It's better to think of Overwatch 2 as Overwatch 2.0 instead of a full sequel. While many of its playable Heroes have undergone significant changes — alongside the introduction of three brand-new ones — this is essentially the same game you've been playing for the past six years. Activision Blizzard has (quite literally) stuck a number on the end and called it a day. However, for those in need of an excuse to return to the online title, that might be all it takes. A massively updated version of the same game, Overwatch (2) is still great to play.
The developer has been smart about the re-introduction too, lowering the barrier of entry to just a download. Overwatch 2 ditches the price point of its predecessor for the free-to-play model, replacing loot boxes with a Battle Pass along the way. The latest way of delivering cosmetics (both free and paid for) will always have its doubters, but it's almost objectively better than the randomised nature of loot boxes. Overwatch joins Fortnite, Apex Legends, and the rest in the present, which is always nice to see.
Its first seasonal Battle Pass isn't quite up to snuff, however. With challenges being the main way of rising through the ranks via XP gains, levelling up feels like it takes slightly too long. Completing a match and knocking off a few challenges only got us maybe a quarter of the way closer to our next reward. And that's even with the 20 per cent XP bonus awarded to owners of the premium Battle Pass. Furthermore, not including payouts of the premium currency for some of the tiers? That's a big no-no. We welcome the free-to-play model, but Activision Blizzard has some kinks to iron out before Overwatch 2 can be a real winner.
Luckily, it already is in-game once you beat the queue system and load up a match. New players will have Heroes unlocked for them gradually, making it easier to get to grips with specific roles, while returning veterans have the full line-up at their fingertips straight from the off. One of the biggest gameplay changes in Overwatch 2 sees each team drop a player for a 5v5 bout consisting of two DPS (damage per second) characters, a Tank, and two Support. The first game allowed a second Tank to join the party, so the sequel switches shields for HP-guzzling action.
It's a change that speeds gameplay up, allowing more aggressive players to thrive. Reinhardt's shield will always stop a team in its tracks and Orisa still feels unstoppable — especially since the new update adds a javelin to her arsenal — but with just one on the battlefield, they become much more manageable. Soldier 76 could sprint behind enemy lines, or Pharah can rain rockets down from above. DPS characters have always been able to do this, but with one less Tank to worry about, matches have become much more hotly contested.
Complementing the gameplay changes and balance tweaks is a smattering of new content. The three new Heroes are Junker Queen, Sojourn, and Kiriko, and they're accompanied by six new maps and a game mode named Push. Is that enough content to justify a sequel? Of course not.
Overwatch 2 isn't much more than a marketing strategy designed to re-ignite player interest in a game that hasn't really had much to shout about for a number of years. Proven by the fact you can't even play the original game anymore — Activision Blizzard has taken it offline in its entirety — Overwatch 2 is pitched as the new norm. The saving grace is that the only barrier to entry is an internet connection.
It's a bit of a double-edged sword, though, because it's worked. Interest in the new game shoots player queues into the thousands once the USA wakes up, and as the likes of Warzone take a backseat before its own sequel hits next month, the internet is ablaze with all things Overwatch 2. What new and returning players find is a quality gameplay loop that still puts a lot of other multiplayer titles to shame.
Although, what they won't find are the story missions and online co-op mode Activision Blizzard revealed alongside the sequel nearly three years ago. Now set to be patched into the game in 2023, it's the sort of content that would have better justified putting the number two at the end of its name. Overwatch 2 has theoretically launched into Early Access, though, so expect the studio to point towards that as an excuse should it come under fire. For the average customer, this is the full game.
Except that's the thing, and we can't get away from it: Overwatch was a fantastic game that played brilliantly. The exact same can be said of its sequel. No matter how much one could moan about missing content or Battle Passes, the beauty of a live-service title is there's more to come and you (probably) won't be paying for it. It's just so easy to get your mates online for a few rounds and enjoy what is still one of the best multiplayer games around.
Conclusion
Overwatch 2 is not a full sequel in the way one usually is, instead porting over the original game and enhancing it with a bit of new content. It doesn't justify the number at the end, but that doesn't take away from what is still a terrific multiplayer experience. Removing the price point entirely, Overwatch 2 can now be considered one of the best free-to-play games around.
Comments 33
The adaptive trigger support is also pretty nice, feeling different for each character's weapon.
this was a solid review for a solid game , 8 is about right
It's still an amazing game and 5V5 seems to make the game quicker and more chaotic. But the battle pass needs changing in future seasons. Heroes should NEVER be locked to it, especially one that requires F2P players to grind to level 55. Also they need to add credit as rewards that people can use for the next battle pass. Apex Legends, Fortnite and CoD Warzone do this so it's not beyond Blizzard.
Tbh I kinda miss the loot boxes because it's way more difficult to get stuff for the heroes you play as now.
"...the internet is ablaze with all things Overwatch 2."
Is it, though? The first was like a bomb went off, culturally speaking. This is only the second review I've seen, very little can be said about the progression systems that haven't been discussed ad nauseum. And (anecdotally) no one I know is playing it.
Half my friends list was Overwatch for months on end, with some friends ONLY playing OW for years. I know one person who downloaded 2 and he hasn't even played a match yet.
It really feels like this is NOT lighting the internet up like the first one did. Not even close, from where I'm standing, anyway.
@AdamNovice This exactly. I talked a whole bunch of sh*t about Blizzard and all the boneheaded changes they were making, but I'm genuinely surprised at how much fun I'm having and how many of those changes do seem to be for the better.
My only real complaint is the battle pass. It's fine, and I do not miss loot boxes at all, but the way it's setup now is just a bit too slow to progress and littered with filler no one is interested in. The challenge system is neat but needs way more variety, and they desperately need to add some premium currency to the pass because as it stands it's essentially impossible to get cosmetics for the heroes you use without buying them if they have nothing on the season pass. It's a decent first attempt, but there's a lot of room for improvement.
Calling it overwatch 2 was just a reason to riddle it with more microtransactions and battle passes, the actually content isn't enough to justify calling it a sequel. The little content they have added could of just been an update for overwatch 1
@UltimateOtaku91 And now a game we paid for is shutdown with FTP MTs all over it.
@MFTWrecks It's not, but it's also important to remember that as much as they're billing it as a sequel, until the PvE gets here next year, it's really just a big patch to a now 6 year old game. Of course it's not going to blow the doors off the place like the first one did.
Overwatch 2: Electric Boogaloo
Lawbreakers was still better, IMHO, and I'm dead serious. Why that game died and this one still exists I'll never know.
Apart from completely destroying my mains McCree and Doomfist; 5v5s making tanks feel even more obligated to follow a meta as characters like Doomfist (seriously it's baffling they made him a tank) are just utterly useless now, I've still been having fun with it mostly like I did back in 2016 with OW1. And that's all that really matters to me now that it's free. Now I don't need to constantly renew ps plus to play which is mainly the reason I had stopped playing. Oh yea and the new maps are pretty garbage too
I think it's dumb that they put challenges in the battle pass that requires wins. It's like with HOTS that just promotes meta spam and toxicity.
I hate the fact you don't earn the premium currency in the battle pass.
This and Multiversus don't give any and I'm afraid it'll become a trend as well which is a shame 😕
Even 2.0 is too generous. 1.5 is more like it.
@stinkyx rule….
@Judal27 doomfist has been ruined since OW1 , so idk where all this doom downplaying keeps coming from when he was in dire need of buffs in OW1 during its last days .
and what’s wrong with cree ? his sticky is just as cheap as flash bang
I would not put F2P as a plus.
I like the Nintendo life review a lot better and its more honest about the setback thats called F2Pay
@GeneJacket So its just like the original sprays and nonsense nobody cared about so it would take longer to complete.
And now with the F2P snails pase i heard figures of 5 years if dont spend to unlock everything for 1 character or only $150....
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Started playing it, trying to earn coins by doing weekly challenges and the game randomly reset the counters for a few, after checking Reddit this doesn’t seem to be isolated incident.
I put the game down not long after that…🫠
I really want to love this change to ftp. Doing so means I can dump XBL entirely with OW being the last reason to keep it. But there is so much bad going on with the launch. And I do not enjoy the new graphical look, at all. All the art now looks softer and a bit muddy, I had to double check my settings to make sure I wasn't running on 720. The sound is a big change as well, they've muted or softened some characters like Pharah. Or made others sound obnoxious like D-va who sounds like she's firing .50cals at you.
It's a good "Overwatch 1.5" but the monetisation is terribly balanced. The battlepass rewards are all pretty poor too. I can see myself playing more if this all keeps improving.
Live service game? I'll pass
@nomither6 lol and instead of buffing him they gave him a tacked on "tank" ability that hardly works as a way to shield and ruined the other ability along with his rocket punch. He's not good for anything anymore. A doomfist on our team costs us a match more than if he just picked another tank. At least when he still had his punch as a DPS you could pick off smaller enemies
As for mccree, they already ruined him for me in ow1 by making his regular fire slower. But removing his stun, one of his few survivability perks. Is there really any reason to pick him over a sniper like ashe and widow or for close range over soldier and sojourn?
"One of the biggest gameplay changes in Overwatch 2 sees each team drop a player for a 5v5 bout consisting of two DPS (damage per second) characters, a Tank, and a Support."
Forgive me, but 2 DPS + 1 Tank +1 Support makes 4 players in a team. What is the 5th role?
@Judal27 uh , yeah theres still a reason . cree was arguably broken & meta in OW1 and still is. he's a character that covers all ranges - close , mid & long , with a pistol that functions as a marksman rifle. you get up close he still has his fan-the-hammer & now a sticky that does significant damage for how easy it is to use since you don't even have to be accurate for it to follow and latch on , which is stupid ; factor in that he has roll and unnecessary 225HP for no reason - he doesn't struggle at all up close or mid range & his pistol barely has any recoil. hell , his pistol animation has more recoil than the actual gun . his ult is still a reliable breeze to use and get kills with . his stun was broken along with his damage output , and unnecessary 225 health . it seems like you want characters to be over the top ridiculous instead of grounded. why he still has something like a sticky grenade despite being a ranged character as is and secondary fire, is bs & out of place because they were just too lazy to code in the game an actual new move with a new animation and properties for him.
tl;dr - hes not bad.
& my point with doom was that he always needed help & its funny all of a sudden now that people decide to say something.
@nomither6 No I just want my mccree that could snipe pharahs in the air and just characters in general with relative ease. Apparently he's had all sorts of buffs since the last time I played him which was when they nerfed his primary fire. They made it slow, and I haven't been able to adjust to him and still haven't to this day which is why I'm saying they ruined him. I'm talking strictly for me his aim is off, I know some people can still use nu mccree. The flashbang was just the cherry on top
He wasn't and still isn't broken. A person with good aim can carry hard with him yes but someone without aim can only go so far with flashbangs/FtH. He was good at dealing with flankers which is his role. But he has almost 0 survivability. That hp does nothing to protect him from getting decimated and that's ok, he's a DPS not a tank. But almost all the other DPS have really good mobility while he literally only has a quick roll. The flashbang help with that a bit and now it's gone
As for doomfist, what I'm getting at is that at least he could kill when he was a dps. I had fun with his kit. But rn as a tank he does nothing for the team so it sucks cause both of them were my mains so I've had to resort to using other heroes.
@Judal27 as someone who uses pharah , tracer , doomfist , hammond , etc he was broken in ow1 . stun was a powerful crowd control with a ridiculous radius that was an instant kill with fan the hammer and his pistol was ridiculously strong to where it’s not even a pistol at this point but like i said a freaking rifle . they should buff his speed of shooting and reducing the damage like pistols work in other shooters , while revolvers were stronger they had shorter fall-off range and were less accurate - not his though . and his 225HP definitely made a difference , whether you agree or not he still has extra health for no reason . you should see it from the other side of the fence , pharah was weak in overwatch one and you had to shoot the ***** out of cree and others within a short window before you got melted , because only direct shots with pharah killed in 2 hits
@nomither6 he's supposed to be a counter pick for her tho. Just like how she counters characters that can't hit the sky well like reaper or tracer. His flashbang with fth was op and so they nerfed that. And it only grew ridiculous when they started adding more characters with stuns. But I don't think he was the one that needed his stun removed vs giving orisa of all people one
That said I think I might take back what I said about his aim being ruined cause I just recently played a few matches as him and it felt a lot better than I was expecting. His sticky nade is definitely op tho. I didn't realize it actually tracks who you throw it to if you're close enough range. That's just dumb. And all he needs is one body shot and a sticky to kill off most of the smaller characters except maybe reaper. Im kinda shocked they decided to remove his stun and go with that instead
@Judal27 my guy , every hitscan hero is a counter pick to pharah , even support counters her like bap & ana , and she’s even counterpicked by mercy’s ult . she’s countered by all 3 classes - tanks , dps , and supports , and is a big slow moving target .
and if you really think pharah counters tracer then i guess you really haven’t seen any good tracers then , because a good tracer is already hard to kill on ground . the problem though is that you list HARD COUNTERS , which is different from a counter . a hard counter is something that’s a balance problem because it makes a character ***** unplayable and that was a huge problem with OW1 , is that people thought that switching characters all game because none of them were balanced enough is good game design , when all characters should have a 50/50 or in a counters case 50/60 chance , no hard counters which is like 90/10 BS .
and orisa deserves a stun because it’s a tank attribute . that’s another problem with Overwatch is that it’s not true to the classes it divides characters into which ***** up the balance even more , tell me why any other class should have crowd controlling abilities and stuns but tanks ? why can other classes heal (hog , soldier , reaper) when it should be only support ?
forgive me if i sound argumentative that’s not my intent , it’s just that overwatch is one of the cheesiest games (but most fun) i ever played of any shooter and talking about balance with this game is …ugh . nobody agrees about anything discussing it so agree to disagree . i hope you eventually enjoy cass and your mains . i main doom myself as well
@nomither6 no worries, I get you mean but I don't know what to tell you. Like you said, nobody will agree when it comes to balance. And it applies to the game too. With so many different characters and abilities, it'll never be balanced to where every character in a given class will play how the class is supposed to. Characters would get a little mundane faster if only supports were allowed healing abilities, only tanks allowed to have stuns, etc. I think that's why they designed the game to be played by switching characters so you don't get locked to a counter pick even if the majority hardly play like that
At this point I don't really have a main, I'll just stick to letting the queue decide my role which is usually healers so lol. But I do hope they at least figure out how to make doomfist work. I really think he's in a sad place rn
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