A limited number of Blizzard Entertainment fans will soon finally get some hands-on experience with Overwatch, the studio’s highly anticipated team-based shooter. Blizzard has officially announced that Overwatch will enter closed beta on October 27, just in time for BlizzCon.

“We’re aiming to accomplish two primary goals with our public beta test,” Blizzard explained in a blog post. “First, get tons of top-notch feedback on the gameplay—including balance, feel, and fun—to help us make Overwatch the best team-based shooter on the planet. Second, we want to hammer the heck out of our tech, including stress-testing our server infrastructure and making sure the game runs great on the widest variety of systems possible.”

Invites will initially go out to a very small number of closed beta participants, but Blizzard noted that additional invites will be sent out periodically as development of the game progresses. This part of the beta is aimed at the first goal Blizzard mentioned, giving the studio some much-needed feedback on the finer points of the game.

Blizzard will tackle the second goal, stress testing, by occasionally hosting Beta Test Weekends that will temporarily allow a much larger group of players to join the game. The Beta Test Weekends will still be invite only, but Blizzard said it wants to give “as many as possible a chance to play during the testing period.” The first weekend test will occur sometime after BlizzCon, which ends on November 7.

While team-based shooters are nothing new to gaming, the genre is new to Blizzard. The Irvine-based studio is probably best known for the MMO juggernaut World of Warcraft, as well as for esports staples like Starcraft II (a real-time strategy game) and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (a digital collectible card game).

Overwatch appears to share a lot in common with Valve Corp’s Team Fortress 2, including its class-based combat and brightly colored, slightly cartoony art style. Overwatch will also feature payload and point capture game modes, both of which are also extremely popular in Team Fortress 2.

What sets Overwatch apart is its far greater variety of characters, with 18 currently announced for the game. By comparison, Team Fortress 2 has only nine classes, all of which are male (not counting the mystery-gendered Pyro). Blizzard has also stated that it wants Overwatch to focus on cooperative gameplay rather than straight competition, which is one reason the game will not feature a classic deathmatch mode.

If you are interested in participating in the Overwatch beta, you can opt-in for consideration here.

Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment