There are few moments of calm in Overwatch 2. The action is closer, louder and faster, and the voice lines are quipperer and more frequent. However, in that short period between selecting your hero and opening the barriers, where you and your teammates take to the battlefield, there is a brief period of rest – a split second for meditation.
It was during these moments, when I saw my beloved Hana Song (aka D.Va) shift her weight from one side of her mecha to the other before offering a sweet “annyeong” to a teammate, I forgot I was Overwatch 2- played -I forgot it was no longer 2016. A lot has changed in both my life and Overwatch, but in these little moments it all felt like nothing was there, and it all felt a bit unreal.
With 700 hours invested in the first Overwatch, I longed for Overwatch 2 to see a lot of meaningful changes that pushed the series forward, while also staying true to the identity it forged first – the identity that made me, someone who isn’t normally interested. in games powered solely by their multiplayer elements, such a big fan of the first Overwatch. And in some ways Overwatch 2 delivers, by offering new characters that feel right at home among the rest of the seasoned roster, making the jump to 5v5, which is brilliant, and adding an engaging Push mode. In fact, the game does all this while maintaining the same immersive back-and-forth flow of combat and core gameplay that fans love. However, these are tweaks and additions in a game that otherwise feels very familiar, and that equality can often make this new Overwatch feel more like an update than something brand new in the way the “2” suggests. In addition, however, Overwatch 2 often feels detached from the principles and charm of the original.
One of the biggest changes to Overwatch 2 comes in the form of the new 5v5 battles. While Overwatch had six heroes on each team — generally two damage, two support, and two tanks — Overwatch 2 eliminates one of these tanks, shrinking each team by one and then changing the dynamics of battles. Small side remnants aren’t nearly as common as with just one tank soaking up damage, it becomes vital that the entire team is there to support them and provide enough attack to break through the opposing team’s defenses. This makes for faster and more concentrated matches, where cooperation and coordination are crucial, and every action (or inactivity) has much more impact. It also means that team composition and understanding how certain heroes complement each other is far more important than ever before. This is as intense as it sounds, but the chaos and split-second strategies also make it incredible pleasurewith every victory achieved a meaningful triumph.
In addition to Overwatch 2’s focus on creating compelling and exciting matches, the latest mode is Push. In Push, each team must reach the center of the map, where a robot and two barriers, one on each side, are waiting. When one team has secured the robot, it starts pushing against the other team’s barrier; whichever team occupies the most ground at the end of the match is then crowned the winner. In every game I played, the push and pull of the battle was incredibly tense, feeling like a constant series of tug-of-war where the tide could change at any moment. Playing a game of Overwatch has never felt so good as it did in Overwatch 2.
With all this intensity, it makes sense that Blizzard would go to great lengths to prevent cheating and eliminate toxicity within the Overwatch community. This includes things like requiring players to register a phone number with their Battle.net account, as well as eliminating one of Overwatch’s appreciated Features: Medals. These are no longer handed out at the end of each game and instead you will only see the coveted Play of the Game reel, followed by your individual experience bar. However, you can see how your stats compare to your teammates and enemies at any time with the push of a button, making eliminating medals seem pointless. For me, the satisfaction of earning medals in a match was a huge incentive as they made me want to grow as a player and helped me identify when certain teammates or opponents showed off serious skills, which also helped me get compliments handed out . It’s a subtle omission, but one I definitely felt.
It’s not the most significant change to Overwatch’s reward systems, though. With Overwatch 2’s pivot to free-to-play also comes the introduction of a highly divisive feature in gaming: the battle pass. Instead of random loot boxes, Overwatch 2 offers players cosmetic upgrades through battle passes, which last an entire nine-week season. These battle passes come in free and premium versions, with the premium pass costing 1,000 Overwatch Coins or $10 USD. As part of my review code, Blizzard has given me Overwatch 2’s first premium battle pass, and at this stage I’m yet to decide what I think of it. While I stand by the belief that randomized loot boxes can be predatory, preying on people’s willingness to essentially gamble at whatever prizes they want, it’s harder for me to decide how consumer-friendly these particular battle passes feel.
Blizzard tries to curtail the idea that buying the premium battle pass is essential by touting that all new heroes – scheduled to release every other season – will always be available for free. Anyone who does pay for the premium battle pass will get these heroes instantly, while those who don’t will need to raise their battle pass to level 55 to unlock them. In my time playing the game, the battle pass didn’t go up that fast, despite performing quite well in most of the matches and even knocking out some of the game’s new challenges. This means players will have to wait a long time if they don’t buy the premium pass and invest a lot of time in unlocking levels, which feels unfair even if Blizzard chooses to keep new characters out of Competitive PvP play for the first few weeks. Of course, just like in Fortnite, it’s possible to earn currency through the battle pass that lowers the cost of a future premium upgrade – which could be the smartest way to go about this if you plan on playing a lot. But parts of this feel so contrary to the spirit of the original Overwatch, which prided itself on not putting heroes behind paywalls and leveling the playing fields.
Likewise, for those jumping into Overwatch 2 without owning the original Overwatch, it’s now been revealed that you’ll need to play 100 matches before you can use the entire roster of characters – a choice I find utterly bizarre, even when I understand the intentions behind it. understand. The team calls this decision part of the game’s First Time User Experience, which is intended to help new players get used to the game slowly. However, the idea of players having to log in and prove themselves for 10 to 20 hours to unlock other heroes feels unnecessary and a bit insulting. Again, this is something that doesn’t feel in the spirit of Overwatch, encouraging players to explore and experiment freely to find what they think works best for them; that ethos feels unfair now as part of the roster is locked up.
The lack of PvE at launch is a notable omission. Since this aspect of the game was intended to be the groundbreaking, monumental feature that set it apart from its predecessor, it’s not only disappointing to have to wait until next year to see it; it makes the sequel feel more like an update, simply packaged as an entirely new chapter. Additionally, launching the game with PvE would have added a much-needed heart and identity to the game that, despite how good it is to play, feels like an exercise in aligning Overwatch with modern multiplayer shooter business models. Sure, that might come off as a cynical review, but it feels as cynical as it sounds. From doing away with Winston’s inspiring opening speech, which speaks very much to the heart and soul of what Overwatch represents, to the sleek, almost over-polished new style of the game’s menu, to free-to-play and implementing a Combat Pass, Overwatch 2 takes the franchise from a genre-defining shooter to a trend-setting one. As such, it’s starting to feel less like a unique sci-fi, superhero comic book in the form of a video game, and more like, well, many other games. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as many of those other games are fantastic in their own right and Overwatch 2’s gameplay certainly leaves it with the cream of the crop, but it comes at the cost of its unique aesthetic and fascinating world. Overwatch, which feels diminished.
Fortunately, Overwatch 2 has a big silver lining in its characters. The subtle changes that older characters have undergone, both cosmetically and in skill, feel wholesome and manage to give them that gentle refresher they needed without interfering with the magic of their original designs. While it may take some getting used to not having some key abilities (I admit, I miss Orisa’s barrier), the urge to make tanks better at dealing damage makes playing them a blast and wearing adds to Overwatch 2’s more aggressive nature. Similarly, characters like Sombra and Cassidy now strike harder, while heroes with stun and freeze attacks no longer bring games to a halt, but instead have abilities that keep the game going and the number of damages increases. I also can’t praise each of the three new heroes enough, all of which are superbly designed and extremely versatile. Sojourn is a tactical one-man army, while Junker Queen’s hostile abilities give the tank-like powerhouse a supportive edge. Kiriko, in particular, feels like no other support hero to her, as not only can she go through walls to heal teammates, but she can also deal serious damage with her kunai, making her a fantastic choice for people who normally play the DPS role, but must take on a supporting role.
Where it counts, Overwatch 2 feels like a fantastic update to a multiplayer game with mechanics that allow for exciting skirmishes between teams of heroes. However, as a separate entity and sequel, it stumbles. Changes to the core gameplay are steps in the right direction, but it’s surrounded by new friction points where there were none before. Thankfully, as a live service game, things will be added or changed once Blizzard has more player feedback, so at least the studio has a strong foundation to build on. There’s plenty of good to be found in Overwatch 2, and in the thick of it, the intoxicating multiplayer dynamics fans love is here to enjoy all over again. But if the first Overwatch taught me anything, it’s to dream a little bit bigger about what games can be, and there’s still a little bit more to dream about here.
Editor’s Note: It’s important to acknowledge that Activision Blizzard has been under scrutiny over the past year, plus for its alleged “frat boy” culture, which has led to government investigations and lawsuits, as well as the renaming of one of Overwatch’s characters . GameSpot has covered this extensively and for more information, read our timeline of the lawsuits and investigations.
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