I'm not an Overwatch purist. There's no need to get precious about arcade modes. Overwatch started as a zany team-based game—No Limits was OG Overwatch. It's nice to have something other than serious competitive action. So, when Blizzard dropped Shuffle Showdown to kick off the season 20 mid-season events—with rewards—I had to check it out. The first match was delightful chaos, but every match after that made me want to break something. Shuffle Showdown brings out the worst player behaviors, and it's not balanced well. Playing it is not worth the frustration.
Showdown Shuffle functions similarly to Mystery Heroes, but it's a role queue mode with different parameters that make you switch your hero—mostly by kills and assists. I started with tank, which I knew was my weakest role, but I needed to finish seven games in each role, so I decided to start with my worst role. Similarly to Mystery Heroes, I like the variety and surprise from playing different characters. It's like hearing your favorite song come on the radio (is that too old of a reference?). I normally wouldn't play certain characters as I play Overwatch like I choose my food at restaurants: I know what's good and I'll keep ordering that. But it's incredibly frustrating to play a character you're not familiar with alongside other teammates who also don't know their character well; trapped because we can't get a kill. It's the blind leading the blind. That's no one's fault but it tends to create this vicious mental snowball effect in players where they start playing the worst kind of Overwatch.
It's like they forget they were playing Overwatch. Supports wouldn't heal to take advantage of Damage Packs (health packs turn into damage boost) or they want to experiment with what it's like to be a Support with the Buff Hunt modifier—funny but incredibly useless. And, of course, players would trickle into fights and immediately die. It was like a tractor beam was sucking my teammates to the objective. Group up? Why would you do such a thing in an arcade mode!? Playing tank or DPS is hard enough already, but playing with incompetence too? I'm good.
Showdown Shuffle also uses modifiers that spice up the game. A modifier called Lie Low makes you invisible while you're crouched; Buff Hunt makes you stronger and charges your ult faster; Super Jump makes you jump 200% higher, etc. The modifier icons always display on the right side of the screen, but you can't see the descriptions until you reach a checkpoint or open the help menu. I sometimes forgot what a modifier did, and there wasn't enough time to see it or check the help because I'm in the middle of a prolonged fight. I couldn't knowingly take advantage of the benefits (or avoid their consequences).
Frustration piles on when the modifiers mix. For example, mini-maxing is fun: everyone shrinks and their movement speed increases. But combined with the Back In Action modifier (instant respawns), now everyone is harder to hit and joins the fight quicker. The match is much longer. Most modifier combinations are okay, but when they're not, it sucks out all the fun.
Blizzard needs to take better care of balancing these modes. Zany is fine, but these modes are infrequently balanced to maximize fun. They don't feel any better than Workshop creations, and sometimes those are better. If we're going to grind for rewards, it should be so much fun that it competes with the base game. Shuffle Showdown feels like filler—a particularly rough kind of filler.
I'm glad I got my loot boxes (even got a legendary from one of them), I like playing the characters, and I like the idea of the modifiers, but this mode isn't properly tuned. Keep adding modes, Blizzard, but take better care with balance. If you're going to create something, create it with excellence.
