Overwatch 2 review: Overwatch died for this sequel. It was worth it.

As of 12 noon Monday, “Overwatch” is dead. Blizzard forced the game to be permanently retired to make way for “Overwatch 2” – a game that is more or less a continuation of “Overwatch” with some major hero revisions and a new free-to-play model.

“Overwatch” died so that “Overwatch 2” could live. Was it worth it? Even after standing behind a 40,000 person queue for hours to get the dreaded “Unexpected Server Error” screen that reset my position and sent me to the back of the line, I feel I can say yes. “Overwatch 2” is definitely the direction the series was supposed to take.

That said, I do have some concerns.

But first the good stuff. By far the biggest change in “Overwatch 2” was a general design shift to emphasize mechanical and individual skills. Heroes have been reworked across the board: Ultimate skill loads have been reduced, shields are fewer, and crowd-control abilities have been removed or greatly weakened, bringing “Overwatch 2” closer to a competitive shooter that rewards solid fundamentals like aiming and game feel about grossly overtuned abilities. Long gone are the days when Mei froze you in place by mindlessly holding the attack button or Doomfist shot you once with a single rocket thrust.

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The second tank roll has been removed, reducing team sizes from 6v6 to 5v5 and drastically changing the way the game is played. All players must adapt and become more vigilant, as there is no second tank to save them from their mistakes. Conversely, having a lone tank has made “Overwatch 2” easier to understand – even for old players – as they are the most crucial role in the game.

Tanks determine the playing style of the entire team. A highly mobile tank like Winston creates space for his team by diving into the enemy and scattering their formation. That means Winston’s ideal teammates are equally fast damage heroes like Genji and Tracer. A defensive fighter like Reinhardt pushes his team forward like a slow-rolling ball of death from behind his massive energy shield. He’s best supported by damage heroes like Hanzo, who can pump out large, sustained chains of damage with a Lucio backing up to give the team much-needed speed boosts.

Of course, there are always exceptions and substitutions for these compositions, but the general guideline for building an effective team is to pick damage and support heroes around the tank. With just one tank, building a team around that tank is more intuitive, although that tank is now under more pressure to perform well.

Each class also gains passive abilities to space them further apart. Damage heroes get a brief boost in reload and movement speed after wrapping up an elimination, support heroes passively heal themselves when out of battle, and tanks give fewer ultimate skill loads to enemies when they take damage, while also enjoying a firmer recoil resistance – and crowd control effects.

All this makes “Overwatch 2” a much more satisfying game than its predecessor. Battles end faster and people die faster. Now if I punish an enemy for being caught out of position, he’s more likely to pay for it with his life. There is no off-tank to dive in and rescue them. This is going to be a tough adjustment for many players, but it’s a good one. Make no mistake: I have also was rightfully pounded in my matches for sloppy play. It was a humble learning experience.

On the other hand, a single, talented player now has a much better chance of taking his team to victory solo. That’s a welcome course correction that ultimately benefits everyone, including novice and casual players. The tryhards can climb faster and reach the rank where they belong, meaning everyone is less likely to get stabbed by more experienced players.

The gameplay loop has also been vastly improved, although it doesn’t feel quite right yet. The hit boxes for some characters, such as Junker Queen, Kiriko and Mercy, feel shaky and unpredictable. Despite the faster gameplay, some battles seem to take a long time for a team to give up ground. It’s too early to say if these are just the growing pains of navigating a new game or if it’s something that needs patching. But overall, “Overwatch 2” is set on a promising path.

Now for the three-year-old elephant in the room: “Overwatch 2’s” long-awaited PVE mode — the whole reason it was developed in the first place — is noticeably absent. When “Overwatch 2” was announced in 2019, the game was thrown as a co-op companion to the main PVP game. Blizzard showcased a robust set of story-driven campaign missions featuring existing “Overwatch” heroes adapted to a PVE environment with talent trees. It was an answer for the legions of fans who wanted more in-game content that explored the lore behind ‘Overwatch’.

Instead, the “Overwatch 2” we received was essentially a major PVP update. The promised PVE portion of the game has been pushed further into 2023, to be rolled out incrementally in the form of seasonal releases.

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Which leads us to “Overwatch 2’s new battle pass system,” which has received both criticism and praise from fans since its announcement. Battle Passes are progression reward systems present in many games, but they are usually associated with free-to-play titles such as “Valorant” and “Fortnite.” New Heroes, made available for free to all players in ‘Overwatch’ at once, must now be unlocked via the ‘Overwatch 2’ Battle Pass (Kiriko, the newest new hero, unlocks at level 55 of the Free Battle Pass track) . You can also buy Kiriko directly by paying $10 for the Battle Pass.

Basically, I’m against any system that locks characters behind a grind or paywall – and that goes doubly for games that claim to be competitive. I don’t like it in “League of Legends”, “MultiVersus”, “Apex Legends” and every other free-to-play title I’ve played. Just charge your customers a fixed amount and give them unlimited access to all future heroes.

Some battle passes are better than others, and unlocking a vital piece of content doesn’t always take a lot of time. But in the case of “Overwatch 2”, hero unlocks tied to the battle pass feel particularly egregious. Even as someone who plays the game a lot, the road to Level 55 is still a long way off. Overwatch is also a series designed around swapping heroes on the run. Countering an enemy team by switching to the right heroes is absolutely essential to victory. The smart decision making needed to know which heroes to pick to exploit an enemy weakness or take advantage of map layouts is a core skill in Overwatch. Missing out on heroes in your roster is a major drawback, especially if you’re trying to climb the game’s competitive ladder.

The move also puts “Overwatch 2” in a weird position regarding hero tuning. Kiriko, the newest hero to join the cast and the first to be placed behind a grind or paywall, is very strong. She has an incredibly versatile wall climb kit, a Cutter that teleports her to allies (it also works through walls), a homing heal ability, a burst heal that also clears negative effects and renders allies momentarily invulnerable, and highly effective ranged kunai for combat. I got to play as her right out of the gate by pre-ordering the “Overwatch 2: Watchpoint Pack” (I know, I know), which includes the paid battle pass. I immediately recognized the awkward spot where Blizzard was now.

When a locked-down hero feels overpowered, Blizzard is accused of purposely designing them to be off-balance to encourage purchases. But if the hero feels ineffective, the company has to deal with players who don’t feel adequately compensated for their grind or payment. And if the hero gets nervous early on, players – especially those who paid money to unlock the character – will feel cheated. Regardless of Blizzard’s motives, this could become a rapidly growing point of contention as fans adjust to “Overwatch 2’s” changes.

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Team 4, the development pod within Blizzard charged with developing the Overwatch series, doesn’t seem to be able to take a break. In April 2021, Jeff Kaplan, former Overwatch game director, abruptly left the company after 19 years. Around the same time, the studio was rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct and a ubiquitous “frat boy” culture.

As “Overwatch 2” neared release, the goals diverged drastically from what was originally shown in 2019, and lapsed fans couldn’t get a sense of what Blizzard was actually delivering. They charge $40 for three new heroes and no PVE mode? Wait, it’s free to play now?

Team 4 did something magical when it released the original “Overwatch” in 2016. Currently, the team-based shooter genre is dominated by tactical titles such as “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” and “Valorant”. Team 4 provided a new home for fans of arcade shooters such as ‘Team Fortress 2’, ‘Starsiege: Tribes’ and ‘Unreal Tournament’. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been playing “Counter-Strike” since Beta 2.0, when it was still a mod of “Half-Life” and not an official game yet. I enjoyed my time with the “Counter-Strike”, but I also hate waiting to respawn until the next round. I felt like an FPS orphan for years – until “Overwatch” came out.

The “Overwatch 2” launch problems are still terrible. Like most of you, dear readers, I was not given any pre-game version or special connection permissions. I was in the trenches with all of you, dealing with the constant error messages and inexhaustible queues. The game’s new battle pass system remains questionable and concerning.

But I’m very happy with the major changes to the gameplay and where the game is headed. Game development is a group effort, and while Kaplan is deeply missed, I see these changes as proof that Team 4 is still capable of magic and eager to prove it.