted to make that statement more accurately I'd say that the biggest difference between me and "the real gamers" is the fact that they're in comms, they're running one of the actual designated "meta" comps, and they're better at clicking on the bad men. Every single ranked match I played where my teammates joined team voice and communicated was a complete steamroll, every time they didn't we got steamrolled. Am I better than the other players in plat? I have no fucking idea, I just know that I didn't want to keep doing that 15 minute coin flip over and over just to get to the point where I had the right color under my hero portrait for my opinions to magically become valid. I'm not trying to convince you that Overwatch is bad, if you like it that's great, I'm just trying to explain why I don't. Not entirely sure why, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve been here before… Yeah, this video tool a really long time to make, even by my standards. I know that. Don’t worry, I have explicitly mapped out the next few videos to be about things that I don’t feel the need to be SUPER in depth about, and I’m also never ever EVER making a “full review” of this many games ever again because structuring this was an absolute nightmare. I’ve also been having a huge upswing in my mental health over the past few months, which is hopefully going to help future videos come out faster. I think working creatively sort of requires you to strike a balance between making stuff as high quality as you possibly can while also putting things out in a somewhat timely manner, and this video definitely doesn’t do that for me. My goal for 2019 is to post at least 7 videos, which I know a lot of people would laugh at but I don’t want to go back to churning out stuff I’m not happy with every month and I feel like 7 gives me enough time to make them meet my personal standards of quality. I like being able to take my time on stuff, but there’s a limit to that. I’m finding my sweet spot, and I’ll get there eventually. It also didn’t help that I gave myself a few “challenges” to help me improve as a writer for this video, now that I think about it. Anyways, I’m fucking exhausted. I’ll probably talk more about this on other social media after I’ve gotten some sleep in me. If you want to follow/support me through means other than watching the video I exist at: twitter.com/ShammyTV patreon.com/Shammy I post updates about videos on both of those, so if you ever find yourself wondering if I’ve been whacked by the mafia for all of those outstanding favors just check there to find out. Thank you all so much for watching, I honestly don’t think I’ll ever really get used to the sort of support I get on these videos. I hope you liked it. Sorry if this was super hard to read, I’m writing it without having slept for about 26 hours I think.

"Paladins is a competitive game trying to be casual, and Overwatch is a casual game trying to be competitive." That quote never made more sense.

But when the world needed him the most, he vanished

50 minutes of ascension

“The most fun I had with overwatch was a team of 6 supports” *overwatch adds 2 2 2 role queue making the casual quick play basically unranked comp*

I like how you used an owl as your character to move you eyes, even though owls are the only animal that can't move their eyes.

I think the hardest part of this video was the fact that you somehow completely sold me on Gigantic just to end up telling me that this amazing game I'd never heard about had actually already died. Completely pulled the rug out from under me. 2020 edit: I hope Shammy uploads again soon. When people like this comment it reminds me of how much I enjoyed this video.

great vid shammy! see you next year!

I was genuinely looking forward to downloading Gigantic after hearing Shammy explain how good it is. You can't imagine the disappointment and sadness I felt when he said that it was literally shutdown.

Man, this went from funny to in depth to genuinely kind of sad I’m gonna go lay down

I'm starting to think he didn't "just go out for a pack of cigarettes"

I just want to give you wholehearted praise at your structure and your arguments. I am genuinely impressed at how your precise criticisms of each game fuse together into criticisms of each game entirely. You also organically place jokes that neither feel out of place nor feel unnecessary to furthering your arguments. The surprise of this video transitioned really smoothly (a characteristic of your writing at this point) and was really well-founded by your precise criticisms of each game and by your overall structure. I can't stress this enough but... thank you for making such good content. Ah shit I need to do a meme to make sure this annoys you... haha owls amirite?

My favorite part of Paladins is that it actually admits to being inspired by another game with the *Engie TF2 Skin*

(from spreadsheet) Bastion's recon mode: walk around with a machine gun. Similar pre-existing mechanic: walking around with a machine gun (Wolfenstein 3D) This shit is gold. Soldier 76's tacitcal visor: auto aim. Pre-existing mechanic: Cheating.

Glad you took a break from making the podcast to finish your vid, it was worth it!

Overwatch vs Paladins Winner: Gigantic

>Pyrocynical recommends him to his viewers >instantly disappears

Dude, it’s been a year, where’d ya go? I miss having an angry owl threaten to rip out my thorax

Paladins are in World of Warcraft. Not Overwatch. Congratulations on getting it finished, Shammy. The amount of work that has to go into a video like this on one multiplayer game is staggering. And you did it on two. Respect.

When you wait nine months to see whether Shammy prefers Paladins or Overwatch and he gives you a swift bamboozling and picks Gigantic

I miss Gigantic. I was one of those idiots that couldn't run it on my college laptop back when it was still tucked away on that client. I upgraded sometime during school to a pc, went back to this game and had a blast. I still remember how much I fun I had with Sven's goofy kit, out ranging other melee champs with Aisling, and just being a power house with Zandora. The game was honestly just PERFECT, and probably the only reason I ever picked up OW and Paladins, but it just never felt the same. Gigantic had heart because how much love the developers put into it, but it also had an identity that made it stand out. I hate so much that we're in a time where we are for some reason getting an overhyped OW2, but Gigantic doesn't exist.

This review made me sad at the end. I had no knowledge about Gigantic, but your review absolutely sold it to me. I was honestly planning on showing it to my friends and trying to get them into it. To hear how much it was screwed over really depressed me as it meant that a game I would love to play is now dead forever. As much as I wish and hope that the team gets back together and the game is somehow going to be one day supported, I know with almost 100% certainty that it won't happen.

Hearing you talk about Motiga and Gigantic almost made me cry. I played it since beta and on first playthrough instantly knew it was a masterpiece and one of the greatest online games ever made, and almost wept whenever they made the announcement of it shutting down. It's truly upsetting knowing that hardly anyone had the chance to experience this game that could have evolved into an amazing community because of Overwatch fanboys crying over it or people with a computer from the 90's complaining about a game from 2017 couldn't run on it. I salute you Shammy, thank you for giving this game the proper sendoff.

"Blizzard has been building a theme park, Hi-Rez has been running a circus." I don't think there has ever been a more accurate description of two products ever. Holy crap, that's genius. It was well worth the wait. I look forward to the next one.

"Overwatch has never struggled with balance issues" That didnt age well at all

You made me fall in love with a game I've never heard of until just now then proceeded to make me mourn for it all within the same half hour.

You can't run from your mistakes forever *im faster than you DAD*

Another Stellar review with actual thought and care put into it. Not a 30 minute romp through reddit comments, punctuated by screams and swearing, and after being lead in by a bad, gos-on-for-far-too-long skit; but an actual review by someone who obviously put in hundreds if not thousands of hours into the games, genre, and community. Ive said it before and I'll say it again. YOU are what is Needed in the gaming community. Please do not stop making these reviews, they are a joy to sit through and Well worth the wait! This industry and all its fassets are designed to Kill passionate artists, as evidenced by Motiga. I hope that both you and the devs of Gigantic continue to work passionately and find success. You all are the pioneer's light in this seething cesspool of corpse puppets, disease, and stagnet misery we call gaming. Thank you for putting value into your work and your fans.

Paladins was released 1 month after overwatch. You can’t make a game with the amount of contents in that amount of time. Ands it’s free.

Can we all just point out this man put 1 ad in a 50 minute video

This video you've been working on for 8 months is going to be awesome.

I just wanted to say I'm gonna call Hammond "Bakugan Battle Hamster" for the rest of my existence.

Gigantic is back, and I'm hopeful it stays this time. I hope you'll still be playing!

"The day after the layoff, every single employee showed back up and kept on working like nothing happened" Thats the kind of dedication I thought died long ago in the games industry....

>Mentions Gigantic It hurts...just a little bit.... EDIT: Just kidding, it hurts a lot.

I clicked on this video to watch a review of two games I've never played. I left feeling heartbroken over a third game. Wtf?

We're so back

I've played a lot of games that were shut down, but I think none of them were as "tragic" as Gigantic. Truly an amazing game with amazing people behind it, really sucks it wasn't given a real chance...

Changes to Paladins since this video (to be updated): 1) The number of total talents for every champion has been decreased from 4 down to 3. Flat buff talents such as Firefight have generally been the talents to be removed, and a handful of these talents have been displaced within loadout cards instead. Unfortunately though, some flat buff talents such as Fusillade and Eagle Eye still remain. 2) In the item shop, you are now able to purchase any number of items from one particular category, but can still only buy 4 total. This means you could purchase both Chronos and Morale Boost, for example. 3) Khan’s ultimate is now a skillshot that requires direct aim to capture an enemy, and therefore is generally easier to whiff. 4) As of the Steel Forged update, the Strix DX11 Ultimate big has (finally) been fixed. 5) Firefight has been replaced with 3 Round Burst (it’s exactly what it sounds like)

Well he did it. He didn't upload anything in 2019

Gigantic fans, we're so back.

Well damn, Gigantic sounded amazing and then you got to the part where it went to nothing due to everyone being idiots. Geez that's a dark end for a group of people who had passion.

Damn, spent 10-15 minutes of the video baiting me with an absolute gem of a game that is no longer feasible to play. What an absolute tragedy. Motiga deserved better.

Hearing you talk about Gigantic makes my heart break, because I can practically hear every ounce of love you have for that game with how you wrote that segment. It's such a shame that happened to Motiga, and even though I don't have a computer that could survive playing even a couple minutes of the game, it seems like something I would enjoy in all honesty. Even if it takes a bit for me to wrap my head around all of the mechanics. Excellent video Avery, I'm glad to hear your voice in a separate context from the podcast, lol. Let's hope you can keep to the goal of 7 videos (or, god forbid, more than that) for next year. Even if you can't, well, I'll still appreciate everything you put out. Also sleep more, you tool.

Paladins is only balanced because, as Syndrome said... "If every character is OP, no one is" Wait is that not the quote

His goal for 2019 was to post 7 videos. The year has almost ended and he hasn't posted a single one

That "Meta isn't designed but discovered" line is MWUAH perfect

Videogame: *has characters* Ppl: overwatch clone smh

People wonder how he takes so long, but h Th en you realize that for both games, he talks like hes a member of the community and uses proper jargon. He doesn’t just play the games to review them, he learns everything he can about them.

The Part about blizzard ruining metas and skill ceilings is so true about wow

Hey Shammy, just letting you know that you're still introducing people like me to Gigantic, that discord server is still up and running and plays practically every day. Sucks I can't play characters like Rutger (who looked fun from this vid's footage) but the game is just as fun as you said. Thanks again

I appreciate the fact that he used recent Paladins footage (extra points because he recorded it himself!) most reviews I've seen for Paladins are not only biased, but they also use really old footage they downloaded and it makes the game look pretty crusty.

FOR ANYONE WONDERING Overwatch 2 has gotten rid of a tank slot, making most of what shammy talked about here even more obvious and frustrating now to a even wider variant of people given how tank is miserable to play and TTK has gotten so short that healing had to be buffed so it's all just a excercise of either dying instantly or never dying and the entire game being a bore. Paladins continued for a while down their streak of bad character design before streamlining the game so where the item shop was even more simplified (the blast and direct damage items being combined, the reduced healing on damage item becoming basekit. Maldamage being...taken out. 3 talents instead of 4 etc.) to the point where the hitboxes make even less sense. The fanbase is dwindling rapidly Gigantic after years of private support has come back in 2024!! It's on steam right now for 20$ or something like that, no microtransactions and seems to be doing well!! fingers crossed for its future. Everything Shammy said in this video about that game is still accurate from what i can tell.

Gigantic has to be one of the saddest stories in gaming, RIP Motiga.

Great comparison on Paladins, as someone who loves Paladins, enjoys Overwatch casually and also loved Gigantic back in the day I personally thing you hit the nail on the head. I think for the most part Paladins fans would do some well by taking a break now and then and chilling on OW for something slightly different but not too diferent and visa versa with Overwatch fans.

Paladins: Awesome developers, mediocre advertising, terrible management Overwatch: Godlike advertising, mediocre management, terrible developers Gigantic: Godlike developers, terrible management, nonexistent advertising

- Gives a thorough analysis of two prominent games and its issues - Great segue into recommending a different hero shooter that patches those issues instead of just choosing one side - *It's Gigantic*

And Brigette is a war crime. IDK what about that made me laugh so much

Gigantic looked amazing and I really wanted to play it, but when you spoke that the game company shut down, my heart just sunk.

Pffft, showing Pythagoras when mentioning theory. Did you think that'd slip by me?

You Kinda got to give it to shammy, he's a comical genius. Even two years later and five hours worth of watching this video I'm still finding little jokes in the script I didn't pick up on before.

I actually almost cried during the gigantic segment, and I’ve never played the game before. I WILL join the server.

Honestly, from someone who has over 3-4 k hours in Paladins and around 100 hours in ow give or take, I'd say this video provides the best comparison between two said games. You did a lot of research for this one, it really shows. Great video, hope it provides players with more insight on the matter and how both games really function.

when u named "Gigantic" as the best hero shooter it broke me. that game was too good to be true i played it for 3 months and was obsessed with it and then it died It was hands down the best hero shooter RIP

"I understand that a lot of people won't be talking what I'm saying seriously" You see, the problem is that you're completely, absolutely right about everything.

So basically the winner between Paladins and Overwatch is Gigantic

Defence, utility, healing And R E D

"and Brigitte is a war crime" LIKES VIDEO

SHAMMY THE YEAR IS 2024 right now Gearbox just announced that they are reviving GIGANTIC ITS BACK

I guess since motiga is now "dead" I can disclose what little information I have from my time under NDA. The game truly did have some great ideas behind it. I loved the idea completely but I need to state their business strategy was terrible. The game was originally more of a Moba before it was really a hero shooter. Those elements if I remember correctly were focused on later. Most of the publicity it got was centered around the Moba crowd near the start, which sort of wrote it off. This was made worse by it's requirements, which while not insane lets be honest, with the games target audience being what it was at the time, cut off an entire astronomical unit of their potential playerbase. Compound this with the niche already having two large competitors in Smite and Paragon, one of which had low enough requirements to grab up most of the players in the target audience and the other subsequently suffered a shutdown. After the release of OW and Paladins the game now had a niche whose players could actually play it... and those players had one of the biggest gaming releases of all time in OW. All this while Gigantic struggled to change their marketing strategy. I'll admit I didn't spend too much time around Gigantic but I think I can say this for certain. The game was a marketing nightmare through all stages of its existence. I'm pretty sure everything that could've gone wrong went wrong and the saddest part is that it was not for lack of a dedicated and truly inspirational dev team, it was just the market. //Edit Added references to Smite and Paragon

Dead man comes out of hiding (2018)

God I loved Gigantic so much, so glad you spoke about it, just hearing you bring it up made my fucking heart sink. RIP Gigantic.

For anyone who might be finding this in the future: Gigantic is back!!

Overwatch fans: "Paladin copied us" Paladin fans: "But your game copied Team Fortress 2" Overwatch fans: "I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that"

GIGANTIC failed because it had no SFM porn.

Oh wow, Owl Boy isn't dead.

With OW2 and Paladins in shambles and Gigantic returning, this video aged quite nicely ^^

"Please make the game run on less RAM" just about gave me an aneurysm.

Always worth the wait, been hoping for this video since you mentioned the possibility of something similar in your top 10 games of 2016 video. Your uploads are always a treat

Fantastic video. I'm so glad you touched on 3v3 elimination lockout, when i first played it it just clicked in my mind that this is what Overwatch should actually be. When played with two friends you can really dive deep into the tactics of picking/banning/eco rounds and makes the game so much more interesting. I can't help but feel like its such wasted potential as a periodically locked away arcade mode.

Good news for those rewatching giagantic is getting a remake/remaster in april 2024 with new maps and character

Shammy, I’ve never heard or seen anything about gigantic before, but just from this review I am ashamed of how the gaming industry has changed from people being open to try games, to people instantly dismissing them. The passion of the developers, and the emotion in your voice when you said that it was shut down are enough to make me regret not finding this game sooner. If given a shot, this could have been THE hero “shooter”, but no one gave it a chance...

RIP Gigantic. I loved that game.

Is this really the owl? The owl that’s been missing?

"Meta isn't designed, it's discovered." Please someone make Riot Games realize this. Meta isn't something you hide in your game for the players to find. It's a moba not an egg hunt

This video makes me incredibly upset. It reminded me that Gigantic died a slow, painful death, and all I have left to remember it is the memory that I spent $100 on it about a week before it was announced to be dead, and all the fun I had playing it. Even if the circular forest map was garbage and resulted in nothing but running back and forth between the opposite sides, the characters and maps were all so fun, appealing, well-designed, creative, enjoyable, and an over-all amazing experience, one that has gone the way of games like SMNC: A creative idea, a beautifully designed and unique world, and an insanely fun game, ruined by companies that don't give a shit about creativity and are only concerned with making more money than all the money in the world. I don't personally think I'll try the modded system of playing the game because I'll miss all the stuff that was added later into the game's lifecycle, but I sincerely hope beyond hope that somebody from Motiga the worked on the game will reach out to the community in some way and help us to share the experience of the game in a more accurate and full way. It isn't an experience I'll ever forget.

Players: hey we find out something that devs wasn't intended for players to use and thats cool! Activision blizzard be like *N O F U N A L L O W E D*

So if we start a crowd-Funder to bring back Gigantic, would that bring Shammy back?

"overwatch has never struggled with balancing issues" Me: *chokes on tea*

Hey Shammy i know with 1959 comments as of the time of writing this the likelyhood of you ever reading this is near none, but i want to say this any way. i love you man. your honesty and passtion, your ability to cut to the point while still putting forth an insane amount of forthought is legendary. i can tell that you arn't like some other content creators who don't post cuz their lazy. you stew on things and ideas and you work hard. you refuse to put out something that you arn't happy with. i know lately you've been having mental problems and though i don't know the specifics i want you to know you have an eternal subscriber with me. even if everyone else left i'd still be here years later egerly waiting for the next upload. i know it's been months since your last upload but when i saw a thumbnail with your distinct owl my ears perked up and i set the video aside to watch when i could sit and truly enjoy your amazing work. i look forward to your next video :)

"Brigitte is a war crime" lmao

Oct 5th- 2023. Gearbox now owns Gigantic and we just had a “throwback” play test. There is hope. And I think Shammy might largely responsible for the game coming back to like.

this made me actually want to try paladins (even though I wont) but what in the fuck dad also I havent played overwatch since launch but you hit it on the head why I stopped

Defense, Utility, Healing And *red*

There have been so many good games developed by good people that suffer from mismanagement and poor marketing and each time it gets more depressing.

Remembered this video when I saw the announcement. Seems like GIGANTIC is being re-released by Gearbox as "Rampage Edition." I guess this isnt that darkest timeline! Maybe with Overwatch's (now Overwatch 2) reputation plummeted, perhaps this game will get the attention it deserves. it will launch around April 9th, 2024. It seems as though you can sign up for the playtest on the steam page aswell.

Of course you had to talk about Gigantic, now I want to die

Sammy: Khan's ultimate needs to be a skill shot. Funny enough, The next paladins patch after this video made Khan's ult into a skillshot. Feel like Hi-Rez just watching every single Paladins review online.

Only Shammy could do exactly what the title of the video says and yet end up doing a completely different video by the end of it.

So for those who haven't heard Project: Stamina is a spiritual successor to Gigantic that is in development. I'm not sure if any of the minds from Motiga are in on the project but it might be something worth checking out!